For artists and illustrators
Your work, printed on metal, sold for you.
We licence artwork from independent artists, print it on gallery-grade aluminium, and pay you a share of every plate that sells. You keep the copyright and you can sell the same piece anywhere else.
We read every application ourselves and reply within ten working days.
10%
of every sale, at every size
Yours
you keep the copyright, always
Non‑exclusive
sell the same work anywhere else
£0
no fees, no stock to buy, no printing
What you are signing up to
You licence us the right to print your artwork on aluminium plates and sell them. That is the whole of it. You are not selling us the artwork, and you are not agreeing to stop doing anything else with it.
You send the file
One high-resolution file per piece, plus a title. Nothing else is required of you. There is no stock to hold, no order to pack, no customer to answer.
We carry the cost and the risk
Printing, the aluminium, the mounting kit, the photography, the shipping, the returns and the card fees all come out of our side. Your 10% is counted before any of that.
Your name stays on it
Every plate made from your work is credited to you on its product page, with a link out to wherever you want people sent.
The money
10% of the sale price, whatever size it is
The rate does not change with the size, so a large sale is worth more to you than a small one in exactly the proportion you would expect. Move the numbers below to see it.
| Size | Sells for | You get | Sold a month | Your share |
|---|
Start to finish
How it works
Apply
Fill in the form at the bottom of this page with a link to your work. A website, an Instagram grid, a Behance page or a shared folder are all fine. Send the link, not the files - we will ask for those later, and only for the pieces we both want to put on a plate.
Tell us roughly how many pieces you think would suit the format. There is no minimum, and one strong piece is a perfectly good reason to get in touch.
We look at the work
Two of us run PlateLux, and we read every application ourselves. We read every application ourselves and reply within ten working days. We are looking for two things: work we would hang up, and files big enough to print properly at the larger sizes.
If we say no, we will say why in a sentence or two. It is usually resolution, or that we already carry something close to it.
Terms and the file
You get a short licence agreement in plain English. It is non-exclusive, it covers printing and selling your work on our plates only, and either side can end it with 30 days' notice. Sign it and send the files.
We handle the rest: photographing the plate, writing the listing, pricing, and putting it in the right genre. You see the page before it goes live and can ask us to change the title, the description or the crop.
Your plates go live
Each piece is listed in all five sizes with your name on it and a link to wherever you want people to go next. Nothing is printed until somebody buys it, so there is no stock sitting anywhere and no risk of unsold copies.
You can ask us to take a piece down at any time. Anything already ordered gets made and shipped, and you are paid on it as normal.
You get paid
10% of the price the customer paid for the plate, on every size. Payments go out on the 15th of each month for the month before, once the balance passes £25.
Every payment comes with a statement listing each sale, its size and its price, so you can check the arithmetic yourself. If an order is refunded or returned, that sale comes off the next statement.
Before you apply
Will your file print?
This is the one thing that turns away most applications, and it is easy to check yourself. Put your artwork's pixel dimensions in below. We print at 150 pixels per inch as a floor and prefer 300.
| Size | Inches | Needs at least | Your file |
|---|
Shape
The plates are not all the same proportion, so every piece is cropped to fit the size the customer picks. Leave a little air around anything that must not be cut, and never put type near the edge.
Colour
Send sRGB. We convert for the press ourselves. Very dark flat areas and neon greens shift most on a gloss metal surface, so expect a proof on those.
Format
A flattened TIFF or a maximum-quality JPEG. No upscaled exports, and no screenshots of your own work. We can tell, and so can the print.
No small print
The questions people actually ask
If the answer you need is not here, ask us before you apply, not after. info@platelux.store
Who owns the artwork?
You do, from start to finish. The licence gives us permission to print and sell your work on our plates. It does not transfer the copyright, and it does not stop you selling prints, originals or anything else yourself.
Is it exclusive?
No. You can licence the same piece to other people, sell it in your own shop, and keep posting it wherever you like. We only ask that you tell us if a piece stops being available to licence.
What exactly is the 10% taken from?
The price the customer paid for the plate, before shipping and before tax, and after any discount code they used. If a plate listed at £57.49 sells with a 15% code for £48.87, your share is 10% of £48.87.
What about bundles and custom sizes?
A set of plates is treated as its individual plates. If two of the three in a set are yours, you are paid on those two at their own prices. Custom prints ordered by a customer from their own photograph have no artist share, because there is no licensed artwork in them.
When and how do I get paid?
Monthly, by bank transfer, with a statement listing every sale. Balances under the minimum roll forward to the next month rather than being lost. You are responsible for declaring the income where you live, and if you are VAT registered we will need your number.
What happens if something is returned?
A refunded or returned order comes off the next statement. We do not claw back money already paid unless a statement is later found to be wrong, in which case we correct it and tell you exactly what changed.
Can I take my work down?
Yes, at any time, with no reason needed. We stop listing it within a few working days. Orders already placed are made and shipped, and you are paid on them as normal.
Do you accept AI-generated work?
Only if you are open about it and you hold the rights to what you send. We will not list anything that reproduces a living artist's style on request, or that leans on someone else's characters or photographs.
Why was my application turned down?
Almost always resolution, or that we already carry something close to it. We will tell you which. Being turned down once does not stop you applying again with different work.
