f as in frank
papergoods co.
stationery, sell sheets, catalogues, promotional materials
product, promotional, website, social
website, online store, newsletters
strategy, planning, calendar, design, posting
F As In Frank PaperGoods Co. was a brand I started with my sister and brother-in-law. We designed and printed stationery items on our antique Chandler & Price manual feed letterpress machine, eventually incorporating screenprinted items as well.
We started this brand to provide a more minimal, slightly masculine aesthetic to an industry notorious for catering to women. The branding was specifically black and white, using an old engraving of a letterpress machine to highlight the antiquated process we use, and the logo was designed in a similar fashion to those from the days when letterpress was the main printing technique, a timeless feel.
As the brand evolved, we added screenprinted items as well as some digital prints. Different print techniques require different types of designs, and these all had to be created in a way that would be cohesive with the brand overall.
F As In Frank PaperGoods Co. operated from 2013 – 2019. During that time we met a lot of very cool people, and I got to design stationery for a living, and packaging for all the items we retailed.
While it is my own company, the branding remains one of my favourite projects to have worked on.
But the disposable era was not far off, and eventually $5 became too much for people to pay for a cotton card that went through several stages: the theme had to be thought of, the graphic was designed, a dye created, the card was cut and scored, then manually fed and printed, folded and bagged with a cotton envelope, and this repeated a number of times on the same paper depending on how many colours were in the design.
