I shared in this week’s mail drop that I wanted to talk about developing with the latest cards for the Studio 404 shop. I had a lot of conversations about the shop with other creatives in the past two months. My paper shop is a great side-outlet for me to creative beautiful things that tell stories based on what I would use. I buy cards quite often and it’s just always hard to find something I like. After shopping for baby showers, wedding showers, and etc, I realized I needed to get back to the drawing board to create some items for summer that reflect where my aesthetic is leaning towards.
Planning A Line
When originally starting Studio 404, I had a pretty set schedule of when I wanted to add products to the shop. Towards the end of the first fiscal quarter, I’d decided on a schedule that would add new products twice a month. Unfortunately, at the beginning of the second quarter, we had some crazy career switches and a lot of new project inquiries. Looking at my current project schedule, I knew I’d have to hold off adding new products until mid-to-late June when most of my retainer clients would be on vacation.
In the interim, I started to pull together resources of things that were inspiring. I went to different restaurants, coffee shops, boutiques, and stores to pull inspiration from colors and resources. Online, there wasn’t much to pull from but I did find some color palettes and images that really stood out for me:
Sketching & Design
This is one of my pencil sketches. I generally sketch out 20-30 pieces at any given day when I’m working on new products. I actually spent a lot of time on lettering and illustrations for prints this round which didn’t make it. I’m really picky about what prints I want and nothing I sketched stuck. I did some awesome things for cards which I decided to go forward with.
I usually trace over my sketches with a brush pen. I scan them into Photoshop and do some edits to the scan. Afterwards, I finalize edits in Illustrator with Image Trace and add color, etc. I spend a lot of time on Colourlovers searching for color palette inspiration but I had a pretty good idea from the moodboard above.
Printing & Photography
The above is the black version of the Merci card, produced from the sketch above. I test print all of my cards and prints at home before sending off to the printers. I actually print all prints in-house which is why my office is full of them. After deciding on which colors to stick with, I go into shooting all products for Etsy/promo. When I started the paper shop, we had a Nikon D40 but we’ve upgraded to a D3100 which made this shoot so much easier to work with. I only shoot in natural light which is usually early mornings. The summer light is a lot different than the winter light but the pictures came out pretty OK. I’m no photographer so don’t yell at me about the things I’m doing (obviously) wrong.
This addition is definitely mostly cards. I want to get a few prints added to the shop very soon but I need time to work out something different. Hopefully you’ll enjoy the few cards that have been added to the summer 2014 line and now you have an idea of how my mind works!
Moodboard: Floral Print | Hello Beautiful Wallpaper | Hannah Hill | Â Shop Spotlight | Open House Promo
Loved seeing your process here, Angel! The new cards are looking lovely – such fun colors. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you Laura! <3 You're so wonderful.
I love hearing your process with your cards!! I do a lot of invitation and announcement design for friends and family so it was really cool to hear how someone else does it!
You mentioned that you do a test run on your own printer at home. If you don’t mind me asking, are the final prints done at home too or do you send them out? if home, which printer do you have and if you send them out, where do you go to? I’m always on the lookout for new printing methods for best quality & price!
Thanks again for sharing!
I test run both at home but I do print all of the prints I sell at home. I’ve been trying a few different places for cards! I’ve heard great things about Girlie Press so I think I’ll try them out soon.
Thanks Emma!
Love the look into your process Angel! Congrats on all the new cards — I know it can be a huge journey leading up to stuff like this 🙂 Love the merci card!
Haha I’m sure you’re like me with tons of papers full of sketches all over the place. ;P Thank you!
They are brilliant! It is so lovely to read about your process. Thanks for sharing xx
Katrina Sophia Blog
Thank you Katrina!
Love them! And it was great getting a sneak peek into your design process!
Thank you Allyssa!
I love getting to see some of the behind the scenes of your process and cards! This is really cool. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you Mariah! 🙂
The merci card is my favourite! The colours you picked are perfect. I loved getting a little peak into your process as well. Keep up the great work!!
Thank you Danielle! 🙂 I’m so thankful for your kind words.
I love this post! I always wonder how the process of card-making (any prints, really) works. So, I’m really glad you shared your behind the scenes with us, Angel. And man, I really love this collection, especially the merci one. Fabulous!
Thank you so much Yuni! Your words mean so much to me! <3
These look so good and perfect for summer! I love the merci prints in that light blue! As above comments stated–It’s always awesome to look into a creative persons process–You are seriously amazing! I noticed you mentioned you do your own prints, If you don’t mind my asking, what do you use? Would you recommend any specific type of printer/paper for someone looking to start producing their own quality prints? and do you have any tips/tricks for in-house printing?
xxHaley
My printer is probably the worst to recommend but it gets the job done! I think the paper quality is super important when you’re printing at home. I enjoy thicker stocks so I print on #110 Matte Neenah White. I also am a big fan of French Paper Co which is wonderful for prints as well. I would definitely contact any local paper shops and have a look at some samples to see what feels good for you. I have tons of paper samples all over my house so it’s helped!
Just be prepared to try some new things and be open to the new experiences! Thank you Haley for your comment <3
Thanks Angel, this is really helpful!
Nice post!
I’m the worst at planning a line. I generally have so many ideas running through my mind I end up just working on what I feel most at the time and release products as they’re ready.
I do release new cards for all the holidays but that’s as close as I’ve come so far, LOL!
I am going to be releasing some wrapping paper soon that will be a collection so I guess that will be a line. 🙂
Maybe I should try harder to do a cohesive line but that in general isn’t often the way I create and I hate to force things you know what I mean?
Looking forward to your wrapping paper line! I always had intentions to release cards/prints in different “lines” so it just worked for me but you have to do what works! You’re definitely doing extremely well 🙂