Calendar

2018

Taking what we learned from the last release It took us a further 18 months of searching to track down a wonderful calendar printing firm that could manage the high quality A3 ring bound calendar product we'd been looking for.

Going with a printer rather than a publisher allowed us to do all the work in-house to our satisfaction and have more control over both quality and cost. In 2017 it paid dividends with the 2018 'My Cup Of Tea' calendar. Our first large scale in house production that was designed, proofed, marketed, packed and dispatched from Impossimal HQ with just the printing and binding taking place at a different location.

The calendar contents usually take about four weeks to design, complete and review the slightly naughty jokes with a further few days for proofing and final checks before we press the go button.

CALENDAR

The Impossimal calendar, each complete with 13 Impossimal images came into being during 2007 and was quickly adopted by a worldwide distributor who placed it in thousands of locations worldwide. Over the course of the following four years it became a best seller and it's reach was far and wide until an article on national news asked the question - Do we need calendars?

In the background of the televised report along with assorted calendars was the Impossimal calendar in full view. At the end of that year the calendar publisher decided to re-invent their product range and avoid negative press by releasing artists from their portfolio, I was one of the released ones.

Fortunately that improved the calendar. Previously we shoehorned paintings into the calendar that were initially destined for gallery walls, now we could create artwork specifically tailored for a calendar so the race was on to find a suitable publisher or printer of a quality product.

2016

It took us a few more years but eventually in 2015 we published the above calendar through a newish company to the UK shores. They managed all the in house printing and distribution for us and listed it on Amazon, it was a fine quality calendar, almost exact in size and look to the ones produced previously and we were very happy with it until we got to the price. It had a whoppingly expensive fixed RRP with only a small percentage return and although the calendar was of excellent quality it was a little too price heavy for us and collectors. It was however too late in the year to start again so we gritted our teeth and released it

It reached number 1 in calendar sales on Amazon for two weeks and we sighed with relief, but it still wasn't quite right.

2019 - 2022

Each year we learn a little more, tweak more and improve each and every aspect of the calendar. 2020 and 2022 calendars went to 80% digital creation using modified oil painting images for each month, 2021 spun off at a tangent with a foray into pen, ink and watercolour for the individual months and in 2023 we moved totally over to full blown A3 watercolour and ink work for the month images and front page, offering the original artwork for sale for the very first time.

The 2024 edition is the very first to feature the additional free gift of a bookmark plus art card. Overall quality has been improved with a glossier finish to the front and it comes again with a chance to own boxed presentations of any of the fourteen pieces of original artwork that went into its creation plus a new option; the scrap box, a box containing the raw pencil image designs and all the artwork scraps and brushes used during its design crammed into a homemade box.

WATERCOLOUR UPGRADE

Since the 2021 calendar we have given collectors the option to purchase a Deluxe Version calendar, a calendar that comes with an A5 watercolour commission included in the price. It's always incredibly popular and we get asked throughout the year for something similar, so from this year, 2023, we are offering the watercolour upgrade as a standalone option that will be available all year round from our website so you can dip in as many times as you like, when you like!