Pop art prints in the UK: how to buy one you won't get bored of

Let me save you some scrolling. Type "pop art prints UK" into Google and you get ten thousand Marilyns, four thousand soup cans and a lot of things that look like they were designed by a printer in a hurry. Nothing wrong with Marilyn. She just doesn't need any more help.

I'm Luis. I paint big, cheeky slogans onto antique book pages, and I sell them every weekend from my stall at Jubilee Market Hall in Covent Garden. The originals are one of a kind. The prints are how the same joke gets onto lots of walls for the price of a decent lunch for two. So here is how I'd buy a pop art print, if I wasn't the one selling it.

What actually makes a print "pop art"?

Pop art started in the 1950s as artists getting cheeky with everyday stuff: adverts, comics, brands, celebrities. It was meant to be loud, a bit rude and fun to live with. If you want the long version, read my history of pop art, from Warhol to now.

The short version for shopping: a good pop art print should do three things.

• Make you react in under a second. You walk past it, you laugh, you roll your eyes, you text a photo to your sister.
• Hold up after a year. Clever beats loud. A joke that's still funny in month twelve is worth paying for.
• Feel like a person made it. Brush marks, paper texture, a bit of mess. That's the bit mass-produced posters never get right.

What a pop art print should cost in the UK

Prices are all over the place, so here's a rough guide from someone who sells them.

My A4 prints are £20. Many designs come in A3 at £79. Originals start at £55 for the small ones, which is less than some framed posters, and go up to £550 for the big neon-framed showstoppers. If you're torn, here's the difference between an art print and an original.

The pop art prints people actually buy

I could tell you every print is my favourite, but you'd know I was lying. These are the ones people stop for, photograph and then carry home.

Please Don't Do Cocaine in the Bathroom is the one everyone quotes. It's a house rule, a party joke and a conversation starter in one, and it comes in a few colourways, so you can match it to the room you're putting it in. This Ain't the Ritz is for anyone whose flat is lovely but definitely not five-star. Please Leave by 9pm is for people who love their friends but also love their bed.

If your humour is more catwalk than kitchen, the fashion prints are where to look.

And for the "I need a push this morning" crowd, the motivational ones are softer but still have a wink in them.

A4 or A3?

A4 is the shelf, desk, hallway and gallery-wall size. On my A4 prints the artwork sits at about A5 with a white border round it, so it looks great in a mount. A3 is the "over the sofa" size, the one that actually holds a wall on its own. I've written a proper guide on what size art print works in a living room, with measurements, because "it depends" is not an answer.

How to tell a good print from a cheap one

Look at the photos closely. Can you see paper texture, real colour, the edges of the letters? Do you know who made it and where? Is there a real person you can message if something goes wrong? Every print in my shop has a photo of the actual piece, and you can WhatsApp me with questions. I answer myself, usually with too many emojis.

Also check delivery before you fall in love. My UK postage is £1.75 a print, free over £80, and you can collect from the stall at the weekend instead. Prints go out flat and protected, because a crease in the middle of a joke ruins the punchline.

Framing your print

Most of my prints come unframed so you can pick a frame that suits your room, and a couple of designs offer a frame option on the product page. If you've never framed anything before, don't panic: my guide on how to frame art prints walks you through mounts, glass and sizes in plain English.

Questions people ask about pop art prints