I am interested in purchasing a Cricut machine for my professional and personal design practice. There are multiple models of the machine that have been produced to serve a variety of cutting needs. Each model ranges includes a variety of features that are shared, such as bluetooth technology for wireless cutting, use of the easy Cricut DesignSpace Software, and work with a variety of popular materials such as paper, vinyl, iron-ons, plastics, bonded fabric, poster board, and cardstock. Most include print and cut capabilities, can perform foil transfer for metallic embellishments, embossing, and the ability to print and cut an expanded list of materials.
The Cricut Venture is the commercial model of the Cricut line machines. It can print, cut, score, emboss, write, and foil up to 75ft and is incredibly speedy (25.4 in/sec). Adding a machine like this to the SCCA Production Lab would allow students to create more realistic examples of their mockups – printing stickers that may be adhered to cups for a cafe brand design project, printing a tee shirt design for a merchandise project, or embossing a logo on a print piece for a sophisticated client.
Personally, if I were to purchase a machine I could see myself using it for freelance projects for clients, or to create and sell my own merchandise as a side business. I’ve been interested in learning how to make and print stickers to see on an online shop, but have not spent time researching the technology that I would need to invest in to get started.
The reviews for this tool are raving. I see users creating vinyl wall decals, coloring pages, paper sculpture art, and cut designs to adhear to merchandise they sell. One issue that users mentioned more frequently was having to use vinyl no wider or smaller than 25inches. Apparently most vinyl that is sold commercially is wider or smaller, so many purchase their materials directly from Cricut’s website. One of the positive points that is frequently mentioned is how fast the machine works.
The Cricut Venture retails for about $1200 with the stand, and there are bundle deals where you can purchase a starter kit of vinyl and metallic leaf paper to get students started with their project’s needs.