5 Tips for Getting More Exposure on Redbubble

by Josh, July 31, 2016

Getting your work featured on the Found Feed (on the Redbubble homepage), or on the blog, is a great way to increase your visibility, gain more fans, and potentially make some sales. It’s also our way of giving you a virtual high-five. Which is always nice.

We wrote a great post on being featured on Redbubble, but did you know that aside from these features, there are some things you can do to increase your chances of being noticed by fans on other pages as well? There are some minor tweaks you can make all over your profile that can help your work stand out. So whether fans are looking for framed prints, graphic tee dresses, duvet covers, or more, here are some inside tips on how to make your designs scream out “click all the things!!”

"Pandas Paint Colorful Pictures" by laurxy

1. Change the default color for framed prints

When you add a new work to your portfolio the default color for framed prints is black, but there are also Mocha, Natural, and White frames available. Buyers do get to choose what frame and matte color they would like, but this is still a good opportunity for the artists to choose a displayed frame and matte color to better fit the art. Along with helping your art stand out amidst all those black frames in the shop pages (example), you can also give your customers some inspiration on different ways they can modify the framed prints before checking out.

While in the Manage Portfolio screen, choose the work you would like to edit and click the ‘gear’ icon, then follow these steps to change the default frame color:

Click edit for Prints, Cards & Posters.
Click on the Availability & Markup tab.
Click the ‘Default’ link next to ‘Framed Prints’, which will open a popup menu.
In this menu you can change frame type, frame color, and matte color. Apply Changes when done.

2. Alter your designs to fit other products and even create new ones.

You just finished a new design and you’re ready to add it to your Redbubble shop. But, what if there was a way you could ensure your design looks great on every product you enable? Depending on the artwork, you could get a few more unique products simply by making some small alterations to your design. Let’s take a look at the work below by Elizabeth Levesque. The original painting she created (left) shows the skull and planchette with some lighting on the ground. It looks great as a print and she could have just applied this to all products, but she decided to cut the main image out and now it can be added along with another piece for the pattern seen on the contrast tank (middle), or simply isolated on a black background on the tote bag (right). Her fans now have a few more options with that design, and her portfolio is cohesive while giving a wider array of unique products.

3. Make sure your design looks great on all enabled products

One of the great things about the Redbubble uploader, is how easy it is to add new works to every product. However if you’re not going to add a separate design for each product (as explained above/below), it’s a good idea to see how the new file fits on each of the products. There are a few questions you can ask yourself to help.

Are there any products not fully covered by the artwork?
Are there any products in which the art is too small and would need to be tiled in order to cover the product?
If the art is tiled, does it aid the overall design? Certain products, such as the duvet covers, look amazing with big images on them, and large tiled artworks can also look great.

Aside from uploading new altered files for each product, here are a few things you can do to edit the products depending on the issue:

If the product (for example scarves), is not fully covered by the design, you can change the background color to one of the dominant colors of your art. This could be a great way to get rid of any white borders existing on your artwork.
If the original file is large enough, you can also allow it to be cropped in order to fit the full print area of the product. This might require uploading a new file for the specific product you are working on.
You can choose to tile the artwork, but keep in mind that tiling might not always work effectively. The design might not be suited for it, or might be too small and look odd. Large designs that are tiled often look very dynamic.
Take advantage of templates. Like the leggings seen below, templates can aid with quick edits to make the design fit the product better and even add special touches. Contrast Tanks, Chiffon Tops, Graphic T-Dress, and A-Line Dresses have downloadable templates available when editing that file. There is also a template for leggings (here) and hardcover journals (here).

4. Upload files that best represent your artwork

Before you add your new artwork, check to make sure the design file best represents the image you want to share with the world. (The tips are best suited to raster images instead of vector)

Ideally, the final design file should be as large as possible. This allows you to scale and alter the design for each product with ease, and will help to produce a sharp final printing.
If your design file is not large enough to cover all products, avoid enlarging the file as this could cause pixelation or blurry images. This might not be evident in the product previews on the site, but pixelated or blurry images will show up in the final printed product.
Finally, your files should be checked for any stray pixels, as these might not be easily visible but can show up in the printed product. One of the tricks I use, is to add a new layer to your design file (while in image editor of choice), and fill that layer with a color not seen in your artwork, In the example below I use neon green (#0dfd05), as this allows me to see any stray pixels in the design regardless of what color they are. Erase the stray pixels, clean up any pixelated edges that should be clean and sharp, and save your new file. Now you’re all ready to upload this new file with confidence.

5. Try different themes and test which ones do better

Designs with transparent backgrounds are perfect for products like t-shirts and stickers, but for other products like prints and cases, a background color will be added. This could be a plain white background, or you can choose a specific color. The color you choose is based on what you feel is best for that design, but sometimes a few different colors could work. This is a good opportunity to maybe try a few color variations, and see which one does better with fans. Maybe your actual design might look good in a few color variants, or maybe even a clean or worn version with some texture on it. The three pieces below, by Medusa Dollmaker, show this idea. Her “Rain, Tea, and Books” design, not only looks great in color, but monochromatic, and a minimal version with some texture on it. Do some tests like this and see which works better for each design. Maybe each variant works, and in this way you have created some new unique products like we touched on in #2 above.