Mr Yen Business Cards

Hello, I hope you're having a nice relaxing easter weekend! I've been back from Manchester for the weekend, where I've been training for my new job at Dwell (that will be opening in Leeds very soon) and I have had my new business cards delivered while I've been away. I got them printed with Moo.com and I decided to go for their new luxe business cards and I have to say, I'm quite impressed! These snap shots are just a little peek - I will be taking some better photographs once I get time.

These new business cards are the start of the new Mr Yen branding and they feature a photograph of a botanical silhouette of me - along with my contact details. I really like the effect of using a photograph of the paper cut as I love the fact you can see it slightly lifting off the page - giving it a slightly 3D element. I will definitely be creating some postcards using the same technique to give away with all new orders after the re-launch. Oh and check out the black middle section of the business card...very nice indeed!

I'm so excited to get back from Manchester for good, so I can work on finalising a few new paper cut designs too. I'm still planning for an August re-launch and there is still so much to do. I expect the blog will be quiet throughout the upcoming week (as I will be living out of a hotel room for six days) but when I get back to Leeds for good, it will be all systems go!

I hope you have a great week!

Monday Morning - M.Y Papercut Collection

Good Morning! 

This morning I thought I would introduce my new customisable silhouette design (if you haven't seen it yet) that is the first of many in my new collection I am calling M.Y Papercuts (It was also recently featured here on Design*Sponge - thanks Grace!)

Below I have explained the collection and included images of an example. You can get your very own framed personalised botanical silhouette here in the Mr Yen shop if you're interested!

NEW Papercut Collection: M.Y Papercuts

What is M.Y Papercuts?
It's a new collection of customisable papercuts, made specifically for each individual that purchases them!

Where does the M.Y come from?
M.Y is the initials of Mr Yen, but I also want it to imply that these papercuts in the collection are just for you - so when someone asks what it is you can say it's MY papercut!


The range will develop to include the possibility of adding dates and text, plus there will be a variety of sizes and framing options. If you have any questions I would be happy to answer them, so just leave them in the comments below - and as this collection is going to be a large part of what I want to do, I have created a specific section for it here on the blog.

WIP Wednesday - Papercut Leaf Necklaces

Hello!

This week I've been working on an idea that I've been wanting to try for a while...papercut leaf necklaces! I have had these leaf designs for a while and have wanted to adapt them for this purpose for a long time - it's just been one of those things that I have put to the bottom of the to do list. Well, on Monday I decided it was time to get them made!

They are now available in the shop here at an affordable introductory price and if you don't want to use them as a necklace you could always make a mobile with them!

I would love to see what you've been working on this week, so why not a leave a comment below with a link we can all visit!

WIP Wednesday

Hello how are you today? This week is flying by so quickly for me, but I think that's because I've been so busy taking new photographs of every product I have for the shop! I decided the black and white photos weren't really working out - sales decreased, people always asked to see colour versions and generally the interest in products had gone.

So - I didn't waste any time in looking for inspiration and and started to look around for a new angle to try styling the photographs in. I wanted to make sure people knew that they were buying a papercut unframed and I wanted to show the delicate details without distraction. I ended up finding a few pieces of this wood and decided to use them. They had slight wear and tear and a nice texture, with some great typography to boot, so I was sold as soon as I saw them - plus I think the texture adds just enough interest as to not distract from the papercuts.

So after a full two days taking photographs and editing most of them, I am now just editing photographs of all the Mr Yen greeting cards - which should all be uploaded by the end of the week.

Hope to se you back here tomorrow for a Thursday Finds post!

WIP Wednesday

Hello!

All this week I have been taking new photos of all the Mr Yen shop products and business cards. While updating the Mr Yen website in between uploading and editing photos (more on that later this week!) I have decided to have all my product photos black/white/grey now as they are the only colours of paper I use - so I thought I would go with it and create all my photos in the same way to create a more coherent look to my shop and my products.

You can see all the new photos in the Mr Yen shop here or the Mr Yen Etsy shop here.

New Branding Imagery

To go with my new product photographs I have decided to add a few tweaks to some Mr Yen branding elements (as you can see the blog header above, the Mr Yen Big cartel shop and my Etsy shop header too). In each of my papercut product photos you can now see ribbons, my scalpel and a piece of crystal (smokey quartz).

