Exploring Life & Business with Mark Allen

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Allen.

Hi Mark, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I started a fine art digital printmaking company, Mark Allen Editions, in 1997 to provide a fresh approach to digital printmaking by addressing the creative and technical interests of the local art community. Almost all of my business is with artists that work in the greater twin cities area, and the small amount of out-of-state business is usually from artists from Minnesota. Artists shared with me that they were looking for a more “user-friendly” environment close to their studios for scanning and printing art.

I love digital printmaking technology, and I enjoy working within the art community. Before Mark Allen Editions, I had nearly ten years of commercial digital imaging experience, including scanning, digital retouching, and large format printing in a service bureau environment. Before starting my own business, I knew that I would take my experience using the best imaging technology and cross over from a commercial service to an artist-focused service.

Initially, I offered high-resolution scans of paintings, prints on watercolor paper, and prints on canvas. The aim was to create a “print on demand” experience, which is a process of only producing a few prints at a time instead of printing an entire edition from the start. This print-on-demand approach is now common, but in the late 1990’s it was an extraordinary chance for the print reproduction industry. The latest printing technology helped to make beautiful prints less expensive and more accessible.

Today the passion for combining technology and art continues with additional printable surfaces. New creations beautifully printed on metal and glass, wood and porcelain tiles, sandstone, and slate have recently been added to the standard art substrates. The latest print materials are offered with the same print-on-demand options.

I have the same enthusiasm for digital printmaking that began for me more than 25 years ago. I believe having a local artist service environment and sharing a passion for art has helped grow the business, and I intend to be of service to the artist community for many more years.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Many of the initial business obstacles have been related to technology. The digital print industry was in its infancy, some early problems were tough to overcome, and the technology was often limited and challenging to work with. Other obstacles were that hardware was slow, software was “buggy,” and some options artists craved were simply unavailable. Another issue was that an inkjet-compatible canvas did not exist.

The first large-format inkjet printers that were put into service for printing art used non-archival inks. The prints from this process were beautiful but could fade quickly. However, the first archival inks had a limited color pallet. Some critics laughed at the results from the first generation pigmented inks suggesting the inks were “pre-faded” with dull colors. Saturated original paintings were nearly impossible to reproduce. Softer earth tone paintings were a better match for these inks. By the early 2000s, ink technology had significantly improved, making fine art prints with inkjet printers a real option.

Good quality prints start with a high-quality digital file. Making a high-quality/high-resolution digital file from a painting was especially difficult. Early efforts required photographing art with large format film and then drummed scanning the film to create a printable digital file. The characteristics of film, i.e., grain and color biases, were “baked in” the overall appearance of the digital file and often resulted in undesirable print conditions. Direct digital capture of art resolved much of the earlier problems stemming from film captures. Additionally, skipping the process of photographing art with film potentially saved days in scheduling a print project.

Print materials historically had been limited, and printing on canvas wasn’t available. Just a few paper options were compatible with digital fine art reproductions. Similar to the ink technology making significant improvements in the early 2000s, so did the options for print materials. Many kinds of papers and canvas are available to make digital fine art prints. Print options aren’t limited to paper and canvas anymore. Printing choices on metal, glass, ceramic tile, and wood, are now options for art reproduction.

Making a beautiful print and having a print match an original painting are not always congruent. Managing color for print reproductions has been and continues to be approached with a combination of technology and artistic sensibilities. The quality of the digital scan, the properties of the ink, and the print material all significantly affect how a digital print reproduction will look and are part of the color management efforts. Technology advancements for color management and my experience printing digital fine art have helped to control how a print is resolved.

Beyond technological obstacles, just as important were the challenges within the art industry, and galleries were slow to embrace inkjet prints. There was a rough start-up industry-wide because prints faded quickly, more archival prints seemed to lack a vibrancy that didn’t feel salable or collectible, and the gallery’s resistance to showing inkjet prints was long-lasting. Even when the print quality improved, some artists struggled to place their work in galleries. Significant sales of digital fine art prints from self-representing artists and a few well-placed prints in museums helped to level up the intake of these new digital prints from galleries. Rapid improvements in print technology and deep interest from artists came together simultaneously to create an impressive change in how art is reproduced, sold, and collected.

We’ve been impressed with Mark Allen Editions, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
With over twenty-five years of digital imaging experience, painters and photographers draw upon my abilities to produce print reproductions and fine art originals. My prints of artists’ work have been displayed in the National Gallery, the Smithsonian, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, local Minnesota galleries, and private collections worldwide. Some unique services I offer are large format scanning of art bigger than 5’x7′ and large prints on metal. Almost all of my business is with artists that work in the greater twin cities area. I have a deep appreciation for the local art community and for the relationships that have been created during the last two decades.

What changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
Digital fine art printing has been like a chameleon in that prints can look like many different things. Prints can look like photographs, watercolor paintings, pastel drawings, and sometimes even oil paintings. I’m seeing artists exploring what digital printing can do that other art forms can’t do. In the future, I expect to see more original digital art being printed in an iterative format combining 3d texture maps laser-carved or etched into the surface and then printed with multiple passes of color that reach deep into the etching. I can make this form of numerous printing now, but the equipment needed to do this is getting better and becoming more accessible, and it won’t take 5 or 10 years to start seeing more like it. The digital print industry continues to move quickly, and predicting what will change in a year or two is tough. Whatever the next decade brings, I imagine it will be too interesting not to be involved with it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://markalleneditions.com/