Ordering Custom Stationery – The Tips

Hi guys and gals and Lemonheads, I hope you are having a super week. I hope you are not too upset that today’s usual Terrific Tuesdays post is absent, but I have been wanting to give some attention to some ideas that have been floating around in my head lately. I promise installments of Terrific Tuesdays will come back (they just may be a little more sporadic).

The first topic I have gotten questions about during my time as a stationery designer is what to think about when ordering custom stationery. This can be personal note cards, business cards or even your yearly Christmas cards. So today, I thought I would give you a few tips to think about if you are thinking about ordering custom stationery.

How should I budget for my stationery?

Luckily, you can get customized stationery in all price ranges. If you can only spend a little, you can purchase a customized pdf that you can print on card stock on your home computer. I currently offer a few of these files in my Etsy shop. The price runs around $10. If you want professionally printed cards, then you will probably need to budget from $100 – $300 for 100 professionally printed cards. Letterpressed cards will probably be on the upper end of the price range.

What will I use this stationery for?

This is a big question that you should ask yourself. If the stationery is going to be for personal use only, then you can choose as style that is as wild and crazy as you want. If you are going to use this personally as well as professionally, you may want to choose a more classic, refined design. This not only applies to note cards and everyday stationery, but holiday cards too. It might not be the best idea to put a picture of yourself having a wild girls’ night out on your card and then sending it to your boss ;-).

This is my personal style...

What is my personal style?

It is important to make sure your designer knows a little about your personality. Make sure to convey to your designer your favorite colors, designs you like, if you like frilly things or more structured things, etc. The more information like this that you can give your designer the better. I love having a question and answer session with a new customer so I can find out how all of her life details are going to present themselves in her stationery. I love it when I hit the nail on the head and my customer says, “This is exactly what I was looking for!”, when they open their stationery for the first time. I guess a stationery designer is a lot like a shrink! Well maybe not…

Anywhoo, I hope this helps you a little bit when deciding what you want to say through your stationery. Please post any questions you might have in the comments below…Toodles!

By the way most of the photos in the piece are envelopes and letters during WWII from my grandfather to my grandmother…Kind of weird (and sweet!) to think your grandmother was your grandfather’s dearest darling…Hope you enjoyed them!