“Life is a collage of moments, and the most memorable ones are meant to be shared,” says Brittany Norris, brand marketing manager at CanvasPop.com. Her words are born out as the photo gift market continues to grow worldwide and products decorated with photo collages become increasingly diverse and unique.
A Sample of Photo Collages & Gifts
From elegant wall displays of favorite wedding moments to pajamas covered in pet photos, consumers have a wide variety of options to share their favorite images.
Bags of Love
A division of Contrado Imaging Ltd., London, Bags of Love offers an impressive variety of unique products featuring photo collages. They create everything from personalized undergarments and pajamas to custom directors chairs. The company has been in business more than 15 years and currently sells in excess of 450 handmade gifts to customers all over the world. Moreover, its website provides 16 different language and currency options.
Bags of Love’s online photo collage software allows customers to upload their photos and automatically create montages in a variety of random styles. In addition to conventional photo gift products like coffee mugs and T-shirts, the company also prints photo collages on unconventional products. They include umbrellas, deck chairs, lampshades, bedsheets and even suitcases. Since the company prints on paper, textiles and leather, they can offer a wide assortment of products.
“The most popular products for collages are definitely the pajamas (men’s and women’s), our fleece blanket and the rug,” says Stefanie Mros, senior digital marketing manager. “We often see people printing photos of their newborns or kids, images of friends or holiday photos. Moreover, people tell us they use the gifts for birthdays, anniversaries and similar occasions.
“We also hear very touching stories about products like our blanket. Dementia is becoming a bigger issue, and often our customers print pictures of their family members on blankets for their relatives to remember them. It’s wonderful to hear that they start to remember their family members and stories again when they are talked through the collage.”
Textile Photo Printing
In addition to photo gifts, customers can order swaths of fabrics printed with their own patterns and photos using full-color, high-quality dye-sublimation textile printing. Bags of Love offers more than 100 different materials, ranging from satin and silk to organza, jersey, cotton, polyester and natural materials. Custom fabric printing starts at $29 per square meter.
Furthermore, Bags of Love has an in-house digital leather printing facility; customers can order their images printed on real or faux leather for making wallets, purses, furniture and other projects. They also offer various printed leather products, including bookmarks, keyring fobs, passport covers and 8.3×11.7-inch printed leather scrolls for three-year anniversary gifts.
While Bags of Love does not have an affiliate program, it does offer volume discounts. For more information on the company and a look at its unique collection of products, visit bagsoflove.com.
CanvasPop
A digital printing service specializing in high-quality photo art on canvas, CanvasPop is headquartered in New York City. Founded in 2009, its expertise is in color management and large-format output. It caters to a wide range of customers: consumers, photographers, digital artists, interior designers as well as retail partners.
“Collage prints are among our most popular products,” says Norris. “We take photos from virtually any source, Facebook, Instagram, your camera roll, you name it, and help customers create their own masterpieces.”
CanvasPop photo collages incorporate 3–36 photos on a single canvas. Customers can choose from a host of predesigned templates. In addition, they can customize layouts with thin or thick borders (white or black) as well as white or black spaces between images. Consumers can also order collages with no borders or spaces.
CanvasPop works with images from virtually any source and edits them to look their best in collages, regardless of the original resolution. The company uses Digital Smooth technology to prepare low-resolution images, enhancing any size image without jagged pixels. Standard canvas prints range from 12×12 to 54×36 inches, with custom options available. Canvas wrap depths range from 0.75 to 2.5 inches. For no extra cost, consumers can order white or black wrap edges.
Norris explains the editing process and how the company handles low-res files. “Images take up less space in a collage print layout than they would printed individually; so we accept images with lower resolutions,” she says. “However, if they are too low res, our in-house design team can apply different effects to smooth out the images. The design team looks at each image and provides suggestions to our support team, who then reaches out to the customers and works with them to choose the best option and effects for each image.”
Special Services
The company also offers a free PicturePerfect service to touch up customers’ photos to provide the best results on canvas, free red-eye removal and a selection of filter options. For customers who need a little extra help, design services start at $9.95.
With printing and distribution facilities in both the United States and United Kingdom, the company also offers partnership opportunities. They include volume discounts and special services for professional photographers and artists, cross-promotion as well as co-branded marketing opportunities for brand partners. In addition, content partners interested in offering CanvasPop printing through their website, app or store or can use the CanvasPop API. Moreover, CanvasPop provides white label printing and packaging. For information on CanvasPop collages, visit canvaspop.com/products/photo-collages.
Collage.com
This is an employee-owned company with printing facilities in Brighton, Michigan. It was founded by former University of Michigan college students Kevin Borders and Joe Golden, who developed the software to create unique collages out of their favorite images. Collage.com has grown from a small two-man printing team to a successful online company with more than 50 full-time and seasonal employees.
Collage photo blankets are among the company’s most popular products. Customers can choose from six different blankets: smooth fleece; cozy fleece; Sherpa; plush Sherpa; woven image; and whipstitch fleece. Fleece blankets can be printed on one or both sides, while Sherpa photo blankets are printed with images on the front and a soft Sherpa fleece on the back. In addition, whipstitch fleece features a black backing, rounded corners and decorative edge stitching. Sizes include 30×40-inch baby blankets, 50×60-inch throws and 60×80-inch queen.
One of the more unique Collage.com offerings is their personalized photo collage hoodie. The sweatshirts are made from a 50/50 cotton/polyester blend and are available in adult as well as youth sizes. They’re also the only hoodie sweatshirt we found with the option of printing more than one image on the front.
Collage.com software allows customers to print as many images as they choose on all of their products, although the website recommends 1–40 photos on the hoodie.
Like the sweatshirt, Collage.com’s custom tote bags and reusable shopping bags also are printed with multiple images. In both cases, the photos are printed on both sides and have a recommended limit of less than 10 images. Both are made from lightweight, durable polyester, with 1-inch-wide cotton webbing straps. Grocery bags have double-stitched seams.
Array of Design Options
The Collage.com software provides a vast array of design options for bags and other products. Customers can choose from fitting all of their images inside a border, with a background design of their choice, or covering the entire bag with photos. They can even choose the shape of the frame; options comprise hearts, sport themes, kissing couples, as well as state or country outlines.
Collage.com also offers partnership programs, with a team of dedicated employees that work with affiliate partners to ensure their success. For information, visit the website at collage.com.
Personal Creations
An FTD company, Personal Creations specializes in custom gifts for weddings, birthdays, anniversaries as well as holidays. Its unique collection of personalized photo products includes everything from USB photo car chargers to frosted mason jars. It also has a selection of photo collage display items with specialized themes, such as the following.
The Family Love photo heart plaque is a 9×8-inch, heart-shaped wood plaque. It displays five images and up to three lines of text for names, dates or short messages. The rustic, old wood motif includes a gray grosgrain ribbon for hanging.
In addition, their Dad photo message canvas comes as a 9×27-inch canvas wall hanging stretched over a solid wood frame or a 5×11-inch easel-style canvas stretched over a solid wood block. The design accommodates three photos and up to 35 characters for the personal message.
The Love Fills Her Heart photo glass frame is a 7×9-inch tabletop display with mirror edges. It features a heart collage comprised of 10 repeated images and a message of love for grandmothers, moms, sisters or friends.
In addition, Personal Creations has a robust affiliate program, with an in-house affiliate team. The company also supports the California Transparency in Supply Chain Act. Its Standards for Supplier Conduct prohibits forced labor and other abuses of fundamental human rights. For more information on Personal Creations and its products, visit personalcreations.com.
