We explore the benefits of using a custom printed calendar to promote your artwork as an independent creative
One of the most challenging aspects of starting out on your career as a visual artist, graphic designer, or photographer, is promoting your work to exhibition spaces, business owners, and publishers who want to pay you for your services. We often print high quality promotional calendars designed specifically to feature visual imagery which catches the eye of potential clients and promotes your artistic style, genre, name, brand, and contact details. Image-based promotional calendars are one of the most cost-effective and powerful tools at your disposal when it comes to getting your work seen and remembered. Let’s dive in.
Why are calendars so effective?
In this post, we’ll talk a little about why calendars are so effective as promotional tools for artists, designers, and photographers. We’ll also look at the costs involved in producing your own custom calendar as an artist. And finally, we will run through our five top tips for making a truly outstanding calendar which will grab the attention of your target market and work hard to promote your business long into the future.
Of course, it won’t be possible in a blog post like this to go into all the technical details you need to know to create print-ready files. But don’t worry, before we part, we’ll signpost you to excellent resources which will help take the next steps. And of course, if you have any questions, get in touch; we’re only a phone call, an email, Skype, or online chat away.
What makes a calendar a good promotional tool?
Do you have a printed calendar in your home, studio, or workshop? Perhaps you don’t, but the chances are that most people reading this, do. Even in the digital age, printed wall calendars remain one of the most stable bestsellers around the globe.
People love them. They’re visual, tactile, easy-to-use, affordable, decorative, and useful. Next time you’re out and about — taking a trip to the stores, visiting a gallery, dealing with the clerk in an office, taking your automobile to the garage, waiting in the doctor’s vestibule, or anything else — keep an eye out for calendars. You’ll be surprised by just how many, probably dozens, you can count on a single afternoon running errands in town.
But don’t just count them, take a good look. Most wall calendars, which are those you’re most likely to see, dedicate an entire page per month to a full spread photo or art reproduction. Look again, and you’ll see a business name, logo, slogan, and probably contact details. On several you’ll also find special offers, QR codes that take you to a website, online gallery, catalog, or sales page. That’s no coincidence! Whoever is behind the calendar knows exactly what they’re doing — promoting their work — and it’s clear they discovered the promotional power of the custom art calendar.
Calendars can be sold — indeed, with the right material and approach it’s possible to make a living from creating and selling custom calendars online — but most custom calendars are given away. It’s what’s known as the “loss leader”. You give the calendar away now to lower the barrier to engagement, but the calendar ends up being seen by hundreds if not thousands of people and a percentage of them become customers. That way, you cover the initial investment and the calendar gives you an excellent future return. Of course, if you’re an artist or photographer, you can also sell commemorative calendars for people to take away from exhibitions, displays, corporate events, and more.
So, what makes a calendar such a good promotional tool?
- Calendars are perennially popular with everyone from businesses, agencies, and promoters to private individuals
- Wall calendars are made and expected to be displayed, so they are seen by many hundreds if not thousands more people than the individual who owns them
- Most calendars are large format and with the right choice of paper and printing, you can achieve a beautiful, high-fidelity reproduction of your artwork which really catches the eye
- Many promotional tools are expensive, whereas printed custom calendars are relatively cheap to produce, store, and distribute
- Wall calendars are interactive — people write on them, refer to them, turn their pages, and remember marketing messages they carry
- They can be given away as “loss leaders” or sold for profit. In both cases, they work hard to promote your work
- As an artist, designing a wall calendar can be a fascinating and rewarding project in its own right
Those are several of the reasons why custom printed wall calendars are such powerful promotional tools for anyone with something to promote but especially artists, graphic designers, photographers.
How much does it cost to print a promotional calendar?
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to the question of how much it costs to print a promotional calendar. Much depends on the artwork you want to reproduce, the overall design, the materials, coatings, binding, and finishes you choose, along with the dimensions, the number of pages, and so on. However, we can give you a ballpark idea of the general costs involved in printing an attractive, high-quality, fully customized wall calendar with which to promote your artwork. Just check out the handy chart below. You’ll soon realize that while we can print as few as 100 calendars for you in a single run, the more you order, the cheaper the per unit price becomes.
Saddle Stitch Wall Calendar Printing Price Chart
| Size / Quantity | 100pcs | 500pcs | 1000pcs | 2000pcs | 5000pcs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
11” x 8.5” |
$2.67 each $267 total |
$0.76 each $378 total |
$0.5 each $496 total |
$0.37 each $744 total |
$0.32 each $1578 total |
|
12” x 12” |
$4.15 each $415 total |
$1.22 each $612 total |
$0.81 each $811 total |
$0.63 each $1260 total |
$0.54 each $2717 total |
- Please note that all prices are EXW our facility and do not include shipping costs.
