Sometimes taking care of business in the business-to-business business means people can get wrapped up in other peoples’ business. More specifically, we tend to focus heavily on what competitors’ or partners’ communications look like—browsing through trade magazines or other places that our own ads and messages may appear. Not that this is a bad thing. In fact, it’s a good thing. But, looking outside of your business is where ingenuity happens.
So, I suggest you remove the horse blinders on your business-to-business projects and look in all directions for inspiration and ideas. Here is one that caught my attention lately.
Children’s Books
Some of us parents have an excuse to read them again and again and again, for others this could be your chance. Often these books are printed with really extravagant techniques using special papers, inks, even sound and animation. Sure, your client is a widget company that might question your sanity when you use the animated teddy bear in their annual report. They might not mind, however, if you took the same technique and used it to show how their widget works, moves and behaves in a visually engaging way.
So, where do you find inspiration? Any good children’s books you’ve read lately (I’m always looking)? How many times can you use “business” in one sentence? Please share in the comments.
I consider myself fortunate that my job allows me to feed my obsession with paper. Recently, my attention has turned to tree-free paper options—as they are becoming more affordable and honestly, more interesting. It seems the days of high-priced, tree-free papers are fading fast, as more companies are creating unique alternatives to wood fiber paper.
Some common and more popular sources of tree-free paper are kenaf, bamboo, jute and bagasse (sugar cane). These options are so common in fact, that there are crops grown specifically for the purpose of making paper (a great resource I’ve found for tree-free paper options is www.conservatree.com). While these are great options for making tree-free paper, my excitement really lies in some of the more unique sources for paper making.
In my opinion, elephant dung is one of the more fantastic options for making paper. I’m not sure why I find this so intriguing; it just is. The elephant’s diet is very fibrous, which makes it great for paper! A few more wonderful treeless options include abandoned birds’ nests, and my all time favorite, rocks.
My only struggle with these tree-free paper options is trying to find an appropriate way to tell a client we’d like to print their project on poop!
Photo courtesy of MrElliePoo.com
Are you printing with any unique tree-free papers? Please share some of your favorite wood fiber paper alternatives with me.
