Two printmakers finishing canvas prints at long benches in the YI2C workshop

BEHIND THE PRINT · SINCE 2006

The workshop isn’t always picture-perfect. The finished work has to be.

For nearly 20 years, we’ve printed, stretched, checked and packed photographs by hand. These are the parts customers normally never see.

Come inside

EST. 2006

Started in a flat.
Built print by print.

YI2C began in December 2006 with a second-hand large-format printer squeezed into my brother Wesley’s flat. We cut timber at our parents’ house, carried it back and forth and learned the process by doing it.

We quickly outgrew the flat, then our first small unit. Today, our West Yorkshire workshop produces thousands of canvas and poster prints every year.

A lot has changed since 2006. The important part hasn’t: every print is still handled, checked and finished by a real person.

THE EARLY WORKSHOP

The photographs begin later. The work began in 2006.

In the early years we were more interested in getting orders made than documenting the room. What survives is practical: timber stacked high, prints coming off the machine and benches arranged around whatever needed doing next.

An older YI2C workshop with a team member preparing a canvas at the bench
An earlier workshop, already doing several jobs at once.
Shelves filled with cut wooden stretcher bars for canvas frames
Rows of colourful photographs coming off an early large-format printer
One of the smaller archive photographs, kept at a deliberately modest size.
Wide view of an earlier working print room with frames and canvas prints on the benches
Freshly printed canvas laid over a wooden stretcher frame before finishing
Hands stapling a photographic canvas neatly around a white frame corner

ROOM TO GROW

More space. Better equipment. The same careful finish.

The workshop grew around the work: longer benches, more capable printers and enough timber on hand to keep thousands of prints moving each year. It is more organised now, although a genuinely busy day can still undo that in minutes.

Bright YI2C workshop prepared with long finishing benches and tools
Large-format Epson printers in the present-day YI2C print room
Large-format printer producing colourful artwork in the workshop
Frame corner samples beside the production benches and timber shelves
Close view of solid pine stretcher bars stacked in the workshop
Cut timber and canvas corner wedges stored on workshop shelving

THEN AND NOW

Same hands. Years of practice.

That’s me, Jamie, finishing a canvas around 2012—and doing the same job today. The workshop has changed, the equipment has improved and a small team has worked alongside me, but every canvas is still stretched, finished and checked by a real person.

Jamie working on a canvas in an older YI2C workshop around 2012
Jamie in an older workshop, around 2012.
Jamie and another printmaker stretching canvases at neighbouring benches today
The same hands, now working alongside a small team.

Hand-making somewhere around 200,000 canvases may also explain the additional grey hairs.

FROM FILE TO FINISHED PRINT

Machines do the printing. People make the finished piece.

A photograph is prepared, printed, matched to the right frame, stretched, checked and packed. Some steps are quick. Others come down to the feel of a corner, the pull of the canvas and knowing when to do it again.

  1. A team member checking a monochrome photographic print beside an Epson printer
    01

    Look at the photograph

    Every image needs a human decision before it becomes a finished print.

  2. Jamie inspecting a freshly printed colour photograph in the print room
    02

    Check the print

    Colour, surface and detail are considered before the print moves on.

  3. A printmaker fitting hanging hardware to the back of a finished frame
    03

    Prepare the frame

    Solid timber, carefully joined and finished for the requested size.

  4. Jamie stretching and stapling a photographic canvas by hand
    04

    Stretch by hand

    The tension and corners are finished at the bench, not left to chance.

  5. Hands preparing a framed print with a drill at the workshop bench
    05

    Finish the details

    Fixings, backs and edges get the same attention as the front.

  6. Gloved hands cutting solid pine timber on the workshop mitre guillotine
    06

    Work to the size

    Standard or custom, the frame is made for the actual order in front of us.

  7. A finished canvas print being protected with bubble wrap for delivery
    07

    Protect and pack

    The finished work is wrapped only after it has passed the final check.

BEHIND THE PHOTOSHOOT

Even the floor wasn’t really a floor.

Some of our earlier product photographs were created right here in the workshop. We printed a timber floor onto canvas, laid it out, arranged the finished prints and photographed everything from above. It wasn’t a polished studio—it was simply us making the most of the space and equipment we had.

Workshop product photography setup with a large-format printer, lighting stand and printed floor backdrops
The real setup: printer, light stand, workshop floor and all.
Hands holding a small baby canvas over the printed timber-floor background
Hands lifting a textured baby canvas from the printed timber-floor background
Hands holding a colourful child canvas over the printed timber-floor background
Finished circular baby canvas photographed over the workshop-made timber background

A REAL WORKING ROOM

Some days, every surface has a job.

Busy periods do not arrive in neat rows. Finished work gathers, frames queue at the benches and the next batch is already printing. The room looks busy because it is busy—and the team keeps each order moving.

Three printmakers working among canvas frames and finished orders in a busy workshop
Stacks of completed canvas prints surrounding a printmaker at the finishing bench
Neat batches of small finished canvases stacked across a workshop table
Small canvas orders grouped on a bench ready for the next production step
Printmaker finishing orders at a bench covered with canvas prints

NOT EVERY ORDER FITS THE BENCH

Tall, wide, unusual—and made one at a time.

Custom dimensions and oversized work change the way we use the room. Sometimes a print needs two people to turn it. Sometimes it stands taller than they do. The format changes; the standard of finish does not.

Production support for artists and businesses
Two team members holding an exceptionally wide framed mountain panorama
Some prints need two people just to turn them around safely.
Printmaker standing beside a very large landscape canvas on a workshop table
Woman checking a wide mountain panorama canvas in the workshop
Team member surrounded by several large panoramic landscape canvases
Two people carrying an extra-tall monochrome portrait canvas through the workshop
Team member presenting a tall monochrome tree canvas print
Two team members positioning a tall shaped vintage aircraft print
Printed life-size sports display panels arranged in the workshop
Two tall illustrated display panels standing in the print room
Oversized fashion display panels arranged through the workshop
Printmaker finishing a large green branded display panel
Three illustrated football display panels being checked in the workshop
Three members of the YI2C team together in the working print room

NEARLY 20 YEARS OF WORKING THINGS OUT

Some days run smoothly.
Others need solving.

Printers break. Deliveries get delayed. Christmas can turn the workshop into chaos and occasionally everything seems to go wrong at once. We don’t make a drama out of it—we work around the problem, help one another and keep the prints moving. After nearly 20 years, there isn’t much we haven’t learned how to handle.

THE FINISHED WORK

Nearly 20 years in. Still looking closely.

We make thousands of canvas and poster prints each year, but the final check is never “good enough for a batch”. It is one photograph, made for one customer, and it has to leave the workshop looking right.

Close detail of a brightly coloured finished canvas edge held in the workshop
Printmaker checking a set of bold framed graphic prints at the finishing bench

YOUR PHOTOGRAPH, NEXT

Bring us the picture.
We’ll take it from there.

Create your canvas