An artist postcard goes by many names – but its purpose is fairly straightforward. This 4.25″ x 5.5″ card helps to represent you as an artist. Larger than a business card, it gives you space to talk about the type of art you create and to showcase a reasonably sized image or two. The primary reason to have an artist postcard is to include it in the 8″x10″ bagged images you sell in art bins at art shows, but they are useful for all sorts of reasons.
First, if you don’t have small sample-sized versions of your work to sell at art shows in folding bins, you should definitely take a look into this. This is second nature for photographers but even painters and drawers can create prints of their works to offer. Often when a fan can’t afford the $100 for a full-sized work they’d still happily spend $10 or $15 for a smaller version.
Traditionally you create a 5×7 image and then mat it to 8×10. Here’s what Lisa’s used – it’s extremely easy. You purchase packs with the mat, the backing board, and the plastic bag, all as a set. You simply tape your image to the back of the mat, put it with the board into the bag, and fold over the bag top which is sticky. Voila, all done.
8×10 White Picture Mats with Backing and Bag
OK so you have the beautiful packages all ready to sell. But traditionally you want to put something about the artist into the back side of this bag to help “sell” the artist. A business card is far too small. It doesn’t have enough room for an artist’s description. But the artist’s postcard is absolutely perfect for this purpose. It fits in the space, it can describe the artist well, and it helps to make that sale.
Here’s an example where the artist used the space to showcase their style and provide some contact information. This makes the postcard useful not only for inserting into art pieces but also to send out with news of shows and upcoming events. Click through to learn more about them.
Here’s another example. It combines a sample of the artwork along with a short version of the artist’s statement. It helps to personalize the artist and make the artwork more understandable and accessible. Again, click for more details on this artist.
A third example which features multiple images plus links to various social networks.
Look through all of the BVAA members’ artist cards here –
Think about how you could best showcase both your art and your purpose on a postcard-sized layout. This marketing material will come in useful for all sorts of projects.
Be sure to read about all of the: