I realized that major photographers with their own studios doing commercial shoots would share that one of their personal pain points was selling prints effectively. That’s exactly how it started! Part of it was noticing this problem in creating a personal website with a portfolio that had prints available the other part was looking for internships under photographers during undergrad. You both have some background as landscape photographers, is your experience trying to sell your own work one of the reasons you created Darkroom?ĭefinitely. We think that this partnership between Format and Darkroom can help shift the industry to a creator-first mentality. Yeah that’s exactly why we’re so excited to partner with Format, because they’re taking the next step to help creators sell their work and run their businesses.
![darkroom photo booth 4x6 print darkroom photo booth 4x6 print](https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-ect4ns/images/stencil/800x800/products/1077/6129/Painted_Leaves_2_4x6_Darkroom_Booth_Templates__93235.1553798087.jpg)
They often market that their platforms can be used to sell products, but fall short when it comes to product fulfillment and management. On the CMS side, there’s often a robust and well-designed technology suite, but at the end of the day providing e-commerce solutions for creators is not their strong suit. On the marketplace side, creators take home such a small percentage of their profits because these platforms have steep product costs, and they put a lot of money into digital advertising so they have this sense of entitlement to the profits. When you look at the competitive space, you have a really interesting divide between two markets where you have content management systems like Format and Squarespace, and then on the other side, you have marketplaces like Society6. That logistical headache that we take care of is a huge value proposition for the creator class. As orders come in, you do nothing, while we manage the printing process and make sure that your end product gets drop shipped to your customer. What’s really unique is that if you’re a creator, you can sign up for Darkroom and in two to three minutes have a global print shop up and running with all the distribution built in on the back end. What sets Darkroom apart from its competitors? We wanted to find a way that would allow any creator, no matter how big or small, to sell their work to a global audience without having to do their own fulfillment, distribution, and customer service. We noticed that most website builders and art marketplaces either took advantage of the creator by taking most of their profits or left the creator with the logistical burden of product fulfillment. Anders was working on his music technology company and I was going to become a full-time photographer.
![darkroom photo booth 4x6 print darkroom photo booth 4x6 print](https://photoboothgraphics.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Bridal-Shower-Showcase_productdisplay.jpg)
Why did you start Darkroom?Īnders and I were roommates our senior year in college. We recently spoke with co-founders Theo Chapman and Anders Bill to learn more about why they’re passionate about taking care of the details so creators can focus on what they do best-creating. Darkroom keeps things simple: upload images, set prices, and they’ll take care of the rest. Traditional options put the onus on creators to handle logistics, fulfillment, and customer service to sell their art. Darkroom is an LA-based company on a mission to change how artists across various disciplines deliver work from their studios to your walls.