This week my main goal was seemingly simple: take the time to redesign my Signature Collection wedding stationery sample packs for Dora&Deb.
Wedding Sample Pack Design
I wanted to create a chic unboxing experience for my clients: something refined and special, that showcased the quality of materials I use and, of course, showcased the designs. It also had to be relatively low cost to produce and postable through a letterbox as a large letter.
The main design considerations
- Recyclable packaging – preferably made from one of the card stocks that I use for my invitations; It should fit anywhere between 6-10 design samples, at up to A5 size;
- A prominent section for a personal message, information on the Dora&Deb business and a price list;
- A safe place to store samples of the paper stocks that I offer, each one printed with a colour map;
- That it could be branded with my logo, website address and etsy store;
- That it be letter box friendly.
My first inclination was a beautifully designed rigid box with separate compartments. This however, got erased from the drawing board pretty quickly. Although they would probably look absolutely beautiful, particularly if the inner was lined with some of my patterned papers I use as envelope liners, they would be extremely expensive to produce (as well as seriously time consuming). They would also weight too much for postage purposes. It just didn’t make sense for a sample pack!
The obvious answer of course was a folder.
What I implemented
There was nothing available as “stock” from suppliers that would be suitable, even to modify, so I decided to fully design my own. I could then have three “compartments”: one for the main samples, one for the blurb, and a final one for the paper samples.
The final design is made from my “Italian” paper stock, just over A5 in size, and features a simple ribbon closure. The front opens up to display a tiered selection of marketing materials, and a flap opens up to show my paper samples with colour map. The main compartment of the folder is gusseted, with enough space for around 6-10 A5 design samples.
Rather than then getting a die made up and die cutting (which would mean having to order 1000’s of items, and then having to store them somewhere – not a great idea, and one I don’t have the cash for), I am staying at the “prototype” stage and hand-cutting and creasing every folder.
Pretty labour intensive – but as with anything, practice improves speed!
It turns out it wasn’t such a simple job after all—it was certainly time consuming—but I’m so pleased with the end result. Going forwards, my hope is that I can print, cut and crease these to order as client’s request samples – that way I can add a personalised message on the folder itself, and best of all no wastage.
New Lockdown Tiers
The other main theme of the week was, of course, the new lockdown tiers and the Boris Johnson speeches. We gathered (socially distanced, of course) and waited with baited breath for news of the tiers…
The main takeaway for me: “Birmingham will be in Tier 3”. Kind of unsurprising. Odds were on for that. It’s depressing. Then again, the news is always rather depressing.
Never mind, grab a glass of wine. (I have noticed an alarming correlation between Boris’s speeches and my alcohol consumption. I’m a bit of a fizzy wine fan, and the stuff is getting guzzled on very evening after Boris holds forth.)
Brexit
Then the final theme: Brexit. In particular, what businesses need to do to prepare for Brexit.
If you have tried the government questionnaire to find out how your business may be impacted by Brexit then you’ll know what I am saying when I say that, that shit is overwhelming: a huge long scrolling page of item after item to attempt to implement. One thing that will probably hit a lot of us website owners is the data protection and data flows item. I am going to take a good look through this next week and see what, if anything, my web clients should be implementing.
When I know more I will post here and directly broadcast to my website clients.
Toodles for now.
Best,
Deborah
