Canada’s Posterjack.ca adds pizazz to your pics

Sync caught up with Timothy Faught, president of Posterjack.ca, to learn more about their online services for Canadians.

Sync: What is Posterjack?

Timothy Faught: Posterjack.ca is a company that turns digital photographs and digital images into art. All of our business happens online — we have a great website where you can order our products. We are a Canadian company that is built to serve the Canadian market.

Sync: How is Posterjack any different than your local photo mart?

T.F.: Posterjack is different from the local photo mart because we offer a greater selection of sizes, higher quality, faster turn around time, and lower prices. Wow — that sounds too good to be true! But really it isn’t — that is why I started the company, because I saw that there was this great big hole to be filled. Not to mention that e-commerce is GREAT when it is done right. The sheer convenience of picking out the photo you want printed in the comfort of your own home — then placing the order online is just so much easier than driving to the store. But then it is up to us to follow through and provide great customer support. Through running posterjack, I learned that people like to get their products fast — so we really focus hard on getting orders produced so quickly that customers are shocked when it arrives at their door.

We also have the opportunity to do some cool value added stuff, without imposing any extra cost on the customer. For example, when you upload your photo – we analyze the quality of the photo and tell you if you have enough resolution by giving you a quality score – that way the customer knows if the end result will be positive, and they can always try a smaller size with the same photo. We also do simple things like letting you change your photo to black & white on the spot.

Lastly, and this one is really important – we don’t automatically crop your photos. Most people don’t realize that their photo will not fit every size perfectly, some rectangles are long and skinny (panorama) and some are more towards a square. If your photo does not match exactly, we give you the choice to crop it to the exact size (e.g. 24″x36″), or print it at a custom size (e.g. 21.7″ x 36″). Finally — a place that doesn’t crop off that important part of your photo without asking you first!!

Sync: Please walk us through how the process works, start to finish.

T.F.: We make the whole process very simple. All of our prices and sizes are listed on the front page — not hiding somewhere in the background. We also have a flat rate shipping fee of $8.50 — so no matter if you are in Toronto or way out in a rural location, you get a reasonable shipping fee.

To order, you go through a 3-step process to choose the type of product and size, locate the digital photo on your hard drive, and upload it. If you want more than one, you just do those steps again with the next photo. From there you get a preview — if you are satisfied, you complete the order. We create the artwork and get it shipped off to you.

Once you receive the artwork, we follow-up with an email to ask you to give us feedback. Then we post that feedback on the website for everyone to read — we don’t edit it. See here and you will see the good and the bad, we are not perfect and sometimes we mess up — but it keeps us honest and lets us improve, as well as a chance to connect with a customer that is not totally satisfied and make things right.

Sync: Can you give us an idea of costs?

T.F.: Costs really vary greatly depending on the product. Our most economical product is a photo poster, which is essentially a large photo print. We use high quality photo paper and the results are amazing — people always rave about the detail you can see in the prints. So you can get a 2 foot x 3 foot (24″x36″) poster (standard poster size) for $19.99. If you want a more elegant finished product, you can step up to something like a photo on canvas in the same size, framed and ready to go for $149.99Sync: Do you think people still like paper photos or do we prefer the convenience of digital (e.g. PCs, frames, cameras, etc.)?

T.F.: People definitely still like the physical photo prints when they are used for the purpose of art and decorating. Digital frames are however very cool because they can go through a series of memories, but it is not the same as a nice BIG piece of art showing off something personal, like a great vacation, or a hobby. Maybe in the future we will have big screens where the photos or artwork can be changed, but at least for the moment — there is no competition for a REAL piece of art.

Sync: There is a PosterJack.com. Is this a US company?

T.F.: Posterjack.com was started in Munich, Germany — from that location they service all of Europe. Online Print Decor, which is a Canadian company in Toronto, owns and operates posterjack.ca through an agreement with posterjack.com. Basically we utilize their excellent back-end software and website technology to run the business. They are a very sophisticated company and they keep improving upon the printing software and processes – so that all benefits posterjack.ca and the Canadian customers. Because Canada is a much smaller market, we would never have the R&D money to do the stuff that they are doing in Germany. Rest assured – Everything from posterjack.ca is manufactured in Canada.

Sync: Finally, what can we expect from Posterjack in the near future?

T.F.: Posterjack is continually adding new products and value. In the last year we added the tremendously cool Peel n’ Stick posters, and the chic Gallery Wrap Canvases. We have been experimenting with some very sexy acrylic art that we might launch in the coming months. But for the most part we will just keep doing the little things behind the scenes to improve things like print quality even further, streamline ordering, and pretty much anything we can to make the posterjack experience.

Thanks, Timothy!

Sync readers, have you ordered from posterjack.ca? Anything you like or dislike about the service? Do you prefer to shop Canadian?