Review: Displate Metal Posters are Really Cool If You Can Find Something You Like
Displate offers individuals beautiful metal posters to decorate their homes, offices, and more. They have posters with art from a wide variety of franchises and media as well as more general art such as nature and animals. Some of the big franchises include Star Wars, Power Rangers, Dungeons & Dragons, Borderlands, One Piece, and Cyberpunk 2077.
The team at Displate were kind enough to send me four posters so that I could share my experience with all of you, but all the thoughts below are my own.
My thoughts with displate can be divided into two parts: using the website to find posters I want and the actual poster quality and installation.
Using their website seems decent at first, but it quickly becomes apparent that it needs a lot of work and I think at least part of it has to do with licensing.
My wife and I were trying to search and find cool posters for some of our favorite games like Metroid and The Legend of Zelda but when you search for either of those nothing comes up. However, as we looked at other posters, we would see posters for both of those franchises.
Are you seeing what the problem is? There are tons of cool posters that you basically have to luck into finding which is a massive shame. I hope that Displate can find some way to improve this.
Another problem with finding a poster to order is that it is overrun with AI-generated art. I know this is a divisive topic, but I believe in supporting artists and not AI.
Outside of Displate just dropping all AI-generated art (I don’t see them doing that any time soon but would love to be proven otherwise), I do wish that they would adopt two changes for the site.
First, label all AI-generated art as such with a label easily viewable while browsing without having to click on them. Second, include a feature that would allow people to remove AI-generated art from search results.
These two hang ups honestly had me thinking that maybe I wouldn’t take Displate up on this offer. However, my wife and I eventually found four posters that we did like and were excited to see how they would turn out.
We did order one in each of the three finishes they offer (matte, gloss, Textra on select posters) so that we could provide thoughts on each one.
For reference, The Dread and the Dead poster is in gloss, the Red Ranger poster is in Textra, and the other two (Ice Bear from We Bare Bears and Sonic) are with a matte finish. All pictures were taken in the same location within 5 minutes of each other with the same lighting.
I’m happy to report that the metal posters appear to be of very good quality. They are light, but feel sturdy and the art looks really good. Installation is surprisingly simple, too. In fact, one thing I really appreciate is that you don’t have to worry about being super precise with how you mount it for fear of it not being exactly where you want it. You get the magnet(s) on the wall in roughly the right spot and then you put the poster on and you can adjust the poster as needed without having to move a nail or anything.
Now it is time to talk about the three finishes. Matte and gloss are exactly what you’d expect. The matte finish does seem to have slightly more muted colors because of the finish, but I honestly don’t think I would have noticed if I hadn’t gotten a gloss poster as well. The gloss finish lets the colors be more vibrant which is nice, but the trade off is the glare that you get. Do you want glare and vibrant colors or no glare and slightly muted colors?
Textra is a newer finish that Displate offers and it’s only available on select posters. Sadly, it appears that the Textra finish is only available in medium (17.7” x 12.6”) so you can’t get nice big posters with this finish. That said, the 3D effect is really nice. The Power Rangers poster that I got with the Textra finish also has a nice blend of a matte and gloss. The border is a matte gray finish but then the rest of it is glossy which helps show off the grooves. It really does pop the most in my opinion. The biggest downside is that it is the most expensive of the three finishes (rightly so for the extra etching). I do wish that it was available in at least a large (26.6” x 18.9”) though.
A close-up of a Textra finished poster featuring the Red Mighty Morphin Power Ranger.
I think that Displate does offer a good product overall. My wife and I agree that the posters warrant a 10/10, but the poor experience of the site really drags it down as a whole. If you don’t want something that has been officially licensed, it can be really hard to find what you’re looking for though. I think they could definitely improve how things work to make it easier to find cool fan art and to sift out AI-generated art. Once you find posters you like though and get them, installation is easy and they do look very nice if you have the money.
