We couldn’t wait for Jack’s story to go live in our ideas section so we’ve shared it as a sneak peak here on our blog. Here’s what San discovered…

Jack Hooker is a freelance graphic designer, working from a social collaborative space in
Lewes, East Sussex. Co-working, he says, gives him the chance to meet other creative professionals - and with his MOO Business Cards he makes sure that everybody knows Jack!

As a freelancer, Jack is used to appearing in different guises. He works for a number of design agencies and private clients, on projects as diverse as packaging, print and promotions. He also designs for newmedia, creating sites for bands and brands.

In fact, Jack got the idea for his business cards at The Farm, where he found that many people were already using MOO for themselves. “I saw that you could have different designs on the back of each card,” he said. “So, I emailed MOO to see if my idea was do-able and they replied, explaining how to use the PDF uploader on their website. It was easy!”

Jack then used a corner cutter to round the edges off his Business Cards so that they looked more like playing cards. “The response I’ve had from the cards has been great,” he said. “If I give one out at an event, I often get two or three more people asking if they can have one too!”

The cards are a perfect way to show off Jack’s creativity, as a master of his trade, without breaking the bank. “They’re very affordable,” Jack says. “And MOO offers small print runs too - perfect for trying out new ideas to see how they’ll look, and what kind of response they’ll get.” And, as a conversation piece, they’re an ideal ice-breaker, especially if you’re a nervous networker!

Jack played his cards right by using MOO. As a freelancer, first impressions are everything, and with these cards, Jack’s always sure to have a winning hand.

Thanks John for the great idea and good luck in the MOOvie competition.

This idea reminded us of a similar puzzle project done with MiniCards by Aral Balkan. Business Card idea anyone?

Remember, MOOvie Mania is still open until the end of July and there are prizes from Firebox, iStockphoto, Coreland Flickr plus cash to win. Grab your camera, do an unboxing, create a tutorial or remake a classic with a MOO twist.

We’ve travelled from Birmingham over to Boston
Passed through London and on to Austin.

We thought you might like to find out more
so join us as we go on tour.

We put on our special white gloves to handle

Products that normally live on the mantle.

We put up the walls that become our stand

As Designer Alex gets the lay of the land.

The boys make sure all is secure and still

Remember they have a ‘License to Drill.’

As Alicia vinyls, Alex looks aghast

But after hours of work, the booth’s ready at last.

People pop by to say hi to the Crew

But someone’s stuck! What are we to do?

It’s Simon G! Phew! He’s free

Look for us next time…who knows where we’ll be…

We were also happy to see certain MOO traditions making it across the ocean - like Friday lunch for example. Sure enough, when Friday arrived, our fantastic new US Head of Operations, Dan, passed around the menus and got us all together for food and a chat. It’s always a good way to see what everyone’s been up to, and how everyone’s getting along. This week we discussed extremely important topics - like how to get sand out of a clam, for example. (Soak them in salted water with a little cornmeal - the clam will take in the meal and spit out the sand, or, soak the clams in fresh water. As they breathe, the water is filtered, so the clam will push the sand and salt water out together.)

Dan’s got a great team together, and we’re planning a blog-interview with him soon, so he can tell you more about them. (We might also uncover the mystery of why we all call him ‘Dan Cakes’.)

Of course, the other reason we were in Providence this week was the MOO Party! Thanks so much to everyone who came and made us feel so very welcome.

We spoke to lots of interesting people, including John Maeda and the Mayor of Providence! The latter took time out of his busy schedule to honour us with a special citation - which you can see Brian proudly displaying here:

We had a mix of UK and Rhode Island snacks, like mini shepherd’s pie and clam chowder. The weather was also a mix of both, I think, starting off a bit cloudy (Rhode Island?) and ending up with rain (London!). Luckily we were well covered - as you can see in this shot, by Megan

All in all the week went by far too quickly - we had time for just two local delicacies - ‘Cawfee milk’ (nice!) and NY weiners. For the uninitiated, RI’s NY weiners come with meat sauce - which is literally, sauce, made of meat. We didn’t understand it either, but can confirm that it tastes pretty good!

The one thing we didn’t have was Del’s lemonade - but in a way, we’re quite happy about this. It seems like a very good reason to go back soon.

