Why our prints?

When it comes to Islamic wall art, the aspect that gets all the attention is the design of the wall art. I was the same, and when my focus to begin with was only in the design process of my portfolio. It was only until I started to think about the service I wanted to offer my customers in through my wall art where I realised the importance of the print itself rather than just the design.  

With this in mind we had to make a choice regarding the print quality we wanted to offer. It became clear we wanted to aim for the leading standards on the print market. We want our prints to last the test of time and give outstanding value for money to our customers. Our research led to the direction of Giclée quality prints. You may not have heard of this term before but there is no harm in knowing what you are paying for. (Or what you are paying for but not getting if you are buying standard quality prints)

If you have seen prints from other artists and they have not mentioned that there prints are Giclée quality then the chances are they are not.  This means the prints are likely to be printed on standard paper (perhaps a thick white card stock, or a matt photo paper) that consists of those substances such as OBA and acid which will gradually harm the print over time leading it to fade or lose its original colour.

So what is Giclée quality prints? These are the standard that you will find in a Museum or a national art gallery. This is because these prints are made to last at least 100 years before they start fading. This process is achieved by firstly using fine art paper which is of archival quality. We use 100% cotton rag with a smooth natural white finish. Our fine art paper is OBA and acid free and meets any archival standards.

The second important factor in the printing process of course is the printer itself. To achieve the Giclée standards the printer must use pigment inks as opposed to the lower budget dye ink printers. This is because the latter is much more likely to be affected by the environment. Furthermore the leading pigment based ink printers offer a higher number of ink tanks which means they reproduce the colours much more vividly. For example we use the industry leading Canon Pro 1000 with the new 12-ink pigment based system.