- Cover: 200 gsm / 74 lb coated cover paper with matte lamination
- Interior: 128 gsm / 86 lb coated text paper, full color printing
- 24pp+4pp
- Cover and inner: full color printing
Wire-O Binding Wall Calendar Printing Price Chart
| Size / Quantity | 100pcs | 500pcs | 1000pcs | 2000pcs | 5000pcs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
11” x 8.5” |
$2.78 each $278 total |
$1.02 each $508 total |
$0.72 each $724 total |
$0.6 each $1194 total |
$0.58 each $2900 total |
|
11” x 17” |
$4.16 each $416 total |
$1.49 each $744 total |
$1.05 each $1054 total |
$0.85 each $1703 total |
$0.82 each $4088 total |
- Please note that all prices are EXW our facility and do not include shipping costs.
- Cover: 200 gsm / 74 lb coated cover paper with matte lamination outside
- Interior: 128 gsm / 86 lb coated text paper, full color printing
- 12 sheets interior plus 1 sheet cover
- Cover and inner: full color printing
Five top tips for making a high-quality promotional calendar
So, now you know why it’s such a good idea to design and print a customized promotional wall calendar if you’re an artist, designer, or photographer. You also have a rough idea of how much it might cost you. If you’re still reading, we’ll assume you’re interested. While there’s a lot of detailed technical information you will need to understand in order to design your calendar — unless you’re outsourcing the work to a third-party graphic designer who understands offset printing — there are some general guidelines which will help make sure calendar works hard to promote your art and your business.
- Think format — Wall calendar? Desk calendar? Poster calendar? Pocket calendar? So many options exist for formatting your calendar — not only the styles just mentioned but also the size and orientation — and there’s a reason for that: different options serve different needs. Until you talk to us, we can’t help you decide which is best for your particular promotional project. What we can tell you is that all these decisions are vital in determining the success of your calendar.
- Make it interactive — Calendars are, by their very nature, interactive. But there is so much more you can do to make them even more interactive. For example, add a QR code that takes the viewer directly to your online gallery, website, blog, or any other digital destination; include exhibition dates, promotional offers, and other enticements right on the page; add a link to your Kickstarter, social media, and Patreon pages.
- Branding — You don’t need to be a corporation or a business to take advantage of the power of branding. Even as an individual artist, you have a brand: you. Your name, your image, and a logo can all be added to your calendar to make sure that your work and you are connected in the mind of the calendar’s viewer. Branding matters because it creates recognition, builds a sense of relationship, and personalizes the experience between you, your work, and your potential customers.
- Use a professional offset printer — To cut corners and save costs (often a false economy) you may be tempted to opt for an online digital printer or even try to print your calendar yourself using office grade equipment. Don’t! As an artist, designer, or photographer looking to promote your work, you need to make sure that the level of reproduction, the quality of the materials, and the binding of your calendar are all excellent. The only way to ensure high quality art reproduction is to use a traditional offset printer.
- Timing and market research — Sometimes artists with whom we work shy away from undertaking market research because it seems too “business-like” and they don’t want to “sell out”. But unless you have a wealthy patron, to make it as an artist these days you also need to be an entrepreneur and learn a little business savvy. Researching your market simply means understanding who is most likely to enjoy and pay for your artwork. Ask yourself what demographic you would like to sell your work to: age group, profession, educational level, economic status, geographical location, sex, and so on. With that information, you can design a calendar specifically to appeal to your target group. You should also think about the timing of your calendar launch. Few people will take up a new calendar during the middle of the year, for example. It’s a good idea to complete your design in advance of the New Year so that you have everything ready to produce and distribute a month or so before the old year ends.
Following the above advice should help make sure that your calendar is well targeted to your desired market, promotes and elevates your brand, and shows off your artwork to best effect. You can find out more about the technical side of designing and printing a promotional calendar — digitizing artwork, preparing files, color spaces, choosing materials, bindings, styles, and finishes — by reading, Custom Wall Calendar Printing.
Let’s talk!
If you’re an artist, designer, or photographer in need of a first-class custom wall calendar at a competitive price point — and only the finest product and personalized customer service will do — we should talk. Get in touch today to chat through your needs or to ask for a no-obligation quote. We can’t wait to help you make your next wall calendar the best!
