The U.S. Postal Service may be having a very rough time (R.I.P. Saturday delivery), but they are killing it when it comes to new stamp releases. Perhaps their motive is to release really awesome stamps so people get excited about buying them and sending more mail. Here's some new favorites of mine...
Felt and Wire has a great blog post about the story behind this stamp commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.
LOVE the new "Sealed with Love" stamp - a collaboration between the amazing graphic designer Louise Fili and illustrator Jessica Hische.
I need to get my hands on a set of these "Kaleidoscope Flowers" stamps. I love the different color combinations going on here.
This new 66¢ stamp for wedding invitations should be released in March. Kind of reminds me of my own work!
I'm most excited about this stamp honoring the Man in Black that will be coming out at some point this year!
"Bigger Than Love," a song off the new album from Ben Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie, The Postal Service), has been stuck in my head! With the words to the song on repeat in my head, I decided to practice my hand-lettering skills with the lyrics.
When I launched my company and joined the stationery industry, one of the most pleasant surprises was how friendly, kind, and welcoming other members of the paper world have been to me. I guess I originally expected that people would be competitive and not willing to share their experiences navigating this industry, but I have found the exact opposite to be true.
Preparing to exhibit at NSS for the first time is an especially daunting adventure. One of my key pieces of advice in the months leading up to the show is to get to know others in the stationery world - vendors, retailers, and, of course, other designers.
- Be active on Twitter and use the site as a platform for networking with with others. Don't be afraid to respond to others' tweets, compliment designers on their work, and ask questions. #nss and #stationeryshow tend to be the most frequently used hashtags for organizing tweets around NSS. Twitter has been the first place I've met many paper friends!
- I participate in Tradeshow Bootcamp (read more about my experiences here) which has become an amazing support network comprised of other designers to share experiences, ask questions, and get feedback on problems you may be having.
- Don't hesitate to email designers directly about their experiences. Be sure to visit a designer's contact page to see if they have specific instructions for the best way to make contact. Keep your emails fairly succinct and don't worry if a designer doesn't respond right away. In my experience, I've found that many designers are more than willing to share their tips.
- Read blogs and comment on them! Just like I attempt to do here, there are many other designers who have blogged about their NSS experiences. One of the best ways to locate designers' posts about NSS is to check their blog archives. Usually between the months of March and June you'll find NSS-related posts.
- Find others in your own town that are planning to be at NSS! There's nothing like getting together face-to-face with other paper people who live in your city and bouncing ideas off one another.
The best part of all of this networking is when you get to meet each other in person at the show! It's one of the rare times when all of your paper friends are in one place at the same time.
I recently had the pleasure to work on a custom stationery project for a sweet new baby girl and her mother.
Last summer, I worked with the mom-to-be on folded thank you note cards she could use for baby gifts. She was planning on naming her daughter Violet, so I created a pattern of small hand-drawn violets for the cards.
Following Violet's birth, I was thrilled to be asked to create flat note cards featuring Violet's name. I used the same violet flower pattern motif to line the bottom of the card and used a feminine and fun script for her name.
I love collaborating on projects like this one and was honored to get to work with the new mother twice. You can see more custom Happy Cactus Designs projects here.
I'm excited to share that the Happy Cactus blog is featured in the Winter issue of Stationery Trends! Stationery Trends is the leading trade magazine for all things stationery.
The article was written by Bunny Byrne from A Fresh Bunch, a licensing group I belong to made up of independent designers like myself. Bunny writes, "[Brannon's] blog makes information accessible, while her posts are friendly and personal. The clean design helps the images stand out and keeps everything from feeling cluttered." Thanks for the kind write-up, Bunny!
This article is further encouragement for me to keep sharing business and product information, behind-the-scenes looks, and general inspiration here on the blog. Thanks for reading!
My dear friend Sara will be marrying her love Phil very soon and I was so happy to work with her on custom stationery. She needed personalized thank you notes that she and her fiancé could send both pre- and post-wedding. I showed her a number of motifs and she chose a hand-drawn diamond pattern.
Since the cards would be coming from both of them, we didn't want colors to be too feminine and settled on a navy blue and orange combo.
For the pre-wedding cards, we stuck with just their first names in one of my new favorite fonts.
For post-wedding cards, I did a monogram using their new shared last initial.
I love how these turned out and can't wait for these two love birds to wed!