We’d love you to drop by to one or all of these events. 1. Because we’d love to meet you and say hi and 2. Because these events look pretty interesting and may well give you some great new ideas, contacts, inspiration and information about your industry.

Event: London Graduate Fashion Week
Location: London, UK
Dates: June 7th - 11th
Ideal for: Fashion designers, fashionistas, designers, agencies, students

Event: PDN Photographers’ Virtual Trade Show
Location: The Internet!
Dates: June 11th and then on demand until August
Ideal for: Professional and ‘advanced amateur’ photographers.

Event: Digital Photo & Imaging (DPI)
Location: London, UK
Booth: 220
Dates: June 18th - 19th
Ideal for: Professional and ‘advanced amateur’ photographers.

Event: HOW Design Conference
Location: Austin, Texas
Dates: June 24th - 27th
Ideal for: Graphic designers

More Information…

Running from Sunday June 7 to Thursday June 11, the event will feature over 50 of the top fashion and textile universities in the UK and overseas, and includes a static exhibition and two theatres hosting 20 shows over the four days. The event culminates in the glamorous Gala Fashion Shows and Awards on Wednesday June 10th.

MOO is Fashion Careers Clinic’s guest from June 7th to June 11th with a position at their table. Some of MOO Crew will be there during the week. Come to stand E104 of this independent careers advice service specifically for fashion, to chat about our products and see how fashion designs look on our cards.

VTS

The PDN Photographers’ Virtual Trade Show lives online, enabling busy photographers to attend a trade show from the comfort of their own studios.

Meet online with manufacturers and photographers, ask questions and get the answers you need to make informed decisions about the newest trends and equipment in professional photography.

DPI

The DPI Show has been designed to be the knowledge centre for professional photographers and agencies active in advertising, fashion, photojournalism, sports/action, portraiture, wedding and lifestyle photography.

The DPI show will include industry leaders in the photographic market such as Hasselblad, Nikon, Adobe, Broncolor, Apple Solutions Experts, HP, Moo and many more…

The show will feature the hugely successful BJP Insight series which includes seminars from Lisa Pritchard, Nadav Kander, Brian Griffin and David Alan Harvey, Including a live debate on both days.

Sit in on seminars with the renowned retouch and workflow specialist, Guy Gowan. Guy is valued for his unique vision as both an independent and appointed (Apple, Adobe, Wacom) consultant.  Also Keep up to date with the latest Technology, tips and tricks of the trade from the Professionals! With seminars from OnOne, Nikon, Apple, Adobe, and HP.

HOW

The HOW Design Conference is sponsored by HOW magazine, the creative and business resource for graphic designers.

Like HOW magazine, the HOW Design Conference recognizes that graphic design is a business as well as an art. This annual event was launched in 1991 with the goal of providing a hands-on, educational program to enable designers to better balance the three key components of graphic design: creativity, business and technology. Conference sessions cover a mix of these three critical design issues, with particular emphasis on creative and business topics.

We hope to see you somewhere along our route!

If you are submitting a MOOvie, don’t forget to include the tags “moovie mania” and “business cards” when you post your video to either YouTube, Flickr or Dailymotion. That’ll help us group them together later on. If you need them, all the rules (written in plain English) can be found here.

Adding Music to Your MOOvie
As we all know movies can be 100x better with music and sound effects. Think of Jaws without the famous Na-Na. Na-Na. Na-Na. But, where do you find all those great effects and music? We have few suggestions that might come in handy. If you have more, please leave in the comments.

Our friends at iStockphoto have an entire library of royalty-free music and every sort of sound effect submitted by their contributors. They are an inexpensive source and have offered any MOOvie Maker a 15% discount on 26 credits or more until the end of July. Just include the the code MOOvie on checkout for your discount.

There’s also lots of great music available with a Creative Commons license that won’t get you in trouble for copyright infringement.
 If you do use background music, per CC licensing requirements, you’ll need to attribute the music you use by mentioning and linking to the artist, or the CC page you found it on.

Here are some online resources (thanks to ccmixter

Or an original piece is always nice. Happy Composing!

What’s the competition about?

We’ve been spotting great little movies featuring MOO products for a while now. Un-boxings, tutorials - like this, and this, funky animations, and of course, the infamous Hugo, the Cat of 1000 Faces.

