January 2003

A card for a chef who is available for home catering.

Spicers Paper wanted to do a paper promotion for a stock called Splendorgel. Originally the stock only came in a smooth finish, but they were introducing two new finishes, linen and groove. The year of The Ram promotion was designed so that people would have to engage with the feel and texture of the paper so that they could understand how the finishes differed from one another.

As the promotion was to be the first of 2003 and to be hand delivered by Spicers Paper representatives to design and advertising studios in mid-late January, the design concept was based around the Chinese New Year which coincided with the timing. Having discovered that 2003 was to be the Year of the Ram in the Chinese Calendar, we also worked out that the numbers (if manipulated in size and typeface) could be cut and folded to form a three dimensional representation of a Ram.

This provided the opportunity for the sales representatives to discuss other technical capabilities of the paper including die-cutting, embossing and creasing rather than the obvious printing of four colour process images.

The cost of the promotion was also kept to a minimum due to the fact that the same die and embossing plate was used across all three paper stocks with only a simple black plate change to indicate the name of the stock.

The promotion was a huge success and had opened up the possibility of the stock use beyond ink on paper. Feedback from the paper representatives is that many people still have the Ram sitting on top of their computer monitors over 12 months on.