Many of you have likely already fallen down the Pinterest rabbit hole. I've confessed to my love for Pinterest on the blog before and find myself visiting the site at least once a day. Well, did you know that you can have secret Pinterest boards that are seen only by you and anyone you privately invite to pin with you on that board? When you pin an item to a secret board, it's only seen by you; it doesn't show up on Pinterest to any of your followers. Pinterest released this new feature a few months ago and I love it. I'm all for public boards, but there are times when you don't want your followers to see everything you pin.
I used secret pinboards to pin potential Christmas gifts for friends and family so they couldn't see what I was planning. It was an easy way for me to keep track of what I wanted to give people without saving bookmarks or worrying the recipients would find out. I've also been using secret pinboards to keep track of National Stationery Show related topics like inspiration for my booth and product ideas. I've even heard of retailers using secret pinboards to keep track of potential new products for their shelves.
To create a secret pinboard, go to your main Pinterest board profile page. Scroll all the way down to the very bottom of the page. You'll see a "Secret Board" section. Click on "Create a Secret Board" and there you go! As of now, you can only have three secret boards at a time, so choose your boards wisely and happy (secret) pinning!
One of the biggest challenges as both a creative professional and a small business owner is figuring out how to balance my time and get things done. I've slowly created a system that works for me and central to it is the idea of "planning for your day." I used to sit down each morning and quickly pull together a to-do list of what I thought I needed to accomplish. This would inevitably lead to me remembering things I left off the list throughout the day and to trying to prioritize what I needed to conquer first.
All of a sudden it's 2013, which means the National Stationery Show is mere months away. I'm beyond excited to be heading back to New York in May for my second NSS. While I've heard your first year is often your toughest (for all of the obvious reasons), I'm anticipating year two will take just as much grit, creativity, energy, etc. etc. if not more. I'll be sharing some of the lessons I learned from my first NSS experience here on the blog as well as general tips and info. When I was prepping to do the show for the first time I learned so much from other designers wiling to share their experiences and hope to help new exhibitors in the same way here.
So my first really big tip is to get organized and make a to-do list.
Buy a very large binder (mine from 2012 is above) and make sure to keep any and all Stationery Show-related documents here. In my binder, I include everything from contracts and official show documents to brainstorms I have and inspirational pictures and ideas. Start printing out important emails and put them in the binder. Trust me, this will save you time come April and May when you realize you need to bring hard copies of your important emails like correspondence with the show managers and travel confirmations with you to New York.
I use a large color-coded spreadsheet to track my to-do list. I prefer to create spreadsheets on Google Docs so I can access them from anywhere. For my to-do list, I make it pretty simple and uncomplicated. There are only five columns: 1) task, 2) due date, 3) actual date completed, 4) notes, and 5) any related URL to the task.
But with so many things to think about, where to begin?!
I start by adding in all concrete deadlines to my to-do list. This includes things like payment deadlines to various vendors, ordering deadlines for items like lighting and walls, and editorial deadlines set by print and online editors/bloggers.
Then, I break it down by major categories: Product, Marketing, Booth Design, Branding, Travel Plans. I work backwards and think of all of the sub-categories for these bigger ones. For example, with Branding, sub-categories may include items like business cards, website development and maintenance, and product photography.
I then go through and set tentative due dates for specific tasks. For example, I may set a due date of May 1 to have my new business cards ready in hand. Then working backwards, I'll set dates like April 1 to have brainstorming done, April 8 to have design prototype completed, and April 10 to have price quotes from different vendors done. I need to include room for printing and other factors, too. I break each task down like this. Yes, it leads to a super long and detailed to-do list, but my goals are to make sure I'm not forgetting steps and to reduce surprises.
With the spreadsheet, I make sure to enter the date the task was completed. This obviously ensures I know the task was completed, but it also makes me feel good when I get a task done ahead of the actual due date!
I tend to visit my to-do list multiple times a day (okay, sometimes even hourly) as I plan and prepare. I'm just getting started on the 2013 to-do list and it's already filling up! Feel free to share your organizational tips below!
I'm excited to share a sneak preview of our new releases for Spring 2013. There are cards for Easter, graduation, Mother's Day, and Father's Day, as well as new love, birthday, and thank you cards. I'm so excited for the launch of this collection and worked really hard to come up with unique, whimsical, bold designs that jump off the paper.
The new releases will be online soon. Retailers can view a digital lookbook of the new collection here.