New Listings For Kind Words Stationery

[saskia_madding]

Hi guys! I've been waiting for a sunny day to snap some pictures of my new sets. I only managed to get half of the new ones listed today, and I'll list the rest tomorrow afternoon. Come check them out!

 

 

[Newjelan]

They look great - good fun.

[PaperDarts]

Love the new designs! I'll be visiting your Etsy shop soon.

[cleosmama]

Her work is top notch. I have several sets, and she even came up with a design for me.

 

I love the lady with the butterflies in the crinoline cage.

[Gloucesterman]

Sorry, the "farted and barfed" ones really don't set well. In fact, they kind of turn me off to looking further at what you have to offer.

 

Just my opinion so I am sure others will respond differently.

[Jaybeez]

I like the vintage Gent one, as am an "old school" shaver.

 

Didn't see it on the Etsy site though ...

[stevesurf]

Hi guys! I've been waiting for a sunny day to snap some pictures of my new sets. I only managed to get half of the new ones listed today, and I'll list the rest tomorrow afternoon. Come check them out!

 

 

 

 

Very cute and I must get some as the Westie and Weimie are tooting as we speak

 

Also, the mask guy is cool - I'd love to see one of the Doctor Who "mummys"

 

[swanjun]

Sorry, the "farted and barfed" ones really don't set well. In fact, they kind of turn me off to looking further at what you have to offer.

 

Just my opinion so I am sure others will respond differently.

 

As a cat owner, the "I barfed" one is my favorite.

[Barkingpig]

It is strange how different things affect people. As a cat owner I liked & ordered the set of "I BARFED" both for myself and another cat friend. Yet the "I FARTED" has the same reaction for me as it did the above poster brgmarketing. How two bodily functions depicted would have opposite reactions makes NO sense but they do indeed for me. One seems to suggest "bathroom" humor & the other a state that is of such frequency among cat keepers that it loses the same association of avoidance. I am happy as was my friend with the "I BARFED" paper and yet don't want the other. Perhaps that is why ice cream & pens are available in different "flavors!"

[saskia_madding]

I actually feel the same way about the farting dog one. Personally, my mom raised me to be really against what she calls "vulgar humor". Having said that though, I don't know a single dog owner who hasn't experienced that, in the same way as I don't know a single cat owner who doesn't get the barfing cat sheet. I think it's a cat/dog owner thing. Since I have both, I sympathize with both sides.

 

For reference, if anyone wants the dog set WITHOUT the farting pug, I can easily make that happen. But I don't think I'm quite ready to remove it from the site. Perhaps I'll change the listing photo though, if people are seriously offended by it.

 

 

Jaybeez - that shaver one is part of this set of three pages - https://www.etsy.com/listing/234133387/boys-and-their-toys-stationery-set?ref=shop_home_feat_2

If you are interested, but just want the shaver page, let me know. I'm happy to make it work for you. I personally LOVE the Boys and Their Toys set, and I've been using it a lot for my recent pen pal letters.

 

 

Right now I'm working on pin-up sets and some more steampunk lady sets. I'm really having fun with the steampunk theme lately!

[Gloucesterman]

So, now that you have clarified the specific references to the source of the wording - and as a non (never) cat owner and a "long-ago" dog owner, I am clearer about the perception of humor in the wording on the card.

 

As someone who has done marketing for so much a part of my life I wonder if there is a real opportunity to have some really positive (AND humorous) wording? Something like, " Oh, I am SOOO glad you are home. Where's my supper?" or, "I LOVE you sooo mu... was that the can opener I heard calling?"

 

Without being a pet owner I easily see myself buying cards like that for friends who do have pets.

 

I used to work with a former well known comedian who now spends most of his/her time booking other comedy shows. This gave me an chance to see many performances - perhaps several hundred. Of all the ones I watched, NONE were able to get laughter without using vulgar language, "bathroom humor" and derogatory and abusive (to both men and women) sexual comments. Yes, I laughed as some of it myself.

 

But, ultimately, in my opinion, there was little real humor. To me, humor (and funny stuff) comes from our ability to recognize aspects of the human condition - the things that make us human beings. Real humor, again from my perspective, offers us the opportunity to laugh at our own actions, our own foibles, our own inadequacies.

 

I know I turned serious on this thread and, again, it's just my perspective on things.

[saskia_madding]

Here's where the problematic design part comes in. With stationery design, especially for FPs, you want the page to be busy enough to be interesting when unwritten on, but not so busy that it's distracting once the text has been written. I tried creating my own cute font and writing something else in a variety of the speech bubbles, but everything was too long, and the bubble had to get bigger to accommodate it, and then it just looked terrible. It seems that when designing stationery you want artwork, but not a lot of extra text, because our brains get distracted from reading the written text (by your pen pal) and the text that's part of the image.

 

I've had a lot of sets that I can't quite get to look perfect because of the balance of white space to images, text to not text, you name it. They're just sitting half done on my hard drive until I can figure out what to do with them.

 

For a card, where the cat was the only image and you wrote on the blank inside, I think your idea is GREAT. But for stationery, where I've got a limited space to work with and people will be adding a lot of their own text, sadly I don't think that's going to work.

[swanjun]

So, now that you have clarified the specific references to the source of the wording - and as a non (never) cat owner and a "long-ago" dog owner, I am clearer about the perception of humor in the wording on the card.

 

If a person doesn't have pets, I get how those designs could've been UTTERLY baffling! But in this case, the "barfed" one for kitties kind of is an acknowledgment of the human condition, if your condition is "I love this small furry creature and I tend to its every need and sometimes its need involves horking followed by me wielding napkins."

Edited May 29, 2015 by swanjun

[Feathers]

LOVED the farting dog one!! Your new designs are wonderful!!