4 ms·

Show HN: Review my startup - Posterhaste - Custom art prints and posters

19 points by samwillis 14y ago

samwillis 14y ago
Hi everyone! I have been working on this idea for a few months. I had hoped to get it up a little earlier in order to get some more Christmas orders, but it took a little longer than expected to finish it. HN isn't exactly the target market for it but has been such a great help and inspiration for me that I thought I would ask for your feedback. So, what do you think? I have started with just some simple designs but have the infrastructure built so that it is possible to add more designs very quickly. There are a lots more 'clever' designs in the works, such as those that utilise maps using D3.js (i.e. you could create a print that shows your world trip on a map with flight paths) and more intelligent layout of type creating word cloud images. To give you an idea of the technology stack: - Django running in Gunicorn (using Gevent for long requests while rendering) behind Nginx - Celery (with Redis) for a task queue and for talking to the rendering backend - PhantomJS is used as the renderer for all current designs but its easy to add different backends for new designs - The awesome Pwinty API (http://www.pwinty.com/ http://www.pwinty.com/) service for printing and fulfilment. Tom has been a great help! Take a look around and hopefully it won't crash...
- chopsueyar 14y ago
  I see Pwinty has US shipping, but seems to be based in the UK. Are US-bound prints from pwinty mailed from the UK?
  - samwillis 14y ago
    Yes, currently all items are shipped from the UK but I believe Pwinty are close to partnering with a US based printer for US orders. Our plan is to eventually show pricing to US visitors in USD and ship from the US for quicker delivery.
    - chopsueyar 14y ago
      Can you estimate or do you know (approx.) how long it takes for an order to arrive in the US once payment is made?
      - samwillis 14y ago
        Our estimated delivery times are: - United Kingdom: 2-3 working days - Western Europe: 4-5 working days - Eastern Europe: 6-7 working days - US and the rest of the Word: 7 working days We hope to be able to improve upon the US delivery time early next year.
        chopsueyar 14y ago
        Personally, 7 days is acceptable to me for a customized product coming across the Atlantic ocean.
bdfh42 14y ago
I like the Lat/Long idea - and that looks well supported on that page. Do you think the customer might in the future like control over the paper stock and (maybe) the print process? If I have a great photo - can I get it turned into a classy print? This might be a complete side-track so you should probably ignore me.
- samwillis 14y ago
  It is something I have considered, adding simple photo printing, but I think it could distract from the main purpose of the site. Photo printing and enlargement is a very competitive business and has relatively low margins compared to the current product line. I may add more printing options later but for now I think keeping it simple is better. We do effectively have three printing processes, lab printing for smaller sizes, large format inkjet for the posters and inkjet on canvas for the canvases. THanks for the feedback!
listaware 14y ago
One small comment. When I buy from stores, especially from niche ones, it's nice to know where they are. Like "All items are designed in our cozy office in Stamford, Lincolnshire, right in the heart of the UK country side". The lack of contact details, really doesn't encourage me to buy from you. Also, when I tried to buy something, I was surprised how clunky it was. It's possible that I may want the same poster as the one you present, I'd love to see the option to add that in (or have it in by default).
- samwillis 14y ago
  Thanks, thats great advise. I will put our address and phone number on the site. The option to purchase the example designs is there, but I agree its a little clunky, I will look into improving it. Was it the checkout that you found clunky or the process of placing an item in you basket?
  - listaware 14y ago
    The cart process was fine. Maybe more visuals like "buying now without registration", which I think is possible, would be good. Decrease people's pain as much as possible !
girlvinyl 14y ago
Start adding these to Pinterest. I think you'll get a lot of traction there.
- samwillis 14y ago
  Thats the plan, we have placed pinterest buttons on the site but should start 'pining' the stuff ourselves.
cocoflunchy 14y ago
I couldn't find on the front page how to make a custom poster... I had to click on a premade one to see that I could edit it (and I only did after checking the comments here). Plus I had to read the very long introduction text to know what this what about. My advice: let me play with the interesting stuff right away, or at least tell me clearly in one sentence what I can do on this site. It will most certainly improve your conversion rate. Great stuff, but a little too hard to figure out !
- samwillis 14y ago
  Thats great feedback! Thanks. I will experiment with how to better describe how to use the site on the homepage and make it a little more obvious how to customise a design once you have chosen a design.
sksksk 14y ago
I have a feeling that my sister might have ordered something of that site for our father's christmas present. If it is the same site, she was very impressed with the service and the product.

