Wild Apple Graphics Makes Printing Fine Art with MGI Meteor Digital Press

MELBOURNE, FL—Nov. 29, 2011—The next time you walk into a Bed Bath & Beyond, take a good look at the framed art prints. Odds are a good portion of those prints came from Wild Apple Graphics, and they were likely produced on a MGI Meteor DP60 Pro digital press.

Wild Apple Graphics, located in Woodstock, VT, is an art publisher and licenser to the trade with annual revenues of more than $4 million. Since 1989, it has been a powerful force in discovering new artists, such as Warren Kimble. Wild Apple produces the prints and sells them to retail framers, who then sell the finished “ready to hang” prints to national and regional retail chains (such as Bed Bath & Beyond and Target), as well as to furniture stores, the hospitality industry and others. Wild Apple pays artists a royalty on sales of posters of their artwork, similar to the relationship between an author and a book publisher.

The other side of Wild Apple’s business is art licensing. The company acts as an agent for artists to place their imagery with a wide variety of manufacturers, from dinnerware to rugs and wallpaper to paper napkins. Manufacturers pay a royalty on their sales, which is split between the artist and Wild Apple.

The company’s business is brisk, with more than 50 new images released each month. Each year, it produces a 300-page catalog that lists all the prints available in its inventory—an exhaustive list.

In terms of production, Wild Apple has an array of inkjet proofers and light-production digital devices, along with a KBA 74Karat offset press, which initially enabled the shop to bring a lot of production in-house and cut turnaround times for prints to two to three days.