Hand-Made Promotional Mailer Featuring Business Cards
Photo: cover of the two hybrid booklets.
In a communications landscape that feels predominantly digital and often lacks the warmth and charm of the craftsman’s hand, there was a sudden and inspired opportunity this past week for me to pick up some unusual papers, old but sharp knives, various rulers, tapes, glues and burnishers and assemble something tactile, something of weight and, by extension, of importance and worthy of notice – a distinctive statement that hopefully will rise above the usual printed matter that plagues most analog inboxes.
Photo gallery: inside views of the hybrid booklet; a real page turner.
This hand-made business card mailer/brochure hybrid (of which I made two) was sent to separate, potential referrers within Rutgers University. They had each requested that I “send [them] a few business cards” to aid recommending me as an outside creative contractor to their internal university customers needing design help for printed or online projects (i.e., annual [or other] reports, fundraising mailers, program description brochures, white papers, ebooks, online landing pages, etc.).
To fulfill the request, I could’ve typed something on tri-folded letterhead, dropped it and a few cards into a #10 envelope and have been done with it – an easy “lumpy” or dimensional mailer to boot, drawing some attention when it arrived.
Could I have employed an oversized padded envelope, or have sent them in a box..? Though a bit gimmicky, the envelope idea was certainly a start, but I knew these recipients wouldn’t keep any box unless they could easily repurpose it. That seemed like too high a mountain to scale; I needed to get some cards out quick.
These two prospects within the university had given me their time, at least once, on the phone recently. Having not yet met in person, I wanted the mailer to convey
- personality
- imagination
- precision
- appreciation
- craftsmanship
- whimsy
- surprise
- and the necessary contact information
Just as important, I’m hoping they’ll also see an unusual solution to a problem. Granted, it’s mostly my problem – how to keep a handful of business cards from disappearing in an office environment. But they will surely benefit as well by having a little show-and-tell handy as my card is handed to their internal clients in need of creative help.
Photo gallery: fronts and back of the hand-made business cards, each 3-ply thick. And look at all those half-moon cuts I made into the kraft paperwith an Xacto knife - twenty four in all!
So where to begin... Starting out, I wanted the two-sided cards to be attached to a fairly sturdy sheet, making it easier for my referrer to file it in – and retrieve it from - a drawer, versus being strewn across the bottom of a shallow drawer or rubber-banded together in the corner of a drawer or box.
If this containing sheet was to have die cuts holding the cards, then the reverse side would be pretty unattractive and require hiding (which is why most pocket folders have their card die cut on the pocket or flap, where it’s difficult to ever see the back side).
Folding a sheet of paper neatly solved that. The exagerated rectangle of my new kraft paper sketch pad drove the next opportunity – two ‘gates’ folding into the middle. Suddenly the adequate structural support of two paper layers was quickly doubled and now a sturdier folder! That helped with the delivery issue, as a smallish folder would neatly hold a half dozen business cards, double the “few” they asked for. When loaded up with six heavyweight, hand-hewn cards (a design and construction story in themselves), my little folder now had real heft, commanding respect.
The next issue was how to add a little bit of message to the folder, to compliment the cards. The kraft paper would be too difficult to print on, and the two sets of cards left no interior room anyway. Aha! Bind a folio in, right at the spine. At flat size, it could come out of my inkjet printer on select letter-sized paper (that same paper would again be used for the final package insert – a handwritten note). Folded, it would give me four message panels, perfect for conveying a concise, multipart message. The message essentially reminds them that I make it easier to do their job, helping them fulfill their mission at Rutgers. The four pages were attached with a pair of staples set into pushpinned holes, then painstakingly folded flat and true with fingertips and burnishing tool.
Photo gallery: the package itself, all ready to go, including the handwritten note(s) trimmed out of a single letter-sized sheet.
The folder construction was finished off with a 2.75 inch diameter “bc” monogram logo on the front cover, plotter-cut from metallic copper vinyl. I had a dozen or two still handy, their scale perfect for application on this kind of undersized book, booklet or folder (they’ve also appeared nicely on black- and kraft-covered cahier notepads).
Both prototyped hybrids, along with the handwritten notes finally went into kraft-colored envelopes I found at The Container Store. Finishing touches were inkjet-printed mailing labels spray-mounted on the outsides and heavy-duty but small cuts of fiberboard stiffener for the insides.
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No feedback yet as they’re still en route, but I’ll be following up to see if they arrived, and then were handled, filed and used, as planned.
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Please tell me in the comments if you've ever received or constructed a similar mailer or hand-delivered package, and also if you ever learned of its success or failure.
Photo: I promised a shout out to my glue buddy Tombo Mono Multi, when the post was completed. Thank you for being a great little product.
Photo: And I couldn't really have done it, so easily or so inspired anyway, without my new pad of 9 x 18 inch kraft sketch paper. Such convenience!
