LTLprints LAUNCHES BIG WALL GRAPHICS FROM LEADING ARTISTS + DESIGNERS
Philadelphia Startup Brings NEW ART to a NEW MEDIUM

August 10, 2009 - Philadelphia, PA – LTLprints, the ‘Larger Than Life Wall Graphics Company,’ announced today a global publishing and distribution partnership with the START SOMA ART GALLERY in San Francisco.

LTLprints will publish and distribute a collection of BIG WALL GRAPHICS, created by artists and designers curated by the START SOMA ART GALLERY.

http://www.LTLprints.com/start

Artists and designers featured in the launch of the Larger Than Life BIG WALL GRAPHICS catalog include Susan Kare, Justin Bua, VULCAN, Sugarluxe, Casey O’Connell, Felix LaFlamme, Tricia Choi, Mark Wasyl, Kelly Towles, Luke Feldman, Moses Norenberg, Matthew Porter, SAMALA, Martin Hsu, APEX, Fat Rabbit Farm, Gabe Marquez, Christian Wiseman, ARG Studios, and the Ice Cream Man.

“Larger Than Life Prints is honored to work with some of the world’s premier artists and designers to bring amazing new art to a revolutionary new medium,” according to Kendall Schoenrock, co-founder of  LTLprints.   “With the launch of our first curated BIG WALL GRAPHICS collection, we hope to transform empty walls everywhere with our giant removable and reusable wall graphics!”

ABOUT BIG WALL GRAPHICS

BIG WALL GRAPHICS are quite literally ‘larger-than-life’ (with customer-selected sizes ranging from twelve inches to seven feet tall!), and are printed with eco-solvent digital inks on a state-of-the-art self-adhesive fabric paper, Continue reading “LTLprints LAUNCHES BIG WALL GRAPHICS FROM LEADING ARTISTS + DESIGNERS”

Let’s jump right into my favorite fact about Charles Akins. He rocked the dinosaur fad in the 1990s like nobody’s business. Since I have such a soft spot in my heart for all things early nineties, Charles is without a doubt immediately, the man. A graduate of Georgia State University in Graphic Design, he leans more toward illustration even terming himself a “graphic designistrator”. Charles comes to us from an impressive background creating works for MAD magazine, American Express, Nike, & the U.S. Olympic Committee, amongst many others. He’s now showcasing designs within his partner shop you can check out here!

Mr. Akins grew up in Atlanta, GA with parents who immersed him in art. At the age of 3 he was awed by his father’s representation of “Dick Tracy” via sketch and always took part in creative camps and classes with his mom as he grew older. Charles has always felt drawn to art and creation yet kept himself well rounded with athletics, music, and acting. With a refreshingly positive attitude he continues to push ahead into the creative world and is now bringing his works to Larger Than Life Prints.

Charles is undoubtedly happy to  have found a place to bring his experimental and side projects to the masses. He can now show all of his work to the globe and it is reviving a wide expanse of opportunity for ideas not always used for contract or commission work. We’re delighted to have such a creative, motivated, and genuinely excited person offering their work through LTLPrints.com!!

Charles promises lots and lots of new looks and themes, which he describes as a plethora. Dinosaurs and the use of the word plethora (not to mention his substantial art work) make Charles Akins of HelloWally the perfect featured artist! If you’re interested in checking out more of his work take a look at AkinsStudio.com and Illoguy.com . He can also be reached at CAkins@akinstudio.com .

Tags: charles akins, dinosaurs, hellowally, LTLprints.com, Prints, surf

Sean Martorana is our featured artist bringing us impressive designs from +HE_S+UDiO. Hailing from Glassboro New Jersey and a graduate of the Art Institute of Philadelphia, Sean has identified as an artist his entire life. While others may express their thought through music or song, Sean finds his release through graphic design.

When asked for his strongest influence he said emotions, whether his or those adsorbed from others, play the biggest role. Sean enjoys creating projects with undertones of spiritual and African art that are entertaining to the eye. He has a deep appreciation for symbolism and wants what he makes to engage the viewer.

A believer that passion drives everything, he enjoys the relationship between the created piece and the viewer. Sean’s favorite pieces at the moment are the Shaman Skull Series because of the use of symbolism, spiritual aspects, and the fact that it’s just a bad ass image. We’re glad to have Sean’s designs at +HE_S+UDiO LTLprints shop. You can find out more about Sean at StudioGraphics.biz or reach him by email at imagine@studiographics.biz.

