Simple Prints was established in 2018. By two friends Sam and Tia. They began in the midst of studying towards a Masters in Landscape Architecture. As a young, creative architecture student, Sam was playing in photoshop and amazed that when photographic images were tweaked, and turning them into 2D designs, that it was still clear who the person in the picture was. They hadn’t seen anything like it, Sam and Tia realised they were onto something. But as with any small business starting up, there was a lot to learn.

They started off pricing their Simple Prints at the low price of $8.00 NZD for an illustration of any size – and including as many people as customers requested. But for a student, making $4.00 an hour was awesome. And, when it came to packaging, well… let’s just say that the initial methods weren’t the most robust… but hey, there’s no room for growth if you don’t make mistakes, right?

Sam and Tia learnt (through a very time-consuming, inefficient way of doing business) that people wanted to see previews of their prints before they received them. So, when customers were delivered prints they didn't like, they would re-do, re-print and re-post... again and again.

They also quickly learnt how to deal with and avoid water damages. But these problems were all just signs of growth.

After getting a little better at the packaging side of things they were able to improve their systems even more. They updated the website and Tia went on to pursue other passions.

Sam is continuing to improve Simple Prints and enjoys creating special keepsake artworks for you to love. Pictured is Sam.