Photo Gifting Market on Fire

Photo Gifting Market on Fire

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Anyone attending the PMA show the last couple of years (at least those that were of sound mind and body) had to clearly see the show’s general theme has been one of moving beyond the 4×6-inch print as your primary output service for consumers.

While the options are truly limitless today due to the versatility of digital technology, we have eyed a few companies that are offering opportunities we think are of the “can’t miss” variety.

If you haven’t yet seen PictureWeave’s cotton photo throws (among their other impressive photo gift products) you’re missing as unique revenue opportunity. The company is reproducing images on 54×70-inch throw blankets with results that recently wowed us. While we’ve seen other “images on fabric” products in the past, the PictureWeave product was the best image reproduction of its kind we’ve ever seen. Vibrant, clear colors and a sharp reproduced final image, even at 54×70-inches, on a 100% cotton blanket makes for a stunning photo gift product. PictureWeave is actually the product of Pure Country Weavers, located, we are told, in the mountains of North Carolina. The company has been manufacturing high quality jacquard woven afghans, wall hangings and pillows since 1988. While the actually technology behind the PictureWeaves is difficult to unearth, the company tells us their craftsmen, “are textile professionals that ply their trade utilizing knowledge handed down to them from their parents. Their weaving roots date back to the time of the American Revolution, when their relatives supplied General George Washington with uniforms and coats at Valley Forge.” Interested retailers can contact the company at www.pictuerweave.com.

Online photogifters FotoArt.com offer more wonderfully creative imaging options that go far beyond the 4×6-inch print, so far in fact we think some of this stuff makes the photo print, as they say, so 20th century.

Among the many “image on anything” ideas at FotoArt are their maple and lacquer keepsake boxes. These classy-looking wooden boxes have the image of choice in-laid on tile within the lid of the box. Other items include photo aprons, large format canvas pieces, dart boards, and a host of other fun and impressive options.

Another technology that caught our attention earlier this year was Roland’s Metaza machine, a computerized photo impact printer dubbed the MPX-60. This unit will print images on flat (jewelry) materials such as acrylic, aluminum, brass, copper, and stainless steel, and soft metals such as gold, silver and platinum. The MPX-60 uses dot impact technology to permanently place a photographic image on an object without ink and without removing any material. The results we eyed at this year’s PMA were dazzling, as was the unit’s cost…less than $1,500.

While there will undoubtedly always be a market segment interested in the 4×6-inch print, we may be entering a time period where we are seeing a shift that sees a larger segment clamoring for something of dimension when it comes to their images.

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