How to Create Consistent Designs

One of the biggest obstacles most new stationery entrepreneurs inevitably experience when they’re creating, designing, and selling their products is consistency. How do you keep your designs consistent with every single order?

Let’s say you’re known for creating fun and whimsical greeting cards. One of the thing that may keep you up at night is trying to make sure every single design and order that leaves your hands has the same quality and is consistent with your brand every single time. You’re not alone (and probably in good company between the hours of 1 and 2 in the morning).

There is no perfect solution to this problem because every single design and every single business is just a little different. The key isn’t in one right answer, but in a series of checks that will help you ensure you’re producing consistent, quality stationery with every single order that leaves your hands.

5 Ways to Ensure Your Designs Are Consistent

Think about your favorite stores, restaurants, or even services. If you think about some of the reasons you shop, eat, or utilize services at those places, it probably comes back to consistency, quality, or both. For example, your hair stylist wouldn’t continue to be your hair stylist if he or she wasn’t consistent in how they styled your hair time and time again. What about your favorite pair of jeans? One of the reasons so many people have loved the Levi brand is because of their consistency with fit, comfort, and style for the past several decades. They have created a product that people have come to know, love, and even count on over the years.

The same needs to be true for your stationery. When your customers purchase from you for the very first time, they’re expecting you to show up and go above and beyond with quality. That’s what will keep them coming back. And then after their second or third purchases, they’re going to expect those products to meet or exceed the same quality as the first purchase.

So let’s talk about ways you can make that happen:

1. Create your branding.

One of the most helpful things you can do for your business is to determine your style. What type of fonts do you love to use? What sort of elements, designs, or fronts can you keep consistent across your brand so that people will know it came from you? For example, Rae Dunn is a popular homeware designer and her font is easily recognizable across her products.

2. Choose quality paper.

There’s a difference between copy paper and card stock. One is for your grocery list and the other is for your custom wedding invitations. Knowing what kind of paper you need for each product you’re offering is key. For example, if you’re the go-to gal for letterpress invitations, you know that a high-quality cotton paper is your best friend. Or if you’re designing an invitation for a boho-style wedding, you’ll want to use a textured cardstock. Printing on quality paper goes a long way in helping you reach the consistency you’re looking for, order after order.

3. Outsource your printing.

 Choosing the right equipment is a must. If you’re creating and printing greeting cards or invitations, you want to make sure you have high-quality paper, equipment, and ink that print consistently with every single job. Instead of looking up troubleshooting solutions for your Canon printer, why not partner with a fulfillment printer that sets the standard in quality and consistency? (That’s us!) We can print quantities of 10 to 200,000 or more on our industrial-grade printers. Our team is always standing by to make sure that every single order is printed to your exact specifications. Not only will this save you time, it’ll help you feel confident that your customers are receiving the very best.

4. Create your own design templates.

 Most creative tools out there (like Adobe Suite or Canva) have the option of creating design templates. Utilizing this feature will inevitably save you hours of time over the long run. Instead of creating each new greeting card from scratch, these tools allow you to save your brand colors, fonts, elements, logos, and more (Canva), or create a panel of your favorites (Adobe). This allows you to open and go and also offers consistency each and every single time you begin your design. Not only will this save time, but it will also help with the printing process down the road as each printer has it’s own dos and don’ts for bleed, trim lines, printing specifications, and more. Psst…we offer a ton of free and ready-to-use templates that help you save time so you can focus on what you do best!

5. Use the right tools.

As an artist, the tools you use matter. Choosing the best ones will help you create the best possible designs for both you and your future customers. Our friend and designer, Design by Laney shared that Adobe is the industry standard for stationers.² That doesn’t mean there aren’t other great tools out there, though! The right tool for you is the one that doesn’t stand in the way of you creating the designs you love. Many creatives love the Adobe Design Suite, specifically InDesign and Illustrator. InDesign is great for layouts and text while Illustrator is great for vector graphics. Don’t worry, if you’re intimidated by them, there are some great how-to videos that will help you get started in no time. Other great tools used by stationers are Canva, Affinity, Figma, and ProCreate. Each of these tools will help you create seamless, consistent designs time after time.

We Believe In You

At PrintsWell, we love partnering with stationers across the country, bringing beautiful designs to life with each and every order. One of the things that we love most is partnering with stationery business owners like you and helping you take the next step in your business, whether that’s to start, to scale, or somewhere in between.

We would be honored to partner with you to create consistent, quality designs that both you and your customers will depend on order after order. Fill out an application today and let’s get started.