Boston Coasters History

Boston Coasters was founded by Cambridge artist Brian Beaucher in 2007. The vision was to create a virtual entity where Boston area artists can sell their art on various functional retail products from coasters to messenger bags. This opens up new opportunities to artists to sell their existing artwork in a new way.

How did this all start? Brian started off as an amateur photographer borrowing a digital camera in high school. After attending college he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. He opened his apartment to the public during open studio events and started attending street festivals and open air markets in the greater Boston selling his photographs. While the photo sales went well, he wanted to do more with his work. In 2004, Brian experimented by printing his Boston themed photographs on coasters and bringing them to the festivals. Popularity of the coasters grew so much, that he started printing other products products such mouse pads, greeting cards, and the fashionable messenger bags.

At one of these festivals Brian met a fellow photographer Mike Ritter. They started attending the festivals together as their work complimented each other. Mike started selling coasters as well and became well known for his Fenway Park photographs, Brian is known for his T themed photographs. Now in their fourth year doing art festivals as a pair, they're known as "the coaster guys" at the markets.

Due to the popularity of the coasters it only seemed natural to expand the business model. To expand beyond offering photo coasters from just two photographers, Brian's idea was to offer other artists the ability to sell their work on these functional products. Boston Coasters offers products by many artists covering all media types, not just photography