Spoonflower Launched an artist application process

We all remember Society6 introducing paid subscription tiers only to cancel them after a year to move to a fully curated platform where they veto every designs. We also remember Redbubble adding fees on certain account tiers. The wind of change on PoD (Print on Demand) platforms has been blowing steady since 2023 and I did say it back then : AI is going to force some unpleasant changes for artists in that industry, and I don't think it's ever going to stop.

Spoonflower seemed to have gone against the wind for a while, back in 2024 they did away with the mandatory swatch purchase to proof and enable a design for sales, opening the door to more artists. They have since then rectified their stance a bit: as of May end 2026 Spoonflower launched an artist application process.

Being on the platform for 2 years, I didn't hear about it until today when I read about it from another artist on Instagram. This process will only be for NEW applicants, artists already on the platform don't have to do anything. According to the Spoonflower website, people wanting to open an artist shop need to upload 5 distinct designs, not different color variations of the same designs but 5 different ones showing the artist's range. Spoonflower will then evaluate the artist based on those 5 designs to decide if the artist can be onboarded or not. Only after having been approved can the artist shop go public. Artists that got rejected cannot reapply later.

I said it multiple times over the past few years, the PoD industry is changing, and it's now changing even faster to adapt to the new technology. Heck I even wrote blog post about it not so long ago. Gen AI has changed the rules of the game and has given the impression to a lot of people that becoming an artist/designer is easy. Print on Demand platforms were already saturated with stock photos and stolen designs from people who heard you can make money selling t-shirts and stickers with no initial investments on platforms like Redbubble. AI images just made this even easier for people chasing the dream of quick money without too much effort. The reality is that this onslaught of AI slop is costing PoD companies dearly and they all want it gone yet the process to detect it or veto it on a platform that is still free for all to use is hard. This is why Redbubble introduced fees, this is why Society6 first introduced shipping fees, then subscription tiers and finally pulled the plug on the open artist community concept and went curated. What those bogus AI sloppers (I refuse to call them artists) do not realise is that the rubbish they upload is low resolution and translates in terrible print quality that doesn't show on a product mockup but will show on the final product. Poor quality print will get the customer to request a refund from the PoD company and the company will not recover the printing cost, they only recover the artist margin, at least in the case of Society6 and Spoonflower.

quality matters!!!!!!!

The new artists application process on Spoonflower is a way to ensure new artists they onboard can produce something that is sellable. So if you plan on applying to sell with them make sure your designs are :

• unique and showcase your style well

• have a steady commercial viability

• can be searched easily on the platform with strong titles, tags and keywords

Consider this process as a sort of audition, you might make killer filler patterns and cute little ginghams and stripes, but these aren't going to show your strength as a designer. I suspect Spoonflower will be looking for bold hero patterns because that is where they can check the designer's skills. Once you are approved you can upload matching fillers to build collections, but avoid uploading these right off the bat during your "job interview" of sorts. I suspect they will also check the patterns you upload for signs of AI elements and possible copyright infrigement issues, so make sure what you upload is 100% yours, even if you tend to create patterns using 3rd party elements for which you obtained a license, don't upload these for your application process.

Like with all big changes on these PoD platforms, it's safe to assume they might introduce more in the future. Will they at one point go completely curated like Society6? Maybe, maybe not...only time will tell and I think it's a reminder to all of us artist and designers to not put all our eggs in the same basket.