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How Low-Resolution Art Affects Sales

Featured header image: London in Black and White

 

When selling online, it’s important to think beyond just making one sale—you want to build a loyal customer base that comes back for more. Low-resolution designs that look blurry or pixelated can lead to unhappy customers. This often means more returns, fewer repeat sales, and negative reviews.

Customer satisfaction is key to building trust and long-term success. A happy customer is more likely to buy from you again, recommend your work to others, and even promote your designs on social media. By delivering high-quality work, you’re not just making a sale—you’re establishing a relationship.

To build trust, always follow Redbubble’s image resolution guidelines for each product. You can find this information in two places: this Dimension & Format guide and on the image uploader screen (pictured to the right). This second place is helpful as you can upload a custom-sized file specific to the product you want to create. 

Does your style include unique filters, blurry elements, or pixelated effects? That’s great! Just make sure to clearly label your designs with descriptions and tags so your customers know it’s a design choice. This helps customers understand that any grainy or distressed look is part of the design, not a mistake.

The Bodacious Period by Hillary White

“The Bodacious Period” by Hillary White

"Visit Hawkins - Vintage Distressed - Demogorgon - Stranger Things" by Nemons

“Visit Hawkins – Vintage Distressed – Demogorgon – Stranger Things” by Nemons

Repeat customers often look for consistency across all of your designs. Think about how your entire portfolio shows up on your storefront. Does your profile photo, banner, bio, and descriptions all tell the same story? You may want to consider curating these important (and highly visible) parts of your storefront so potential customers have an opportunity to understand your style.

Common Causes of Low-Resolution Art

Low-resolution art can happen for a variety of reasons. It’s important to understand how it occurs so you can avoid it. Below are some common causes of low-resolution images that you should watch out for when uploading your designs.

 

Original image. Vibrant colors with sharp edges and details.

Here is an example of an original, high-resolution design. It looks pretty good! The colors are vibrant, the lines are clear, and the image is sharp.

Possible Causes for Low-Res

Digitizing Physical Art. Happens when uploading photos of artwork or poor scanning.

Low-Resolution Source Images. Occurs when starting with low-quality media.

Results: Blurry, missing details, possible flash reflection if scanned.

Pixellated image. Details are grainy and blurry.

Color distortion with softer edges and details.

Over-Compressed/Resized Images. This happens when one shrinks or enlarges detailed images to fit a resolution it was not designed for.

Results: Color distortion, loss of detail, pixelation.

Examples of Stylistic Designs

Many artists make a deliberate choice to give their work a unique, retro, or pixelated feel. Styles like 8-bit art, vintage photography, and intentionally distressed images use low resolution to evoke nostalgia and create a distinctive visual impact.

Let shoppers know if your designs are purposefully low-res! Make sure to call it out in the product title, description, and tags so potential customers can clearly see your intentional choices.

Click the designs below to explore how other artists use low-res details:

“Etched Glass Abstract with Delicate Blurred Leaves” by Georgia Mizuleva

“IT’S OKAY BEING WHO YOU ARE” by C0L0R3XPL0SI0N

“Cuteness Overload” (Superb Fairy-wrens)” by Frances Norton

By focusing on customer satisfaction and quality, you can turn one-time buyers into loyal fans, build a supportive community, and increase repeat sales. Trust and quality are the foundation of any successful artist-customer relationship!

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