So, we thought, why not make it more official? Have a competition, let these budding film makers enter – and ask everyone else if they’d like to enter too. We’ll provide some great prizes and hopefully everyone will have some fun along the way.

How do you enter?

We thought we’d keep it simple. We’d like you to:

1.

Create a short (:15 seconds to 15 minutes) video which fits either in one of the two following categories:

Story Time:
Any MOOvie that amuses, entertains, delights or even scares. The only rule is that there must be one reference to MOO (e.g. an exchange of a card, a sticker on a laptop, a starring role, anything as long as MOO has at least a cameo)

Helping Others: Tutorials & How Tos.
These MOOvies should help others to use MOO.COM or make something with our products. It could even explain how to create something with our api.

2.

Post your MOOvie to one or all of the following MOOvie sites, before July 31, 2009. We’ve chosen three different sites in order that you can choose the one that suits you best.
Flickr.com
YouTube.com
www.dailymotion.com

3.

Include the following tags when you upload to the site:
MOOvie Mania
Business Cards

4.

Let us know about your MOOvie by posting a link here in the comments of this post - or any others about the MOOvie competition.

And that’s it, you’re done!

What can you win?

We’ll be giving 2 GRAND prizes (one for each category) and smaller prizes too for the 2nd and 3rd on the podium.

The grand prize winners will be awarded a prize pack worth over £700 or approximately $1200:

• 1 Flip Mino HD (donated by Firebox)

• 1 Corel Video Studio X2 Ultimate (donated by Corel)

• £450 (GBP - or the equivalent in $USD i.e. $700)

• MOO Prize pack: 200 Business Cards, 1 Business Card Holder in leather, 1 pack of MiniCards, 1 Cobu MiniCard holder, 1 pack of 20 Postcards, ($157.95)

• 1 Flickr Pro

2nd prize:
• 1 Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate (donated by Corel)
• 200 Business Cards
• 1 Flickr Pro

3rd prize:
• 200 Business Cards
• 1 Flickr Pro
• 50 iStockphoto Credits

Who are the judges?

We have 5 esteemed independent judges who will make the final selection of winners. The judges are:
Heather Champ, www.Flickr.com
Joel Veitch, www.Rathergood.com
Jim Goertz, www.iStockphoto.com
Christian Robinson, www.firebox.co.uk
James Phillips, Corel

Is there anything else to know?

Not really - just have some fun making a MOOvie about MOO, upload it and tell us where it is, before July 31, 2009! You should probably read our terms and conditions too - just so you know what’s what.

Any questions? Ask us here on the blog, we’d be happy to help!

We wish we didn’t have to have all these rules (we know they’re a bit long winded) – but we find making things clear up front avoids complicated questions later on. (It also keeps our lawyer happy!)

We’ve outlined the important details here, but remember, this IS for fun (and prizes!) so let’s all play nice and enjoy ourselves.

The Official Rules

How do I enter?

1.1. Create an original video (now referred to as the ‘MOOvie’) lasting a minimum of :15 seconds and maximum of 15 minutes.
1.2. Ensure the MOOvie does not violate any community or copyrighting rules of the video sites mentioned in 1.3 (below). If it is removed by an external community manager, MOO will not be responsible – sorry about that.
1.3. Upload the MOOvie to one or all of the following 3 video sites www.youtube.com, www.flickr.com or www.dailymotion.com
1.4. Include the following tags when you upload your video so we can find them and group them all together:
business cards
moovie mania
1.5. Submit your entry to MOO by commenting on the blog. You’ll need to include your name, email address (which will be hidden to the general public) and a link to your MOOvie, so our judges can see it.

Who can enter?

2.1. Anyone over the age of 16 who complies to the competition rules as set out here can enter - excluding the employees and families of MOO Print Ltd.
2.2. Entrants must take responsibility and abide by the local laws in the country in which they reside. (That means if it is illegal to enter a competition such as this one where you live, sadly you will not be able to participate for prizes.)

What exactly should the MOOvie contain to be eligible?

3.1. There are two categories in the competition and your original MOOvie should fall in to one of the two categories:

Story Time:
Any MOOvie that amuses, entertains, delights or even scares. The only rule is that there must be at least one reference to MOO.COM (e.g. an exchange of a card, a sticker on a laptop, a starring role, anything as long as MOO has at least a cameo role).

