My New Designers Press Packs

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 For New Designers 2015, I not only took 200 business cards, I also took along 50 press packs that I'd made. Press packs are

1. For the Press
2. For important industry bigwigs
3. To tell everyone who you are and what you do so they don't have to ask you 43904729037420 questions.

I took 50 press packs along and only came home with 4 so I felt I did pretty well. I wanted my press packs to be something a bit different to they stayed memorable so I made them more into a goodie bag of sorts because who doesn't love a freebie?

You can google press packs and get hit up instantly with thousands of articles and images and Pinterest boards on how to promote yourself in this way and whilst there are a general few things most people tend to include, it's a pretty individual thing.

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Here are the things I included in my packs:

• Cover Letter/Mission Statement- This is *probably* the most important part of your press pack that everyone should include. It's basically a card or a sheet which allows you to big yourself up massively and say who you are, what you're about and how you do your work. In mine I included a detail description of my working process, talked about what was so exciting about my work and where I want to go next and generally all the things that don't slot as nicely into a CV. I used a universal theme with all of my press packs which centred around my business card design with my logo and a dark purple border. I also included a photo of myself at my graduate show with my work on this so people could put a name to a face! On each piece of propaganda I also included my name, website, Twitter, Instagram, stand number for ND, phone number and email so people had no excuse to say they'd lost my deets!
• CV- Second most important part of a press pack, especially if you're handing them out to prospective bosses and clients. My CV was 2 A5 sides, was themed the same way as my cover sheet and included a section of my artwork. I included my details once again and a brief statement about me and then followed the formula I used when CV writing which you can read about here!
• Promotional Postcard- A promotional postcard is different to an actual postcard in that whilst on one side you include some of your artwork but on the other side, instead of a blank card ready to send you include your details again. This is easier for people to keep than a CV or a cover sheet because it doesn't include much writing, it's tactile and normally people just like the pictures.
• Business Card- I was handing out business cards to anyone and everyone but it's important to keep a business card within a press pack for people who chuck your business card into their bag and find it 6 months later. It is just another way of ensuring people remember you and don't loose your details!
• An Actual Postcard- This is where the list gets a little more personal and is more about what I put in mine. I included an actual A6 postcard which was blank ready for sending with an image on the front that was neither on my stand at the show or in my portfolio. Keeping something back makes your work look fresh, shows off what else you can do and allows the client some time out from being bombarded with your images.
• A Bookmark- Focusing on children's publishing, I decided to include a bookmark in each pack which I handmade. I illustrated a bedtime scene for children and printed it onto beautiful (expensive) 300GSM card and tied a purple ribbon to each which was in keeping with my theme. I sneakily dropped my website details onto it very subtly so even if people 'lost' my formal propaganda, they still had access to my information.
• Stickers- I had little stickers made up of a quick image I designed not long ago and added a sheet into each press pack. It's self explanatory- who doesn't love stickers?!
• A Personalised Pencil- I had the best set of pencils made up from this shop on Ebay and they were amazing, cheap and were delivered super speedy. They were in keeping with my theme and was another excuse for people to remember me. People are more likely to keep things they can use and things that are tactile than pieces of paper filled with writing. Whilst the cover sheets and the CVs are the most important for saying who you are, the little extras are the most likely to stay on someone's desk for a year and who knows what jobs could come from them.
• Packaging- I hand packaged all 50 press packs (it took FOREVER) before I left for London in clean, crisp white A5 envelopes. Each one was sealed with an envelope sticker of my logo and each had a sticker version of my business card on the top left corner with all my details on (nothing like a reminder of details when they're repeated another 70397593 times inside).

Apart from the pencils which I bought on Ebay and the bookmarks which I made myself, everything else in my press packs and my 200 business cards were designed by myself and printed by Vistaprint. I haven't really tried many other places than Vista for my printing (although I've heard good things about Moo and Printed.com) because they've always been high quality, do the biggest range of products I've ever seen and you can ALWAYS find some sort of discount. Although my work set me back a cool £100, I made the most of about 4 discounts on one order, saved myself about 300 quid and ordered in volume. I did have some troubles this time that resulted in a few calls to the head office but it was sorted, everything arrived on time, I was more than happy with the quality and I was refunded 45 bucks for my trouble so I would definitely recommend and will happily use their services again.

The important thing to remember when constructing a press pack is to stay memorable! The paperwork is important for the prospective clients but it's the little touches than keep you fresh in someone's mind! Who knows what opportunities can come from a pencil!

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