Brightcube, Devon Publishing Group Create Online Image Bank

Art Business News, July, 2001

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.--Brightcube Inc. and Devon Publishing Group (DPG) have entered into an agreement to distribute the newest collection of DPG ImageX art prints using the Brightcube Print-on-Demand delivery application. This cooperation fuels the growing population of Brightcube's online image bank that is designed to reduce inventory and handling costs of publishers and galleries.

Under the terms of the agreement, DPG's Portal Publications, a publisher of art posters and fine art prints, will supply a broad selection of images to the Brightcube image bank. Brightcube will provide the technology and infrastructure to host and securely deliver the images electronically to a network of storefronts providing the benefits of Print-on-Demand technology. Galleries and retailers equipped with the Brightcube delivery application are able to access and select images online for immediate electronic delivery to the storefront for printing on professional inkjet printers using Brightcube papers. Electronic delivery and on-site printing allow the selected images to be printed in different sizes and Brightcube paper finishes, all of which are color profiled. According to company officials, retailers and publishers will benefit from immediate delivery, an expanded inventory mix and a reduction of inventory and handling costs.

For DPG, the growing network of Printon-Demand-enabled dealers provides expanded distribution for its artists without the substantial warehousing and inventory-carrying costs associated with conventional distribution methods. In addition, the new paradigm expands DPG's product mix at no additional cost by making prints available on a full range of Brightcube papers, including canvas, 100-percent rag paper and digital papers in a wide variety of finishes, such as a newly developed, double-sided 335gr fine art paper.

For every image printed, Brightcube receives a fee and anticipates an expanded market for its consumables. Brightcube officials say the company's assets are uniquely suited to this Print-on-Demand strategy with its network of offline art dealers providing the retail outlets, its imaging technology and scalable infrastructure serving as the delivery platform, and its digital papers enabling the production of high quality prints. ABN