Helping Others: Tutorials & How To’s.
The MOOvie should help others to use MOO.COM or make something more with MOO’s products, create something using our API or just plain instruct.

3.2. It must be a creation by you and must not contain clips and/or music that you do not have the right to use.
3.3. You CAN enter a MOOvie you’ve created prior to this competition, if it fits the criteria set out in 3.1, 3.2 and 3.4. (That’s the bit just above and just below this bit)
3.4. The MOOvie should also be free from nastiness! How do we define nastiness? We hope you’d define it in the same way: no hate mongering, foul language, or offensive behaviour. We retain the right to have the final decision on this – but think ‘respect for others’ and you are probably on the right track. We have the right to reject an entry if we believe it is not in the spirit of MOO or doesn’t fit the rules laid out here.
3.5. The MOOvie should not be an overt advertisement for another company or product. The competition is a bit of MOO-based fun – if you want to launch your latest ad campaign or product, we reckon you’re probably grown-up enough to have your own competition!
3.6. You can enter multiple times (please do!), but will only be eligible to win one prize package – we want to give everyone a fair shot.

When is the cut off date for entry?

4.1. You can enter your MOOvie starting now and the last day of entries is July 31, 2009 at 11:59 GMT (that’s +5 hours EST) Do get a MOOve on, we will be featuring entries on the blog over the next two months and we hope to feature yours!
4.2. MOO is not responsible if a technical glitch prevents your video from being submitted on time. (Sadly we can’t do much from here, if the dog ate your homework.)

Who are the judges?

5.1. We have 5 esteemed independent judges who will make the final selection of winners. The judges are:
• Heather Champ, www.Flickr.com
• Joel Veitch, www.Rathergood.com
• Jim Goertz, www.iStockphoto.com
• Christian Robinson, www.firebox.co.uk
• James Phillips, Corel

How do they choose a winner?

6.1. A shortlist of finalists will be selected by an independent agency.
6.2. The final shortlist of videos will be reviewed by the judging panel.
6.3. They will choose the winners based on the videos they enjoy the most based on creativity, usefulness, effort and appeal.
6.4. The 5 judges will select a winner, runner-up and third prize in each category.
6.5. The judges decision is final – we asked them to be judges because we value their opinions, and we hope you do too!
6.6. A MOOvie can win one prize only.
6.7. A contributor can win one prize only.

What are the prizes?

7.1. There are three (3) prizes for each category: 1 grand prize, 1 second prize and 1 third prize.
Grand Prize (1 per category) includes:
1 Flip Mino HD (retail value: £169.95/approximately $270)
1 Corel Video Studio Pro software (retail value: £67/approximately $106.34)
£450 in cash(approximately $630)
MOO Prize pack: 200 Business Cards, 1 Business Cards Holder in leather, 1 pack of MiniCards, 1 Cobu MiniCards holder, 1 pack of 20 Postcards, (retail value: £82.95.50/ $157.95)
1 Year - Flickr Pro (retail value: approximately £15.71/ $24.94)

2nd prize (1 per category) includes:
1 Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo Ultimate (retail value: £77/ approximately $122)
200 MOO Business Cards (retail value: £34.99/$69.99)
1 Year - Flickr Pro (retail value: approximately £15.71/ $24.94)

3rd prize (1 per category) includes:
200 MOO Business Cards (retail value: £34.99/$69.99)
1 Year - Flickr Pro (retail value: approximately £15.71/ $24.94)
50 Istockphoto Credits (retail value: approximately £54.50/$86.51)
(The cash value prizes will be in £GBP, or the equivalent value in $USD based on the current exchange rate.)

When is the winner announced?

8.1. MOO will contact the winner via email on August 23, 2009. It will be up to the entrant to provide a valid email address upon entry. (Don’t forget! Without it we can’t let you know you’ve won!)
8.2. MOO will announce the winners on the blog (moo.com/blog) on August 28th, 2009.
8.3. We will do everything we can to reach the winners, but if they do not claim their prizes by September 30, 2009, we reserve the right to award a new winner.

What about the rights of my MOOvie after the competition is completed?

