Thursday, July 25, 2013
We decided we wanted a better way to showcase fine stationery designs and printing methods created in our studio and thought stop motion would be a pretty neat way to do that. We carved out a little corner in the studio and with a little craftswomanship(TM) and help from the guys, we set up Dragonframe software, a DSLR camera, a Mac and lights and started taking photos. This is the test to see if we could do it! It’s got a homemade feel and took some time to work out the kinks, all done in our stop motion studio (which doubles as the packing station and mail center). Stay tuned for more updates!
Digby & Rose Logo Update
In a few days you’ll notice a change to our logo. We’ve given you a sneak preview on our FaceBook and will make the official announcement over the weekend. We think it’s an improvement and hope you find that it expresses our style. You’ll also find the new Digby & Rose logo embedded within the “Stationery Cuts(tm)” mark. One final hint is to stay tuned until the end. Like it and share it and we’ll see you next week.
Coming Up on Stationery Cuts
It’s an elegant beach wedding invitation set made for the modern bride, featuring unique ocean waves and a shell card!
Posted in Wedding Resources | No Comments »
Friday, December 28, 2012
(Left to right: NPR reporter Elizabeth Blair, Heather Noss, NPR producer Liz Baker)
If you heard a recent interview on NPR with a local wedding invitation designer in DC who got her start on Etsy, it was in fact me, “Rose”, aka Heather Noss! Since I have heard from a lot of friends and clients who heard the story and had other questions, I thought I would expand on the story here!
NPR’s Elizabeth Blair came to the Digby & Rose studio in NW DC recently to talk to me about my experience starting the business, from a the perspective of a seller who successfully grew a business through Etsy. The story focused on Etsy’s growth and how it has changed over the years. Although it’s true that the focus of the site and profile of sellers has changed, when I started my own business at the end of 2008, it was a perfect place for a “micro” business to get a start. (At the time calling it a “small” business would have been too generous!)
I read once that every small business entrepreneur has had a moment of insanity, which strangely enough happens to coincide with the very moment they decide to start the business. My moment came when I decided that October 2008 was the perfect economic climate in which to quit my government job as a Foreign Service Officer at the State Department, become a professional artist and inventor, and start my own handcrafted paper business out of my home. The kitchen table became my workspace, and over time every other available space in my apartment became the home of boxes of envelopes, printers, paper cutters, and stacks of paper. Thankfully I had early encouragement, as within 3 weeks of starting the business I had my first sale, a box of 6 handmade thank you cards.
As a generous boss, I gave myself a lot of opportunities to work on all the sections and departments of the business. I was the head of Accounting, Chief Photographer, VP of Customer Service, IT guru, lead consultant for Special Projects, and of course “the one who makes the stuff”. Once I even scored Employee of the Month! For a long time it was on Etsy alone that my sales grew, and at the same time I was able to grow as an artist and a business owner.
At the beginning of 2010 the limit of operational capacity in my apartment was reached, and I was able to move into a first studio space, which is now one of three studio spaces at the current Digby & Rose retail location in NW Washington, DC. The business naturally moved beyond just selling on Etsy, as referrals from previous clients and a local reputation grew. (Also a worldwide reputation, as I’ve now done invitations for clients as far away as Uganda, Switzerland, and Argentina…and we’re really big in Australia!) By now I think we’ve graduated from “micro” to “small” business!
So I now get to work with customers that are at a particularly happy moment in their life, on a very personal item, their wedding invitations. It’s a chance to be creative and indulge a love of letterpress, where every finished order is like a new present. A big thank you goes out to all of my clients who have put their trust in me to make invitations they love. There was a lot of hard work involved with many of the ups and downs you’ll hear from many small businesses, but getting started was really made much more possible by the ability to sell my first items through Etsy. For all it has changed and all of the criticisms mentioned in the NPR piece, for myself I can only say Thanks Etsy for Helping Me Grow a New Life!
Posted in Washington DC Event Resources, Wedding Resources | No Comments »
Monday, October 29, 2012
2013 Wedding Invitations
We’re looking ahead to some fantastic luxury wedding invitation trends for 2013. Very popular is a large size, with embellishments like super-thick paper, edge painting, foil stamping and laser cutting. So it’s all about a big statement for spring and summer 2013 wedding invitations! Also on the rise is a trend towards traditional with a slight twist in choosing modern fonts and layout grids.
Foil stamping
For the most luxurious of wedding invitations, it’s all about foil stamping! Foil stamping takes wedding invitations to a whole new level for a few reasons. For one, what is more beautiful than your names revealed in shining gold or silver printing? A classic feel, but an upscale statement that your wedding is a special event.
White foil stamping on super-black paper
The other advantage of foil stamping is that is gives many more possibilities for color combinations than with letterpress alone, but with the same “pressed-in” textured look that we all love about letterpress. The ultra-modern invitation above was printed with a white foil stamp on top of a fantastic super-smooth and super black paper. Any time we want to see a light-colored print on a dark paper, foil stamping is the way to go!
Edge painting
In 2013 we see many couples opting for the extra color and fantastic look of edge painting, where the sides of the invitation are painted in any color, like the orange edge painting pictured above, or in more shiny metallic looks like silver and gold.
Laser cut wedding invitations
We definitely see the growing trend of this year continuing into 2013, the beautiful laser cut wedding invitation, like the intricate laser cut wrap invitation pictured above. Laser cutting can create very intricate designs, and unique accent pieces that really send a luxury invitation suite over the top.
Thick invitation papers
The final mark of a luxury wedding invitation for 2013 is the thickest of cotton papers, that can only be used with letterpress and foil stamping. We’ve seen many couples now opting for 4-ply museum board, sometimes with an additional colored paper backer, like the invitation pictured above. Compare it to the already-fabulous 110lb (1-ply) paper used in many of our invitations and you can see that museum board means your wedding invitations have substance!
We’re ready to discuss your own 2013 luxury wedding invitation from our Washington DC studio, contact us now for your own custom creation!
Posted in Wedding Resources | No Comments »
