Shawn Kelley
<p>It all started on March 17th, 2008.</p>
<p>Inspired and excited by a blog post (<a href="http://www.mezzoblue.com/archives/2008/03/04/producing/">Producing</a>, by Dave Shea) I had just read, I wrote my idea out in an email to a close group of friends:</p>
<p>“A site where you can buy artwork for your walls, whether it be a photograph, a poster (not like cheesy posters, but like cool concert or designy-type posters) or an illustration of some sort.”</p>
<p>“It could either be one piece per day, several per week, a limited number of each until they’re sold out, or any combination. Just an idea that I think has potential…the artist would get a percentage of the sale price and the site would get the rest. Every once in a while, there could be a piece that everything goes to charity. There’s tons of extra ‘features’ that could be added later if we chose to and needed to, but I think starting simple would be the best.”</p>
<p>By the time I finished that email, it was 12:45 am. It was immediately followed up by a short simple email.</p>
<p>“idea for a name – what about wallblank.com?”</p>
<p>From there, we proceeded over the next few weeks to discuss, tear apart and brainstorm this idea. Our plan was to launch in 6 weeks. As most things like this, that 6 weeks got longer and longer. We ended up launching 7 months later, in October of 2008.</p>
<p>We’re currently working on a few new projects and ideas, but our goal from the beginning has been to keep things simple. You’ll always find that to be the case – from our flat-rate shipping ($6 to US & Canada / $9 to anywhere else) to our frame options (black or natural maple).</p>
<p>We curate, print, pack and ship out of an awesome old brewery on the river in Rockford, IL. We’d love to hear from you – feel free to drop us an email or even stop by the studio!</p>
<p><img src='http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0012/1122/files/sk-sig.png?1249577070' alt='' /><br />
Shawn Kelley, Founder<br />
shawn@wallblank.com</p>
2009-08-09T18:06:01-05:00
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2009-08-09T18:06:01-05:00
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The WallBlank.com Story
2009-08-09T18:11:24-05:00
It all started on March 17th, 2008.
Inspired and excited by a blog post ("Producing":http://www.mezzoblue.com/archives/2008/03/04/producing/, by Dave Shea) I had just read, I wrote my idea out in an email to a close group of friends:
"A site where you can buy artwork for your walls, whether it be a photograph, a poster (not like cheesy posters, but like cool concert or designy-type posters) or an illustration of some sort."
"It could either be one piece per day, several per week, a limited number of each until they're sold out, or any combination. Just an idea that I think has potential...the artist would get a percentage of the sale price and the site would get the rest. Every once in a while, there could be a piece that everything goes to charity. There's tons of extra 'features' that could be added later if we chose to and needed to, but I think starting simple would be the best."
By the time I finished that email, it was 12:45 am. It was immediately followed up by a short simple email.
"idea for a name - what about wallblank.com?"
From there, we proceeded over the next few weeks to discuss, tear apart and brainstorm this idea. Our plan was to launch in 6 weeks. As most things like this, that 6 weeks got longer and longer. We ended up launching 7 months later, in October of 2008.
We're currently working on a few new projects and ideas, but our goal from the beginning has been to keep things simple. You'll always find that to be the case - from our flat-rate shipping ($6 to US & Canada / $9 to anywhere else) to our frame options (black or natural maple).
We curate, print, pack and ship out of an awesome old brewery on the river in Rockford, IL. We'd love to hear from you - feel free to drop us an email or even stop by the studio!
<img src='http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0012/1122/files/sk-sig.png?1249577070' alt='' />
Shawn Kelley, Founder
shawn@wallblank.com