Athena Contract Print & Dropship Art Services

Dropship for artists

We have years of experience operating manufacture-on-demand and specialise in fulfilling third party branded orders direct to consumers. This is known as Dropship or Web Fulfilment and has become very popular. Our rapid service allows artists to focus on their artwork whilst Athena provide the high-quality manufacturing and logistics skills to fulfil their customers in low or high volumes.

Most dropship orders are individual art works (print, framed print or canvas) professionally packaged and shipped typically within 48 hours on express overnight courier service. European fulfilment uses 2 – 5 day courier service.

Please get in touch with us by emailing art@athenaart.com or phone 08458 386886 if you would like to discuss further, or for any quotes that you may require. We can apply discounts to large bulk orders.

 

Fine Art Giclee printing

Our Printers

The word Giclée (“g-clay”), is derived from the French verb gicler meaning “to squirt or spray”. The term is widely used to describe modern high resolution digital printing that uses 12 ink colours. At Athena we use latest technology Canon printers and their unique 12-colour professional LUCIA pigment-ink (MBK, BK, PC, C, PM, M, Y, R, G, B, GY, PGY) which produce an impressively broad colour gamut. The addition of Chroma Optimiser to the print process is a relatively new feature which when applied over the printed image covers the bumps between ink droplets and levels the ink droplet height in order to enhance the glossiness, flatten the print surface as well as expanding colour gamut.

The precision high speed print heads use a micro vapour lay down to satisfy the most demanding professionals achieving a maximum print resolution of 2400 x 1200 dpi. The print heads operate with the equivalent of over 30000 nozzles. The image is colour corrected to attain the closest match to the original work with the digital information being fine-tuned to the type of media surface.

 

Inks

Ink used in most printers is either dye-based or pigment-based. Canon’s LUCIA range uses both technologies: pigment-inks combine the glossiness of dye ink with the vivid colours and weather resistance of pigment ink.

The LUCIA system increased the colour reproduction range by up to 20% by using more vivid pigments for all 12 colours and using pigments with a variety of particle diameters. LUCIA technology also incorporates a dark black to meet the needs of professional photographers.

The LUCIA pigment inks can last approx. 80 years on display behind glass (light fastness) and 50-years without the glass (gas fastness).

 

Media

Athena standard media is a heavyweight 240gsm matt coated paper and this is selected by most of our artists and customers. We also offer gloss and textured papers and specialist media which may be selected after discussion, pre-production testing and sign-off.

Maximum print width is 44”, 1118mm.

 

Framing

Our frames are made using high quality solid wood or more price sensitive full wrap mdf. Other materials are available on request.

Our standard glazing is in shatterproof crystal styrene. Glass glazing is also available.

Athena frames are made in house using computer controlled equipment for accuracy and all hand finished to the highest quality. All frames are corner protected and individually shrink wrapped.

Available frame sizes are A5 (14.9cm x 21.0cm) through to Poster (61.0cm x 91.5cm) including all custom sizes in between.

 

Packing and carriage

We despatch product either individually direct to end user, or in bulk to wholesale either boxed or palletised depending on customer preference. Art is either individually wrapped in specially designed packaging or bulk boxed and shipped using leading UK couriers with full tracking.

 

Labelling and branding

We normally customise paperwork that accompanies product so that all documentation is presented with our customer’s branding. This includes third party documentation such as Etsy, Wayfair or NOTHS. We can insert our customer’s publicity or special promotion literature within packaging on request. Further branding such as stickers or brand coloured internal wrap is also available.