I would like to explain why I chose these things as they could appear to be random prop choices, but the piece of crystal was chosen as each piece of crystal or semi-precious stone is always a one of a kind. Each crystal has natural unique aspects to it, just like my papercuts and I also feel using a semi-precious piece of crystal/stone is a nice way to show the delicacy, detail and value of my pieces.

The ribbon used in my product shots is a reference to my logo, which I have had for quite some time now - the Mr Yen logo uses a banner/ribbon element, which I feel represents luxury and thoughtfully wrapped presents/gifts, which is something I feel my papercuts would be great for....and the scalpel/blade is the exact knife I use to cut all my papercut artwork!

New Way of Listing...

Each individual pattern and product is now listed separately - before it used to be: product listing > choose pattern > purchase and now it's pattern & product listing > choose option if there is one (lined, gridded, plain paper) > purchase. I think the method of listing each individual pattern for each product makes it easier to understand what product is available with which pattern, as before it looked as though there was only one pattern available - which was the main product listing.

Hope you found it interesting knowing all the 'behind the scenes' reasons for why I do what I do. I will be back tomorrow with the first Thursday Finds post!

{Monday Morning}

Good Morning!

I just thought I would let you know that the blog will be quiet for the next few weeks as I am taking some time off over Christmas to recharge and get all my new designs finished for the new year. I will be back here on the blog, on the 3rd of January with new designs, new products and new blog features. A new year, with a truly fresh new start!

I would just like to say a big thanks to all the amazing people out there who have bought, blogged, tweeted, and spread the word about my work, I could have had nowhere near as much success in my first 'year' (well, few months) without you!

Hope you have a great Christmas and a happy new year!

{WIP Wednesday}

{images above: papercut and hand drawn feathers, with a real feather for study & a rough design for a printed thank you card}

This week I have been working on new designs for some notebooks, postcard sets, thank you cards and decorative tape. All these new products will be released in the new year in my shop, with my Etsy stock slowly dwindling (as I am not relisting sold items) my own shop will get more & more products in!

I love the early stages of designing, all the sketching, collecting, photographing, developing & evaluating of ideas, this is definitely my favourite bit! As sales have slowed down now (because I can't ship outside the UK in time for Christmas) I have quite enjoyed this quiet time, to think about the direction I want to take my designs in the upcoming year. As I mentioned here before though, I know in terms of retail I have left this way too late to be thinking about Spring/Summer products in December, but this is the first few months I have been doing this, so I think I will let myself off. At least now I know how & when things need to be done by for 2011.

Since finishing University the time has flown by so I want next year to be as planned and organised as possible - so I make the most out of it! Speaking of planning and organising - I have been searching through years of clutter & 'stuff' that has been kept for years, yet not been used & it has all been squeezed into a tiny wardrobe in my bedroom.....and since I re-discovered Chez Larsson's blog I have felt the need to organize and sort all my things. As a warning to anyone wanting to do the same, I recommend that you only do small sections at a time, as I started the whole bedroom all at once and it was so overwhelming I needed to take little breaks, as I just didn't know where to start!

{Monday Morning}

Good Morning!
I know it's a Monday and this is a long wordy post, so if you don't read it all I understand!

Today I would have liked to show you some samples of my new notepad designs that I got from the printers...but the printers were running a little late on their jobs last week and so didn't get round to finishing all my order off. I should be getting the new designs either today or tomorrow so I will give a little sneaky look at them on Wednesday. Also I have decided, after spending so much on Etsy fees last month, I think it is time to start my own shop over on big cartel.

This would mean just one monthly fee & I think this change/development is quite exciting in a way as it feels like starting all over again, it feels like a challenge! I will still keep my etsy shop up & running, but would really like to get everything for my new shop up and ready to go before the end of September or at the latest early October.

...So, if any of you have any tips, or think there is something you would expect to see from an online shop, just let me know in the comments and I will see if it is possible to work your recommendations into my new shop. (I will keep you updated on the progress of the new shop every Wednesday)

I also think it is time to increase my prices (which will come into effect with my new shop opening) to reflect the time and effort my work takes to make, plus now I am actually working on my papercut designs full time and making this my career, not just a hobby.

