Democracy in design

Lately it’s starting to feel like the Age of Affordable Art—something we hope sticks—and two local art enthusiasts offer yet another option. PosterBored.com is like Threadless, except it showcases posters instead of tees. Likening the recently launched poster site to the granddaddy of Internet T-shirt design is an obvious and welcome comparison, though one that cofounders Bill Burman and Annie Crumbaugh hope to eventually evolve from. PosterBored works like this: Anyone can upload an image onto the site, which, once approved, garners numerical ratings from site visitors for seven days. Fifty copies of the highest-scoring works are then digitally printed as 12" x 18" pieces and sold online. “We always wondered why [Threadless] didn’t do posters, and eventually we figured we can do it,” Burman says. Among the 13 winners so far, the images range from an illustrated ode to the cassette tape to a vintage-looking French toast ad. In addition to the glory of having their art produced, artists receive a little moolah for extra incentive ($20 for starters, $50 once 50 posters are sold, and so on). And at $10 a pop, it’s about as affordable as affordable art gets.