There’s a trend in gallery labels, and it’s about replacing laser-printed caption cards with dry transfer decals as wall labels. It’s an elevated way to caption artwork that puts gallery shows on par with museum exhibitions in their attention to detail. When you’re selling art, you want visitors and collectors engaged with the pieces, and wall labels play a role. They’re doubly helpful if you display the price next to each piece. If you’re unfamiliar with transfer decals, they are a unique lacquer ink product produced from your digital files. They arrive to you on transfer sheets that you use to rub onto a wall easily.
Visitor engagement I crucial to art sales, and your captions are a way to get people walking. Knowledge (and information) is power, and when your gallery visitors are more informed, they become more interested. It may also help an artwork stick in their mind after a visit. More thought and some research may cause a tipping point when they return ready to make a purchase. Anyone with experience in art sales can tell you collector’s opinions about what and when to purchase are unpredictable, and you want to do anything possible to close a deal. Therefore, you pay attention to all details, even small ones.
Transfer details pre-date the digital revolution, but they have adapted well. Nearly any lettering, logo, or graphic element designed on a digital platform can be rendered as a rub-on transfer. The uses are wide-ranging in addition to application surfaces. The only requirements are smooth, clean, and used indoors. If your next show includes any wall signage with the artist’s name or them to the show, you can consider medium-size transfer decals. They will match the quality of the exhibit captions and look much better than stick-on vinyl lettering. Luxury products retailers can also benefit from these applications.
The white-cube environment favored by most galleries is intended to focus 100 percent of the attention on the artworks. It also makes everything else obvious, placing unintended emphasis on the caption cards. Even the finest laser printing can’t match the appearance of transfer decals with the label directly on the wall. You’ll observe minimalism principles when you remove the card and place the information directly on the wall. Because displaying art is about perfection, there’s no doubt you’re making an improvement and the costs to make the decals is manageable.
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