What’s a Giclée??

I’ve often been asked if we make Giclée prints at Art Magik, with the follow-up question being “what’s a Giclée anyway?”

Way back in 1991 a printmaker named Jack Duganne decided he needed to call his inkjet prints something more expensive sounding than “inkjet”. At the time the only inkjet printer capable of fine art reproduction cost $40,000, was extremely difficult to operate and required several tries before producing a good print, so we can understand his need. He picked the term Giclée, derived from the French word gicler meaning “to spray”, and as a technical guy he must have thought it was a nice tie-in to the inkjet process.

So there you have it - Giclée is an invented marketing term describing an inkjet print. Today’s inkjet printers are much more capable and reliable using pigment inks that are more archival, but Jack did a good marketing job because the term is in wide use in the art world. What he didn’t realise though is that in the French language, giclée is a slang term for ejaculation.

So to answer the first question, at Art Magik we make gallery-quality inkjet prints!

[being printed above is Alex Hunt’s beautiful and vibrant “Spring Tulips”]