saatchiart.com
Saatchi Art has a dizzying array of artist prints and original artworks to buy online.
Saatchi Art Review – I couldn’t have been any more impressed with my first experience buying prints from Saatchi Art…
When running a website about buying art online it’s a good idea to occasionally put your money where your mouth is and actually… you know… buy some art online.
So I did. Here’s how it went…
Using the Saatchi Art website
First a quick review of the Saatchi Art website itself – or you can skip this part and jump right to the buying part for photos and a review of the prints we bought from Saatchi Art.
Starting off with an artist profile page…
Artist Profile Page
Artists or collectors can follow each other on the site. You can also build collections & save favourite works.
The site’s really well designed with a clean layout and structure that makes searching for art an enjoyable experience.
A great feature for both artists and collectors is the ability to ‘follow’ each other like you can on Twitter or Facebook.
This could be a bit of a game changer in directly connecting artists with the people who love their work.
When you follow an artist their new work gets posted to your activity feed so can be the first to know when something becomes available.
You can also collect individual ‘favourite’ works and create collections of grouped together favourites.
Another handy feature is the ‘You might like’ collection of similar artworks to the artist you’re viewing.
Browsing and searching for art
Using the search filters
The search filters on Saatchi Art are incredibly useful in sorting through the huge library.
There’s a myriad of search criteria to narrow your results with options ranging from medium, price and size to style and location.
The site’s really well thought out, like they’re always looking for ways to improve the user experience.
My one criticism is it can be a little slow at times so hopefully they can address that behind the scenes to speed things up a bit.
Our experience of buying prints from Saartchi Art
A friend and I grouped together to buy two lunar themed Sangjun Roh prints from SaatchiArt.com.
I’m a big fan of Sangjun’s work and thought the large 46cm x 61cm (18″ x 24″) prints were really good value at $90.
The checkout process was super easy – just fill out your address and payment details before reviewing the order.
Postage for the two prints came to $12.08 plus a further $2.42 for customs & clearance charges.
The customs charge comes with a guarantee that you won’t be hit with any further charges. Reassuring to hear after being hit with a large customs bill when buying similarly priced prints from the US before.
So all in the total for the two prints was $194.50 or £115.80 with current conversion rates – £58 each delivered.
Super-fast delivery
The Saatchi Art prints arrived in a heavy duty cardboard tube so there’s practically no chance of them getting damaged in transit.
My friend made the order on a UK bank holiday Monday so we thought it would take a couple of weeks to receive the prints from across the US.
The next day my friend got a call from Saatchi updating her on the order, asking if she had any questions and letting her know it should be with her by Friday if all went well.
My friend was really impressed with how professional and helpful they were and I was impressed at how quickly I was getting my prints!
Saatchi Art unboxing – the best bit
Each of these prints are 60cm x 45cm (24″ x 18″) with a satin luster finish.
As you can see the prints came in an indestructibly solid cardboard tube and were protected further in individual plastic wallets.
I was a bit concerned at first that the colours didn’t look as vivid as they did on the website but as soon as the protective sheets came off they looked fantastic and every bit as vibrant as they did on the website.
The photo prints were sharp and colourful and the paper had a good weight and finish. Two happy customers!
Saatchi Art also have a 7 day return guarantee where you can return any art you’re not happy with.
The photo prints are incredibly sharp and the colours faithful to the originals shown on the Saatchi Art website.
Saatchi Art Review: Conclusion
If only all online shopping experiences went as smoothly as this.
Saatchi Art just gets it.
They understand that buying art through a website can feel quite a risky business when you can’t see the actual work in person beforehand.
So they’ve made the whole process as painless as possible, reassured us with a personal call and delivered a quality product that exceeded our expectations.
Our first time buying prints from Saatchi Art certainly won’t be the last time.
I’ve no hesitation in recommending SaatchiArt.com – and Sangjun Roh too!
Visit Saatchi ArtUpdate: Before you go check our Saatchi Art voucher page which I’ll update with the latest discounts.
