The calendars are mailed to past clients, friends of the studio, potential clients and sold on our website. Shipments are packed in custom printed envelopes and often include handwritten notes of letterpress love.
Contributing illustrators are also given a batch of calendars to sell or give away at their digression, allowing us reach well beyond our own network.
Our letterpress printed desktop calendar is a annual project that has been happening at our studio for over a decade.
Each year we select ink colors, paper stocks, and a come up with a theme before asking a slew of illustrators to join us in creating custom artwork for each month.
With each iteration of this project we strive to improve on the year before, tweaking die lines, experimenting with new production techniques, and finding ways to make the final product exciting for recipients to rip open (aiming for the same excitement level for people who are receiving a calendar for the 9th time as those who might be getting one for the first time).
The theme for 2014 was “Happy Place,” playing on the concept that your happy place might be an actual place or maybe just something small in your life that brings you joy. From kittens to castles and coffee to burgers, this year is chock-full of delightful illustrations to keep you in a good mood all year (small disclaimer: you might get very hungry some months).
A key element of this project is that it is a desktop calendar, which sits out on desks all year, revealing beautiful illustrations and proving the quality construction of the product as the months pass. The custom stand includes all of our contact info and credits all of the illustrators.
Clients love it. Blogs love it. The Internet in general loves it, which is great exposure for us. We also tweet and Instagram the process, which really helps build buzz before the final product is shipped.
