Personalised gifts that are not just a name printed on something

Why most personalised gifts feel hollow

Adding a name to a stock design personalises the object without personalising the thought. The recipient can see exactly how it was made and how little it required.

What makes a gift land is evidence that somebody paid attention — a private joke, a place that means something, a drawing of something only the two of you would recognise.

Commissioning a gift is more achievable than people think

You do not need to be able to describe a design. You need to be able to describe the person: what they are like, what they care about, the thing they always say. A designer will find the idea in that.

• What the person is like
• The occasion and how formal it is
• Any in-joke, place or date that matters
• What the finished thing will be

Allow time, and more than you think

A commissioned gift needs designing, approving and printing. Starting a fortnight ahead is comfortable; starting three days ahead means choosing from what can be rushed.

Choose the object as carefully as the design

A drawing on something the person will actually use is worth more than the same drawing on something they will store. Think about their habits rather than what makes the best photograph.

Group gifts work particularly well

A commissioned piece is an easy thing for several people to contribute to, and the result is more memorable than a larger number of separate small gifts.

Get the details confirmed before it is drawn

Names, spellings and dates are the things that go wrong on a personalised gift, and they are unfixable once printed. Check them with somebody other than yourself.

It is worth one awkward message to confirm a spelling rather than one permanent mistake on the object.

Give the designer the story, not the design

You do not need to arrive with an idea. The useful raw material is the anecdote — the thing they always say, the place they keep going back to, the running joke.

A designer will find the image in that far more reliably than they will improve on a design you sketched yourself.

Decide what the object is before the design

A drawing intended for a framed print does not automatically work on a mug, and choosing the object late means adapting the artwork under time pressure.

Pick the thing first, tell the designer what it is, and the design will be composed for it — the right shape, the right amount of detail, the right placement.

How to start

Everything runs through one place. Artists sign in at the artist studio, upload work, choose which products each piece suits, and see what they have earned. Customers browse the artwork, pick a design, and choose what to put it on.

Nothing about it is exclusive. You can sell the same work elsewhere at the same time, and there is no listing fee and no minimum.

• Apply with three pieces so we can see how you work
• Choose which products each design belongs on
• Get paid by bank transfer on what sells

Common questions