To contribute to someone’s life, art does not have to be expensive. And my goal is to provide good quality at a reasonable price (for original art).
For this product, I’m using Printful, Inc., a print-on-demand (POD) drop-shipping company that many consider to be the leader in this industry. Here is a current review of the company by a third party–although it probably contains more information than you want to know.
I design what is printed on each item using one of my creations. For pillows, I crop the image to fit (if necessary), then select a pair of coordinating colors (one dark, one light) from the image. Based on the pixel size of the original image, I calculate the size of an inch in pixels, then add what will be a half-inch border, using one of the colors. (This will be hidden, but is needed for the seam allowance.) For this pillow, I used the border color on the other side, printing the title and attribution in the coordinated text color in an out-of-the-way location on what will be a curve on a corner:
In order to test the quality of these pillows, I had two printed–one with the lighter fabric and one with the heavier fabric. (The following are digitally produced “mockup” images.)
The colors printed beautifully.
I discovered that the lighter fabric is smooth and silky, and my wife thought they would be great for napping. So I decided to just call them “Napping Pillows.”
The heavier fabric has more texture, though it is still soft. It feels more like a typical throw pillow for a sofa or chair.
At first, I was a bit concerned about the durability of the zipper. But my wife thought it was fine. (I’m notoriously hard on jacket zippers, but I won’t be wearing these.)
For some pillows, I use the same design on both sides–with a mirror image on the back:
For rectangular pillows, I sometimes wrap a larger design around the back. In this case, the front has the lower half of the larger image. The back is the upper half. And the meet as one at the top, so that the original image rolls over the top of the pillow.
Below is a short video from Printful, displaying their (unprinted) square and rectangular pillows. (I guess she felt a bit silly having to look so pleased with a blank, white pillow. But at least you get to see one with a real live person.)