05.08.2024
Calvendo has launched a new product specifically for the North American market: The “double DIN planner” wall calendar was developed for customers in the USA and Canada and was very well received during a sales testing period last year. All users of the Calvendo wall calendar platform, including in the UK and other European countries, can now make use of this new format and design calendars for the North American market with Calvendo’s online wall calendar creation tool.
The double DIN planer is a rectangular wire-bound wall calendar that is available in two formats: DIN A4 (DIN A3 when unfolded) and DIN A3 (DIN A2 when unfolded). When hanging on the wall, the image of each calendar page covers the upper half while the below calendar grid provides ample space for notes, making the calendar both decorative and functional.
Prior to launching the new format, tests with selected calendars were carried out in the USA, generating very positive customer feedback. This shows that this calendar format, which is similar to the square calendar format widely used in English-speaking countries, has promising sales potential in North America and provides Calvendo users with additional options to publish and sell their creative work.
Anyone registered on the free-to-use Calvendo platform can design their own double DIN wall calendars and publish them for sale in North America. The calendars will be available on the North American market from autumn and are produced in the USA using an environmentally friendly print-on-demand process. Calvendo is looking forward to seeing the creative ideas from wall calendar makers across the world to unlock additional sales opportunity with our new double DIN planner on the North American market.
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17.08.2023
CALVENDO presents the winners of the first international CALVENDO AI Calendar Award - the world's first design competition for wall calendars with AI-generated images.
The three winning calendars are based not only on outstanding human ideas, but also on the additive expressive power of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Of the submissions in the period May to July 2023, around 120 publications made it to the jury's final selection. This selection represented the diversity, professionalism and innovative spirit of the CALVENDO community.
Winning awards were presented in three different themed categories. The winners of each category not only receive well-deserved recognition for their work, but also get the opportunity to present their work to a wide audience at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair.
♦ Winner of the category: Children's Calendar:
Title: "Drachenzeit ... nicht nur für Kinder" by Kerstin Hesse
♦ Winner of the category: Calendars illustrating classics of world literature.
Title: "Reise unter dem Meer" by Sabine Löwer
♦ Winner of the category: Medieval Fantasy Calendars
Title: "Mittelalterselfies" by Martin Jahr
"The CALVENDO AI Calendar Award shows which artistic results can already be created from the synergy of human creativity and generative AI. This interaction is still in its infancy. Twelve months ago, the technology of image generation was very buggy and inaccessible to the vast majority of users. The level achieved today is already impressive. And the technology is constantly evolving. The winning calendars could motivate more creatives to proactively engage with AI," says CALVENDO Managing Director Hans-Joachim Jauch.
The CALVENDO AI Calendar Award is not only a recognition of achievement, but also an encouragement for artists and creatives to explore the possibilities of AI-based creativity themselves, to develop new skills and, if necessary, to discover unknown horizons or future sources of income.
Here you can find the detailed presentation of the winning calendars.
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30.05.2023
Are you creative and up for a new challenge? Then get creative and take part in our big AI (artificial intelligence) wall calendar competition. Win the international CALVENDO AI Calendar Award and get featured at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair!
Create original wall calendars on our CALVENDO platform using AI tools, such as Midjourney.
You can choose from three themes for your entry:
The three calendars that our jury will select as winners will be exhibited in the annual “Calendar Gallery” at Frankfurt Book Fair 2023. This unique wall calendar exhibition showcases the range of products available to buy to international trade visitors as well as to consumers.
We will also invite the winners to attend Frankfurt Book Fair (trip to Frankfurt and admission to fair will be covered)!
The winning calendars will be promoted on our social media channels, in our newsletter and our online shop.
More information on how to enter the competition!
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14.02.2023
Generating images with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as Dall-E 2 or Stable Diffusion is all the rage. Users are curious and the creative potential in synthetic image generation seems unlimited. Munich-based publishing house Calvendo, a free, innovative platform enabling creative people such as photographers to monetise their work, is therefore now actively encouraging AI and computer artists to use their AI-generated designs for the creation of wall calendars and canvas prints on the platform and submit them for publication . These are curated by a jury to ensure a high standard of quality. Approved submissions are listed internationally for sale on retail sites such as Amazon , and upon order, Calvendo produces the wall calendars and canvas prints in a high-quality digital print-on-demand process. For each copy of their work sold, creators receive a fixed fee. CALVENDO is thus one of the first to provide a platform for AI artists to showcase and sell their work. The calvendo.com site is available in German, English and French.
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25.09.2020
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04.04.2020
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14.12.2018
Exciting news: Calvendo has embarked on a USA test project and started retailing calendars as an Amazon.com marketplace seller. For the past few years, we have repeatedly looked into options to distribute your calendars in the USA alongside our core markets in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the UK and France. However, the very expensive and slow export from Europe has so far very much restricted the distribution of Calvendo products in the USA.
Then, this autumn, a couple of decisive factors came together that now finally allow us to “go USA”: We found a powerful US printing company to produce Calvendo calendars and we were invited by Amazon.com to sell on their platform. While it was actually already too late in the year to get such a large project on the way, we have still made the decision to plunge in, re-arrange our priorities and test this new distribution channel in the 2018/2019 season.
This means that most Calvendo calendar can now be ordered by US customers via the Amazon.com marketplace. Production and shipping are undertaken by a printing company in the North of the USA on behalf of Calvendo. To start with, the stated delivery times are a bit longer than in Europe as we don’t have the relevant experience with logistics in the USA yet and want to avoid disappointments.
What does this mean for Calvendo authors? Obviously, the US market offers new sales opportunities for your calendars. At the same time, we know that it takes two to three seasons before distribution and sales in a new market really work, i.e., until the test becomes routine. It is also worth noting that all erotic calendars cannot be produced by our US partner because of differing moral standards so that they will continue to be exported from Europe. In a nutshell: Please don’t expect any spectacular US sales surges but, together with us, look forward to the test results of our US adventure!
From 20 December 2017 to 7 January 2018 including, our jury will be on a break and new calendars submitted during this period will therefore not be assessed immediately. You can, of course, continue to set up projects and submit them. Because of the Christmas holiday period, it will simply take a bit longer than you’re used to before you will receive feedback from the jury. And: should you wish to make any changes to already published calendars, you’ll have to wait until 16 February 2018.
Why? Because (online) retailers who’ve taken your calendars in their programme don’t have the resources to update their products during the busy sales season that we’re in now, and in order to avoid any de-listings, we keep this “resting period” for alterations. However, new work can always be created throughout the year!
17.02.2017
