Editing The Pen Addict 516/transcript (section)

== Stationery Design Advice ==


'''Myke:''' This comes from Phil. Could you share some lessons learned for people looking to get into stationary design or creation early pitfalls, things to watch out for, et cetera. I've learned a ton from Thoroughly Considered and The Pen Addict, but I'd love to hear some shop talk.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. Yeah. So generics are hard, like to just like give kind of like the, an over one singular overarching thing. But my, one of the things I talk about and it's hard to describe is like, anytime I make a design, I want it to have rules. Right. And what I mean is I want to be able to explain this design to you definitively, not in like a nebulous way. Like, why did you decide to have a clip or to not have a clip? Why does this product, you know, not have a strap on it? You know, why didn't you do this? Why didn't you do that? And I want to have a conviction in my design to be able to answer those questions. Right. And that's not an easy thing to do. Right. But you want to have rules around your design so you can actually get to the end. Right. If you don't have... I agree with you.

'''Myke:''' Doesn't mean you'll get it all right. Right. Because I've been in that situation too. Right. Where like, I have reasons, but people say things and like slight tweaks still give me what I want and give people more of what they want, which is definitely a thing that I've been in before too.

'''Brad:''' I just feel like you'll never complete a project.

'''Myke:''' No.

'''Brad:''' Unless you have rules. And it's hard to think of it that way. It's like, I'm going to make this cool thing. Right. And all of a sudden, now you're trying to make everything for everybody. But at some point, you have to stop. So you have to give yourself these rules when you're making things, in my opinion. I agree with you. I think people will disagree with some of that.

'''Myke:''' I don't. But I believe products... I know you do too. I believe products are best when they have a point of view and they have a particular set of features, benefits, things that make it what it is. It is an opinionated product. Like, they are what I think are the best kinds of products. Now, naturally, what that means is you will never be able to create a mass market product that way. Correct. But I believe that products that are opinionated and they are designed to conviction and they are designed well will find an audience that will champion them. Yep. So like, you could make a more generic product and sell 50,000 of them immediately. Or you could make an opinionated product and sell 10,000 of them a year for the next 20 years. Right. Because their people will keep coming back to that product.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. So a little anecdote back when we started Nock way, way back in the day and telling people or family members who are not into this stuff at all, like telling like essentially an outsider is like, oh, well, this could eventually be in like Walmart and like in the back to school dissection. I'm actually... No, it's designed specifically to not be there. Right. Like, so it's having these like discussions with yourself and when you're making these decisions. And like you said, using the word opinionated like that, like design is opinionated and, you know, figuring out where you want to stand on that design, answering the question spectrum is it'll help you define what type of product you're going to build and hopefully allow you to get to the best conclusion for what you're trying to do.

'''Myke:''' The last, a more practical piece of advice that I'll give, if you're working with manufacturers, like you're working with companies that are helping you bring the product to life, from my own experience now of having worked with manufacturers all over the world, try and manufacture the product locally to you. Mm-hmm. Yep. Like, tomorrow I'm going, as we record this, which will be last week when you hear it, I'm going to a factory in London to look at the first kind of off the press of a new product that we'll work on for Cortex brand. Yep. Now, when I've worked with companies outside of the UK for this, what has to happen is the product gets completed in full and then they send a version to me. And it just doesn't work like that for me. Right. But I can be there when they're first completing it. And so I can say, yes, this is good or no, this is not good. And being able to get an email this morning and they're like, hey, do you want to come down tomorrow? And I can say yes and do that. So far, this has been a vastly better experience than when I've been making products in other countries. Yep. Not that the quality of those products is anything other than stellar. Like, I'm very, very happy with the quality that we've got from the thesis and journal, which is made in Poland right now. But I'm not able to go there and look at something and communicate immediately. There's a big delay between things. And I've really enjoyed the process for our next product that we've been able to make it in London, which is unbelievable by the way that we are actually making is made in London. That's cool. I'm very excited to tell the story of that, how this all kind of came to be and how it works a little bit later on. But it's been a very, very good experience for me so far. Yeah.

'''Brad:''' Because let me tell you, the people you're working with, like in our world, that are, you know, say our printers or something, they have no clue what you're trying to do because they're busy making, you know, office pamphlets and things like that. So being able to have these conversations is helpful.

'''Myke:''' With an asterisk, like this company that I'm working with, I don't know how, but they get it. Good. They typically work on a lot of luxury products. So they don't find it weird when I have like very particular, when they're like, you know, I want to do this thing. It will make the unit price increase, but I just think it will look nice.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. Right.

'''Myke:''' And they're like, okay, like I see that. And they appreciate it. They've been a very good partner so far. Yep. Fingers crossed. Yes. Andrew asks, if Brad was a well-known, if Brad has a well-known fascination with tennis shoes and sneakers, what is Myke's footwear of choice?

'''Brad:''' You want me to answer that? No. I can answer this.

'''Myke:''' No. No, no. I was just wondering if you were going to mention anything about your well-known fascination of tennis shoes and sneakers. I mean, I know you're a big, you're a sneakerhead.

'''Brad:''' Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've kind of wound that down. Like, I'm really happy. I haven't bought like a new pair of like sneakerhead sneakers in, I don't know, a year or two. Maybe. It was kind of like my, it was like my pandemic hobby was sneakerheading. I'm kind of over that now because I don't wear them all. And I have a problem if I buy things to not use. But Myke has exquisite taste in sneakers that he shares a lot of similarities with me. But what is your favorite these days?