Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Bill Rollinson uses technology to make Sharks artwork available to the public.

Mediaflex lets mouse users loose in the world of Sharks

By Sarah Lombardo

Saratoga resident Bill Rollinson has put another notch in the online shopping business belt, announcing a deal between his interactive publishing company, Mediaflex, and the San Jose Sharks. The agreement makes original artwork commissioned by the Sharks for use in their publications--and until now only available for viewing by visitors to the Sharks' offices--available for purchase online by anyone with Internet access and a mouse.

The prints, including creations by Mark Gray of Los Gatos and other Bay Area artists, can be viewed by either visiting the Sharks' Web site at www.sjsharks.com or by entering Mediaflex's MGallery at www.mgallery.com, an online art gallery launched by Mediaflex in October. Through MGallery, customers can view artwork, order a print and even choose a frame for the print. According to Rollinson, president and CEO of Mediaflex, processing of the order is instantaneous, and the print is delivered in less than a week.

Matt Levine, executive vice president of development for the Sharks, said the business gives Sharks fans another way to collect memorabilia that up to this point many have coveted but none have been able to purchase.

"Fans have been asking for this," Levine said of the artwork used on Sharks publications. So, when Rollinson pitched the idea to Levine, he said he was definitely interested.

"We liked their technology, we liked their ability to produce quality prints at a low cost and we had even more art than [Rollinson] ever thought we had." Fifteen different Sharks prints are available, but Levine said that number will increase in the future.

The clincher, Levine said, was the cost. The average unframed print can run between $15 and $20; framed images cost between $50 and $70. "It's so reasonably priced," Levine said. "[With MGallery] all that is being passed through is the out-of-pocket shipping costs."

Images are currently printed right in Mediaflex's Saratoga office on Saratoga Avenue using large Hewlett-Packard printers to create the poster-sized prints, although Rollinson said that might change in the future as the company looks into printing off-site. "The advantage to that would be that [the print] gets to the customer faster, and shipping costs are lower," he said. "The idea is to have the actual product travel less." Rollinson said that they have already shipped orders to as far away as Japan and the North Pole.

In MGallery's first month up and running, about 100,000 images--from fine and contemporary art to sports and photography--were available. Now, Rollinson said, the gallery features close to a million different images. For the customer, Rollinson said, MGallery provides a way to buy high-quality prints, framed or not, at a reasonable price. But for him, the creation of Mediaflex and the gallery was a merging of his interest and his skills--not to mention a way to work close to home.

"Part of it was a personal passion," said the father of three children attending Saratoga Elementary School. "Also, I just saw a lot of images being developed online and a lot of people publishing images, and they had no place to go. So this is a way where if you see something you like online and you want a quality print, you can push a button and it gets delivered to you."

Online commerce isn't new to Rollinson. In 1994, he was responsible for co-founding the Internet Shopping Network, which was eventually sold to the Home Shopping Network. In 1995, he was named one of 20 cybermarketing leaders by Advertising Age magazine. But this, he said, was something he wanted to try to help save consumers--and himself--time.

"[Buying art online] does not replace going," he said. "I would much rather go to the museum and go to the museum store and look around, but the reality of today is that most of us don't have a lot of time, and so it's a convenience factor." In addition, he said, online may be the only place to get certain images.

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