19 points by samwillis 14y ago

Hi everyone! I have been working on this idea for a few months. I had hoped to get it up a little earlier in order to get some more Christmas orders, but it took a little longer than expected to finish it. HN isn't exactly the target market for it but has been such a great help and inspiration for me that I thought I would ask for your feedback. So, what do you think? I have started with just some simple designs but have the infrastructure built so that it is possible to add more designs very quickly. There are a lots more 'clever' designs in the works, such as those that utilise maps using D3.js (i.e. you could create a print that shows your world trip on a map with flight paths) and more intelligent layout of type creating word cloud images. To give you an idea of the technology stack: - Django running in Gunicorn (using Gevent for long requests while rendering) behind Nginx - Celery (with Redis) for a task queue and for talking to the rendering backend - PhantomJS is used as the renderer for all current designs but its easy to add different backends for new designs - The awesome Pwinty API (http://www.pwinty.com/ http://www.pwinty.com/) service for printing and fulfilment. Tom has been a great help! Take a look around and hopefully it won't crash...

chopsueyar 14y ago
I see Pwinty has US shipping, but seems to be based in the UK. Are US-bound prints from pwinty mailed from the UK?
- samwillis 14y ago
  Yes, currently all items are shipped from the UK but I believe Pwinty are close to partnering with a US based printer for US orders. Our plan is to eventually show pricing to US visitors in USD and ship from the US for quicker delivery.
  - chopsueyar 14y ago
    Can you estimate or do you know (approx.) how long it takes for an order to arrive in the US once payment is made?
    - samwillis 14y ago
      Our estimated delivery times are: - United Kingdom: 2-3 working days - Western Europe: 4-5 working days - Eastern Europe: 6-7 working days - US and the rest of the Word: 7 working days We hope to be able to improve upon the US delivery time early next year.
      - chopsueyar 14y ago
        Personally, 7 days is acceptable to me for a customized product coming across the Atlantic ocean.

bdfh42 14y ago

I like the Lat/Long idea - and that looks well supported on that page. Do you think the customer might in the future like control over the paper stock and (maybe) the print process? If I have a great photo - can I get it turned into a classy print? This might be a complete side-track so you should probably ignore me.

samwillis 14y ago
It is something I have considered, adding simple photo printing, but I think it could distract from the main purpose of the site. Photo printing and enlargement is a very competitive business and has relatively low margins compared to the current product line. I may add more printing options later but for now I think keeping it simple is better. We do effectively have three printing processes, lab printing for smaller sizes, large format inkjet for the posters and inkjet on canvas for the canvases. THanks for the feedback!

listaware 14y ago

One small comment. When I buy from stores, especially from niche ones, it's nice to know where they are. Like "All items are designed in our cozy office in Stamford, Lincolnshire, right in the heart of the UK country side". The lack of contact details, really doesn't encourage me to buy from you. Also, when I tried to buy something, I was surprised how clunky it was. It's possible that I may want the same poster as the one you present, I'd love to see the option to add that in (or have it in by default).

samwillis 14y ago
Thanks, thats great advise. I will put our address and phone number on the site. The option to purchase the example designs is there, but I agree its a little clunky, I will look into improving it. Was it the checkout that you found clunky or the process of placing an item in you basket?
- listaware 14y ago
  The cart process was fine. Maybe more visuals like "buying now without registration", which I think is possible, would be good. Decrease people's pain as much as possible !

girlvinyl 14y ago

Start adding these to Pinterest. I think you'll get a lot of traction there.

samwillis 14y ago
Thats the plan, we have placed pinterest buttons on the site but should start 'pining' the stuff ourselves.

cocoflunchy 14y ago

I couldn't find on the front page how to make a custom poster... I had to click on a premade one to see that I could edit it (and I only did after checking the comments here). Plus I had to read the very long introduction text to know what this what about. My advice: let me play with the interesting stuff right away, or at least tell me clearly in one sentence what I can do on this site. It will most certainly improve your conversion rate. Great stuff, but a little too hard to figure out !

samwillis 14y ago
Thats great feedback! Thanks. I will experiment with how to better describe how to use the site on the homepage and make it a little more obvious how to customise a design once you have chosen a design.

sksksk 14y ago

I have a feeling that my sister might have ordered something of that site for our father's christmas present. If it is the same site, she was very impressed with the service and the product.