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Splatr — A one-stop platform for art commissions.
Splatr is your one-stop platform for art commissions. Whether you're an artist or love to support great art, Splatr is here to make the whole process a breeze. Splatr allows you to manage all aspects of the commission process from your dash in either light or dark mode! If there's ever a problem, Splatr can step in to help sort out the details.
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Adam Ceresko
Congrats on the launch. We learned a lot with building a commission marketplace with French Girls. Happy to chat if you’d like.
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@panphora We're actually in our artist sign-up beta phase at the moment. We're giving artists a chance to get in, claim their spaces, and get settled.
What benefit does this provide the artist? It looks like you have not specified the number of times that a client can request changes? What's stopping a client from just being unhappy w/ a commission despite the artist's complete fulfillment of their duties?
If there's a risk of them losing the deposit. The whole point of the deposit is that the artist ought to be paid for whatever time they invest regardless. Deposits are almost always non-refundable. The fact that there's an option for it to be reversed, seems like something clients will undoubtedly try gaming and the artists will suffer. Because the fact of the matter is that despite the artist doing everything correctly and to the client's exact specification, the client may wind up unhappy with the result. How are disputes like this handled?
During the commission process, does Splatter handle copyright management?
@ayushpokh Great question! Specifically, the deposit is to give the artist a signal that the client is committed to the project, as well. It provides a bit of peace-of-mind. A client can request as many changes that an artist is willing to accommodate. There is no set cut-off point, as projects can change significantly. That said, before a commission can be finished, and therefore paid completely, the artist must post, and the client accept, a preview of the commission. This requires the client to acknowledge that the commission is heading in a direction that they approve of.
Splatr provides clients and artists a way to message each other throughout the transaction to ensure that the process is moving smoothly. These messages cannot be changed or deleted, so neither side can say that they said one thing or another that they did not. These steps help to quell any underlying tensions that may upset the process later on.
Splatr's dispute resolution methodology is not automatic. Each dispute gets reviewed to make sure there is a legitimate claim before a deposit would be refunded. A simple dissatisfaction with the result would not be a legitimate claim, especially given that the client would have to have accepted a preview of what their commission will look like. If, though, the posted final image is vastly different from the accepted preview, that, again pending a detailed review, could be grounds for a refund of the deposit.
At the moment, Splatr does not manage copyright during the commission process in any automated way. Users may at any time send us concerns about any potential copyright violation and we will investigate. Once a commission has been completed, the artist has the option to put a watermark over their finished work before it is added to their public gallery.
Thanks for taking a moment to read about Splatr. We're a platform designed for artists who offer commissions and for others who want to see more art in the world. The commissions process can be a challenge to some, and intimidating to others. The search, not only to find an artist whose style fits the bill, but also to find one who is accepting commission requests can take hours, days, weeks!
Our mission at Splatr is to upend this. Everything comes under one roof. No more chasing emails, payments or receipts. Each time you start a commission, Splatr creates a solid record so you can monitor progress from your Dash. You can upload previews, message your client and make sure that everyone knows what to expect and when to expect it or where to find it.
Splatr also helps add more accountability to the process. By requiring a deposit once a commission is accepted and approval before final payment is processed, Splatr makes sure that both sides are invested in the transaction. If one party becomes unresponsive for an unreasonable amount of time or fails to deliver on their end of the transaction, Splatr will step in and mediate toward a positive solution.
We’re currently in beta, but with your help Splatr will be the first step to simplifying and demystifying the commissions process.
Guys, this seems very nice but I've got some questions.
1a. Countries. On the website it reads "Splatr supports artist accounts from the countries highlighted here." I'm a national of an unsupported country but live in one that's highlighted. So can I get an artist account or not?
1b. What's preventing you for making the service available to everyone?
2. Once the beta sign up process is over, I presume that every artist will have a public profile page, right?
3. Are there or are there gonna be stricter "rules" to protect both sides of each transaction? I read your FAQ and basically, whenever trouble is mentioned you just say "contact us and we'll resolve it" but what kind of process will you actually follow to do that?
4. Will you offer some form of standard legally binding contract for both parties to sign or will that be up to the artists and buyers?
@anna_0x
Thanks for the questions! After responding here, I'm going to make sure they get added to our FAQs.
1a. That depends. If you have a bank account in the country of your residence and an ID with that country, you should be fine. Our restrictions are entirely based on Stripe, which brings me to 1b...
1b. The reason we can only offer artist services to certain countries is because our payments system is powered by Stripe, which set restrictions on which countries we can payout funds to. In some areas, US sanctions also apply. Stripe accepts payments from people in most any country, but will only allow payouts to those mentioned on the list. We're actively investigating other methods of processing that will allow us to serve more countries.
2. Yes, indeed! If you have a username with Splatr (you can set this in the "Settings" area in your Dashboard), your artist page will be waiting for you!
3. When it comes to disputes, each transaction page (which is created when a client requests a commission) has a dispute button. The button appears after the client has placed a deposit. Once we receive the notification of a dispute, we begin reviewing the transaction to see where the problem lies. Each review is done by hand so as to ensure completeness. We then issue a report to both artist and client with our decision and planned course of action. Either side can appeal our decision, but we maintain the right to issue a final decision. Each transaction also has a strict order of events that must be followed. Most important to dispute resolution is the "preview" step, where an artist must upload some version of a preview and a client must accept that preview before a final version can be uploaded. These steps are outlined on each transaction page as well.
4. We do not create any form of legally binding contract. Artists certainly may do so on their own time with the help of an attorney.
Thanks again for the questions! They're really helpful in making sure we can make Splatr great!
@mommafrittsy awesome, I agree that this info should definitely be included in the FAQ :)
I was really puzzled by the country restrictions, but it makes sense since you are using stripe exclusively for payment processing. Well, I have a stripe account and as far as I know, you don't need an ID from the country you reside at. Both of my countries are in the EU so IDs and passports are valid in every country, no problem.
This answered all my questions! I wish you the best of luck, I really like what you're trying to build. I've always been interested in doing commissions but I'm really bad with social media and the like so I never even tried to advertise it. perhaps this will change with Splatr ;)
Nice work @mommafrittsy - I like how you're keeping user engagement in countries where the product is yet to launch (conversions into buyers-first, then artist sign-ups) - smart!
Does Splatr have any features to support art galleries who would want to feature their artists' work?
@angeloe Thank you so much! My co-founder and I wanted to make it an imperative that Splatr be as inclusive as possible, so even though we can't be offer artist services to everyone just yet, we want them to know, we're still here for them.
At this time, we don't have any for galleries to exhibit work for their artists, but it is on our list of possible feature updates. We're always looking for ways to improve!
Wow @mommafrittsy! Splatr is the #2 Product of the Day, today. That's amazing!
@angeloe I'm truly astounded! Here's hoping that we can keep the momentum and make something that everyone can love!