Can’t wait to see more designs Sean!

Tags: "the Studio", Design, LTLprints, LTLprints.com, Partners, personal design, sell your print, skulls

“+HE_S+UDiO is a creative design/ marketing and communications company made up of artistic, free minded individuals who exhibit extreme pride and passion in their designated fields. We use this passion to create meaningful works of art, powerful designs and creative products. …Our talents are captured through marketing and advertising graphics, photography, fine art, illustration, merchandise and multimedia forms such as film, websites and email marketing publications.”

And now some of the designs produced by  +HE_S+UDiO are available as Larger Than Life prints.  Whether you are looking for the “Bluebird” of Happiness to brighten your wall. 

A “Shaman” to watch over your room. 

Or a “break dancer” to inspire your best moves.   

+HE_S+UDiO designs are unique just like the Larger Than Life prints that you can turn them into.  So come check out +HE_S+UDiO designs and all of the other amazing creations in the Larger Than Life prints catalog!

Have interesting designs, photographs, paintings, etc?  Consider opening your own Custom Shop in the Larger Than Life prints catalog! Click here for more info on our Custom Shops. Or interested in being a Larger Than Life prints partner?  We can feature your company and designs in our catalog, just like +HE_S+UDiO and we offer our Affiliate program so you can offer your customers more choices when ordering your designs!

(This post brought to you by Gloria Bell on behalf of Larger Than Life prints.  Any questions can be directed to gloria@ltlprints.com)

Tags: "the Studio", affiliates, Design, Graphic Design, Larger than Life, Larger Than Life Prints, LTL, LTLprints, LTLprints.com, Partners

**Download the Layered Photoshop File Here - 43 megs**

Looking for something new and different for a gift or party decoration?  What about a “Wanted” poster?  Your friend or loved one’s face and their “crime” staring out from a good old-fashioned, “needs to be hanging in the sheriff’s office” Wanted poster.    We at Larger than Life prints received a request several months ago for exactly this type of print.  After scouring the internet looking for just the right image and coming up empty-handed, we thought it was better to create a super high-resolution version of the template in case anyone wants a huge print again in the future.  So we did.

LTLprints.com is an open company.  We try very hard to be transparent about who we are, what we’re doing and why we are focused on certain projects.  In addition to our transparency one of the goals is to give back to the community.  We feel that a sharing community will generate more than the hording that is common place.  Based on search traffic, we can easily tell you that we’re not the only ones looking for a high-resolution wanted poster template to start from.  So, without further adu, here for the worlds consumption - a high resolution wanted poster template.

We only ask for a few things in return.

1. If you use this file please please let us know by leaving a comment on this post.
2. If you’ve made improvements to the base template send it to images [at] LTLprints.com so we can update this file for the group.
3. Consider using LTLprints for your oversized removable wall graphic needs.
4. Be nice to each other.  *** most important ***

We also hope that when you have something that you’ve invested some time into that others would enjoy that you share it openly and willingly.  We think it’s the right thing to do, how about you?  Leave us a comment to let us know what you think.   STAY TUNED for an upcoming post on how Larger Than Life prints used these Wanted posters to help a major charity with their fundraising efforts.

**Download the Layered Photoshop File Here - 43 megs**

Sincerely,

Kendall Schoenrock & Carsten Petzold
Founders, LTLprints.com

(This post brought to you by Gloria Bell on behalf of Larger Than Life prints.  Please direct questions to gloria@ltlprints.com)

Tags: Adobe Photoshop, Carsten, Carsten Peltzold, Graphic Design, Image resolution, Kendall, Kendall Schoenrock, Larger than Life, Larger Than Life Prints, LTLprints, Poster, Template, Wanted poster, Wanted Poster Template

When we launched LTLprints.com we made it a priority to cultivate a community of designers - they will help bring core content to our catalog and customers.  One of the ways we are starting to do that is visiting highly passionate students at local Philadelphia art schools.  Earlier today we visited the Art Institute of Philadelphia (only 2 blocks away from our headquarters) and spoke to a number of impressive up and coming rock stars regarding the launch of the first ever LTLprints design competition.

We invited them to join our design competition and we would like to extend the same offer to you. Over the next four weeks we will take submissions to our online catalog - along the way stopping to smell the roses and meet you, the designers, through an interview on this blog.