All these changes will include a more organised way of creating designs and releasing new work for both my artwork and my stationery designs. I would like to release a Spring/Summer collection of artwork designs that will focus on one or two themes and then release an Autumn/Winter set of artwork designs that also focus on one or two themes. I feel this would give me a more focused approach to my work and give me more time to promote my designs instead of constantly making & listing random designs in my shop.

I also want to release four different ranges of stationery to coincide with the release of my two releases of artwork designs. These would be more regular throughout the year and would be released as a Spring range, Summer range, Autumn range and a Winter range. Again I feel this would just help me focus in on specific products and promotion of them.

Well this is all just talk for now, I need to get all this into action and get organised, but I will keep you updated!

Oh and If you managed to read this whole post...thank you, I hope it was worth it!

{weekend goodness}

*New Stockist!*
mrYen is now sold at The Maisonette in Glasgow!

mrYen hand cut greeting cards & notebooks are now available from The Maisonette, which has also recently had a little makeover too!

{Images of The Maisonette borrowed from Made in The Shade}

{weekend goodness}

I have finally finished and listed one of my new products, a papercut covered notebook!

This notebook has a hand cut geometric honeycomb design, cut into a card cover and filled with gridded/plain paper. It has a blue paper insert between the cover and the pages, is pamphlet stitched with embroidery thread and has rounded corners, to give it a little character and it has my logo discretely hand cut on the back cover.

The gridded pages make it a great notebook for all your doodles, notes and to-do lists, while the papercut cover adds a stylish contemporary feel to a necessary piece of stationery!

I will be listing more notebooks through next week, with other hand cut geometric designs on the covers, so keep an eye out to get your favourite as soon as its listed!

{Monday Morning}

As some of you who follow me on twitter will know, I had to go to hospital on Friday as I had an accident while paper cutting. I have never had an accident while paper cutting, and the first time I do it's so bad I end up in hospital!

Anyway the reason I am telling you this is that, I was planning to launch a new product today, but as I was out of action on Friday and I didn't get a chance to prepare everything, then I have been working at Muji all weekend, so....

I am organising my week this morning, working on stockist orders and my Recycled & Rescued notebooks, then I will be launching on new product on Thursday, with a look at my Recycled & Rescued notebooks on Wednesday.

Hope you have a productive Monday morning!

{Monday morning}

Toady is officially my first day as a freelance designer! and I have already had some interest in my work for a few commissions and collaborations.
Goodbye University!

So far this morning I have been busy sending emails and sorting things out. Later this week I will be revealing another new product, working on my recycled & rescued notebooks, completing some projects/collaborations started a while ago and making some more papercuts to send out to mrYen stockists - so expect the blog to be updated regularly this week!

[image of my course yearbook and students business cards from my course]

Hope you all have a productive Monday morning and a great start to the week!

{Monday Morning}

I just thought I would let you know, especially all you people in the Leeds area, that I have been asked to contribute some work for a rapid exhibition by TestSpace Leeds and I will also have some of my work for sale too.

"From 4th-12th June Test Space will be taking over Crash Records basement space and 42 New Briggate hosting a series of rapid exhibitions, live music showcases, workshops, film screenings, arts markets and retail opportunities" (borrowed from TestSpaceleeds.com) You can find out more about TestSpaceLeeds here on their website, here on their blog and follow them on twitter too.

Oh and The Guradian have already blogged about the event too!

Below are the papercuts that I will have for sale in the retail space, alongside some of my papercut postcards. I have created some of my typographic papercuts on a smaller scale, with two new papercut designs being launched at the retail space too. These will also be available in the mrYen shop from Tuesday. Hope to see you there!

*NEW PAPERCUTS*

{WIP Wednesday}

This week I have started to develop some scientific papercut quotes. I decided this would make a nice contrast to the fairytale/fantasy type papercuts I create usually and I have a few that I have designed, but this is the first one I have cut.

{WIP Wednesday}

This week I have been working on getting a set of geometric greeting cards together, (alongside University work) to use my spirograph papercuts in a more useful and practical way. These will be available in the shop before the weekend and will be in packs of three, with three styles available - a pop out version, a folded square version and a tall thin version and available in three styles - the style below, a snowflake design and a lace design.Keep an eye out to get yours !

I have also created a new purely typographic design that you can find in my shop now, with WIP shots below too!