Sweet Pea Designs: Rich Colors and Fine Paper
Sheila and I had a most welcome opportunity to sit down with Kim Kreis of Sweet Pea Designs to discuss the launch of their new stationery and invitations album. Her partner, Anne Johnson, was corralling clients who also wanted to take a peak at the new album that will be released toward the end of June.
As readers of the Stationers Guild News are aware, Sweet Pea Designs and Printswell decided to go their separate ways earlier this year. The rather unsettling turn of events left some 2,000 dealers in the dark as to the plans of either company. Fortunately, both companies resurfaced at the National Stationery Show and the world is a better place for it. We wish them both well as they pursue their vision.
We had a chance to look at some of the preliminary pages of the new Sweet Pea Designs album that will begin to be distributed toward the end of June to dealers who have signed the new application form. Instead of several albums, Sweet Pea has had the good sense to create a substantial album incorporating many new designs and their traditional “best sellers.” Based on the sample pages we saw, the colors are far richer and the paper (#110) more substantial and bright than Sweet Pea’s old papers. Rather than showing many samples in the old albums, the new album provides many more customization options and is laid out more rationally to assist in the visualization and customization process.
Printing will now occur on the west coast, but we understand that deliveries will occur within 3 days anywhere in the United States. Kim mentioned that Sweet Pea intends to be more selective with their dealers to insure that stationers who promote their brand will not be selling against other stores in the immediate vicinity. This is a welcome relief to the proliferation of stationery products and greeting cards that seems to crop up on every street corner. The Sweet Pea website is expected to be fully operational by the end of September for those who wish to promote Sweet Pea online.
It was good to see Kris and Anne in good spirits and on behalf of dealers everywhere, we are looking forward to seeing their great looking designs once again.
Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair
June 8th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
Having been a purveyor of fine stationery and invitations for 19 years, I have been witness to incredible change in the industry. I applaud Sweet Pea Designs for their forward thinking and resolve to reclaim their company.