Here is how it works;

• Create your free LTLprints account
• Use those creative genes to come up with any design that would make for a great wall print
  (art work, pictures, collages, shillouettes, etc…).
• Upload a .jpg of your artwork and let us know that you would like it to be entered for the competition.

How to compete:

• Send you Vector or Photoshop file to designcompetition [@] LTLprints.com
• We want to meet you.  Send us a short bio and any links to your other online work.
• Submissions must be received by Monday, February 23.

Who is the Jury?

• The community, silly.   In a few weeks we will open up a voting system for submitted designs and you (and your friends, mom & dad, your coworkers, whomever you want) can come rate thumbs up on designs, the one with the most thumbs up wins.  Pretty simple, right?  Get your facebook groups ready!

What is in it for you?

• The winner(s) gets his or her designs printed for free!
  1st place: Free 7ft large  (84”x52”)
  2nd: 5ft (60”x38”)
  3rd: 3ft (38”x24”)
• Get exposure - we will try to feature every competing designer on this blog and we will do our duty to introduce you to our customers.  We pinky swear.
• Bulk the resume!  We realize that not everyone competing is a student, but if you are, this is a great event to point to in those future interviews.
• Oh, and don’t forget that you get to set your own design price associated with your work.  The design price is what a customer will pay you when they buy your print.  This is a value set by you, but most of our designers are pricing their work between $1 and $10.
• The joy of helping a hard working startup get off the ground.  That’s worth something right?  Kama points or something… We’re sure of it!
• A free beer at a Philadelphia pub of your choosing. Mmm. Beer.

When?

• Submit your items latest by February 22, 11:59pm EST
• Voting will end on March 8th.
• Winners will be notified on this blog.

Questions?

• We are here to help.  Leave any unanswered questions in the comment box below.
• Or just contact us.

We’re super excited to get things rolling.  We hope you are too!

UPDATE:  Download this bio template and introduce yourself to the crowd.

Tags: Adobe Photoshop, Art Institute of Philadelphia, competition, Design, Designer, Facebook

**Download the Layered Photoshop File Here - 43 megs**

A few weeks ago LTLprints.com received a request for a very cool print - a wanted poster.  We quickly went to work scouring for a high resolution wanted poster template for the customers 50th birthday party, but after some searching we were disappointed coming up empty handed.   We thought it was better to create a super high-resolution version of the template in case anyone wants a huge print again in the future.  So we did.

LTLprints.com is an open company.  We try very hard to be transparent about who we are, what we’re doing and why we are focused on certain projects.  In addition to our transparency one of the goals is to give back to the community.  We feel that a sharing community will generate more than the hording that is common place.  Based on search traffic, we can easily tell you that we’re not the only ones looking for a high-resolution wanted poster template to start from.  So, without further adu, here for the worlds consumption - a high resolution wanted poster template.

We only ask for a few things in return.

1. If you use this file please please let us know by leaving a comment on this post.
2. If you’ve made improvements to the base template send it to images [at] LTLprints.com so we can update this file for the group.
3. Consider using LTLprints for your oversized removable wall graphic needs.
4. Be nice to each other.  *** most important ***

We also hope that when you have something that you’ve invested some time into that others would enjoy that you share it openly and willingly.  We think it’s the right thing to do, how about you?  Leave us a comment to let us know what you think.

**Download the Layered Photoshop File Here - 43 megs**

Sincerely,

Kendall Schoenrock & Carsten Petzold
Founders, LTLprints.com

Tags: Adobe Photoshop, Carsten, Carsten Petzold, Graphic Design, Image resolution, Kendall Schoenrock, Larger than Life, LTL, LTLprints, Petzold, Photoshop, Poster, Template, Wanted, Wanted poster, Wanted Poster Template

Our featured designer from last week KevHolt just put some more artwork up into the catalog. I really like is colorful, abstract paintings. So here are the additions for everyone to check out. My favourite I put in first place of this collection. What are your thoughts? Which one is your favorite? Any of them makes for a great piece of wall art or even a full sheet of wall paper… Check out the full collection here in the catalog.

Tags: Abstract Art, Kev, Kevin, Kevin Holt, Wall Art, Wall Decals

Welcome to the community Kev Holt!

