Octopus Art was the idea of myself and Devon based artist Anna Mazek, the idea behind it was to offer artists and photographer’s a print on demand service for their works based here in the UK. This was a service I had been offering locally to my clients in Cornwall, but following a chance discussion with Anna on Twitter the idea to offer it nationally via the web was born.

Mike Bailey's gallery page

Initially it was going to be a gallery site where people could browse the work on offer and purchase either canvases or giclée prints in a range of sizes, these I then print and post out on behalf of the artist/photographer who is then paid their commission – this is set by the artist/photographer when they submit an image for inclusion. The benefit of this system means you do not need to keep large stocks of expensive prints and canvases in a range of sizes, other advantages Octopus Art brings is a shop front for those who do not have a web site, but would like to promote and sell their work nationally.

Mikes personal page linked to his site

So after many long hours the site was complete, or so I thought! Anna now came up with a new idea, which would set the site and service apart from other online galleries. As well as listing work on the main site what if they could also have a gallery page created with an interface which ties in with their ethos, style and originality – in short a gallery page which closely mirrors their present web site. The artist/photographer would link to this page directly from their existing site, there would be no additional navigation on this page save for a “Back” button to return the viewer to the artists site. As with listings on the Octopus Art site there would be a shopping basket for people to purchase the artwork. The great benefit of this means artists and photographers can sell their work without having to install expensive e commerce systems, if you have ever looked into this then you will know it usually costs hundreds of pounds as well as hours spent configuring and adding “products”.

If you would like to find out more about Octopus Art and how you can benefit from having your own gallery page with shopping basket system and print on demand, then you can visit Octopus Art here. If you have any questions then please do not hesitate to contact me at: info@littleoctopusart.co.uk