Over the last six months I've made three promos at the office, and I think I'm addicted now. It started with a suggestion by Chris Milliman. He said he'd been sending out small collections of prints to select buyers for some time, and always got really good feedback.
Frankly, sending out 2034872304563056 emails or postcards is really not that appealing to me anyway, so I thought I'd give his method a try. I have found that it takes a lot longer to create a promo in this way, but it's not only more satisfying, but puts a certain wind under my wings when it's time to do the follow-up calls.
Last time it was the Make Shoes Move promo>. This time, Helpful Ideas for Busy Dads.
Design phase. If I ever wanted to call myself a designer, I have a long way to go.
Production phase. See the difference?
The genius part of this promo is including the Free Sample Media Player Caddy. Everybody loves a free gift.
I do like the glassine envelopes.
I did the window so I could show a photo, but not give the entire photo away. I toyed with the idea of making up a whole fake company that might produce things like this, but decided it would best to stay with one brand, mine.
After you look at the pictures, there's the Media Player Caddy, in all it's glory, followed up the Ol' Call to Action.
The question I come up against is about Handmade vs Machine Made vs Handmade that Looks Machine Made. I'm not sure where I am on that scale, or where I even want to be. Handmade is charming and personal. Machine Made is fast and inexpensive. And Handmade that Looks Machine Made might be the worst of both worlds, since if people think it's mass produced, all the charm disappears.
We'll see. Meanwhile, I end up putting in a lot of work and ended up with something I'm proud of.