A couple of weeks ago by chance I ran into a very nice guy named Kevin von Holt. At first we chatted about Germany – since Kev’s last name reveals his German (and aristocratic) ancestry. Well, my old prejudice of German aristocrats being very stiff and boring had to be thrown over board right away. Kevin is actually a great creative mind being everything else but stiff. When the music fever grabs him he writes his own songs. Over the years Kev wrote texts and music for more than hundred songs. But just writing songs is certainly not enough. Kev actually brings his own songs to life with his band ‘The Hotspots’. I went to the North Star the other day and saw them performing live. Kevin rocked the house being the lead singer, Scott on the drums gave an awesome performance and Launi playing base was rock solid. (Awesome job guys!). Get a sound bite here and check the band’s profile. I told Kev that many of his photos rocking the house would make for awesome cutouts and Larger Than Life Prints.

So we started talking about LTLprints some more and as it turns out Kev’s second creative passion is painting. We figured out a way to digitize his hand painted wall structures and abstract paintings. Now you can get exclusive art from Kev as a self-adhesive re-print from LTLprints. At $75 a very affordable option for exclusive wall decoration! Thanks Kev for being part of the LTLprints community - and again Welcome! The whole team is looking forward to put more of your awesome art into our catalog!

Here is one example of Kev’s great Art: Click here to see all of his items in the catalog

Tags: Art, Carsten Petzold, Decor, Kev, Kevin, Kevin von Holt, LTLprints, Music, North Star, Philadelphia, Pictures, The Hotspots, Wall Art

Want to get the story behind the life-size graphic that will soon be bursting vibes of fun off your Entertainment room wall? Sure you do…and therefore I will make it my utmost duty to highlight each and every one of our contributing artists. You have my word. And to start making good on my promise, I present an interview done with LTLprints first contributing photographer, Jennifer Ruth.

Me: Hello Jennifer, thanks for coming aboard with LTLprints! To start, can you tell us a little about yourself?

Jennifer: At the moment, I’m a graduate student studying for a PhD in physiology. But when I have free time I try to teach myself Russian, go to salsa dance lessons, dabble in painting and drawing, try to enjoy as much time with my dog as possible, and of course pursue my passion for photography.

Me: Interesting…so how did you get into photography?

Jennifer: I’ve always been interested in photography since I was a little kid. I started off with my dad’s old film SLR but is was a little difficult at the time to keep up with it because a lack of funding. I use to scrape together leftover lunch money to buy and develop film. It became a little difficult to continue with my hobby and I didn’t pick it up again until about 10 years later when I bought my first camera, a Canon G7. It’s a great little camera and I learned a lot from it.

Me:I must admit I am still in the experimental stage with my camera, what is one photo tip you can offer to help me instantly become a photographer of National Geographic caliber?

Jennifer: First I would suggest planning a safari adventure. (Laughs) No, I think most important I would take lots of photos and don’t be afraid to experiment with lighting, colors, contrast…etc. When you first start off you have to get to know your camera, figure out what your style is as a photographer, and open yourself up to new perspectives. You begin to notice beauty in the most unlikely of places.

Me: Wow that’s beautiful…Along the same lines you have a great collection of photos that display blooming flowers and fun loving animals. What would you say is your favorite subject to shoot?

Jennifer: Probably my dog. She’s so expressive and she never complains that I’m taking too long or that she hates her photo being taken.

Jennifer's puppy with friends

Me: Ha, I saw that some of your photos were taken in Costa Rico, where are some other locations that you have shot? Any favorite locations?

Jennifer: I recently traveled to Japan and parts of SE Asia on a month long trip. It was an amazing trip and it’s hard to say which was the most spectacular because each country had it’s own sets of pros and cons, but to answer I’d have to say my favorite to shoot in was Japan. It was just an incredibly modern, clean, and efficient city with a ton of appealing subject matter.

Me: Who is your favorite photographer?

Jennifer: There are so many great photographers out there but when I was young, I always admired Ansel Adams. Often when you’re trying to capture the complexity and beauty of your subject matter, a photograph just doesn’t do it any justice. A simple photograph isn’t enough to capture the vastness or the elements of the moment but Ansel Adams did a great job in capturing those small nuances. You could feel the moment and it’s often hard to capture that.

Me:Interesting…I can definitely see in both of your work a shared fondness for nature. Well final question for you. Why did you decide to put some of your photography in the LTLprints catalog?

Jennifer: Photography is something that I thoroughly enjoy and I’ve accumulated quite a collection. I thought it would be nice to share some of the photos that I have taken and LTLprints was a good platform to begin with.

Jennifer snapping away!

Thanks Jennifer…more artist profiles coming soon!

Tags: Ansel Adams, Jennifer Ruth, LTLprints.com