9.1. As creator, you retain the rights (including copyright) to your MOOvie, but you give MOO Print Ltd. the right to use it or a portion of it on our website, use in advertising, promotion for MOO.COM either via direct upload or via a 3rd party site such as Youtube or Dailymotion or for use in promotional materials.

Cancellation of the Competition

10.1. Say it isn’t so! MOO does retain the right to cancel the competition if circumstances arise beyond our control - including unforeseen technical complications, or legal requirements.

Are you still reading? Did you read the entire thing? Thank you – it took so long to write, we’re worn out. Time for tea.

Without much work your packaging could:
• make a statement about you and the way you work
• have a second life – saved and re-used as storage
• promote your store and your work - which could mean more sales
and best of all
• create a sense of excitement and anticipation on arrival. (Which could also mean more sales!)

Who doesn’t want their customer to be overjoyed at receiving something they’ve made? You’ve put a lot of work into the item, people should be excited about receiving it! And the more excited they are, the more they love it - and the more they love it, the more they’ll talk about it and show it to their friends. And we all know recommendations from a friend are best kind of advertising for your store.

We’re very interested in crafting and making things in the MOO office. Some of the team make things of their own, others are avid consumers of sites like Etsy. And Of course we also love packaging - we take a lot of care with our own!

What prompted this article was the recent arrival of two very different packages in the post.

Once out of the padded envelope, one item was wrapped in a clear plastic sandwich bag, with a printout of where it had come from and a receipt. We opened the plastic, threw it away, looked at the slip of paper quickly, and couldn’t think of a reason to save that, so we threw that away too. Was the item nice? It was lovely! Were we excited to open the package? Not really - there was no anticipation, no feeling of having bought something really special. It wasn’t remarkable, and now we’ve thrown away the slip of paper, we’ll need to search online to find the store again.

The other package came in a little brown paper box, carefully wrapped with a strip of floral paper and twine. Opening the box was like opening a gift! Inside was bright paper, gently protecting the item. It felt precious, and special. It also came with two colourful business cards (we’re not biased, they actually weren’t MOO MiniCards or Business Cards!) and the owner of the shop had stamped her url on the outside of the box. There was also a little note to say thanks for buying from the shop.

What did we do with this packaging? We saved it all! Every time we open it to take out the item, we love it all over again. And more to the point, we have the url of the shop on hand all of the time. When we want to get something else, we know where to go. We kept the business cards too, because they were so pretty we didn’t really want to throw them away. Luckily, as we have two, we can pass one on to a friend.

Of course custom ordering packaging can be expensive, but that doesn’t mean it’s difficult, or expensive to create something wonderful. We thought it might be handy to do a round up of some of the great ideas we’ve seen and show how some people are using MOO, to promote their business - and hopefully get more sales.

This article is part one, and concentrates on three main things, boxes, paper and plastic.

Boxes

We know boxes can be expensive - and they’re not appropriate for every item. But, if you’re a jeweller, sending something delicate, they’re the perfect way to add some protection. Not only that, they’re ideal for the customer to save and re-use. If the item is ultimately a gift, a nice box will make both the giver and the receiver feel really special.

These smart black boxes look like gifts from an expensive store. c-urchin has tied each one with coloured ribbon to match the photo on the MiniCard – and each MiniCard has a photo of her work. Such pretty cards, they’re sure to be kept or passed on, meaning the url and name of her store is easily found - perfect for repeat orders.

But perhaps your work has more romantic feel? Less city chic, and more country cottage? These boxes by Nest Decorating again look like a wonderful gift, but create very different emotions to the boxes above:

Using thin ribbon and simple twine, she’s threaded her MiniCards to the box, and added a simple bead. Again, sure to be kept, these MiniCards promote her store and will surprise and delight her customers. If this is your style, do check out Tamar’s other uses of MOO they’re a real treat!

These are the main things to think about when using a box
• they protect your items
• they’ll probably be kept by the recipient
• they have a ‘gift’-like feeling - perhaps you could offer it as a paid-for extra?
• they can be easily personalised, or branded with a sticker or stamp
• they can be easily accessorised with ribbon
• they can be more cheaply accessorised with twine, or wool, sometimes the box itself is special enough.

Tissue

Tissue is much cheaper than a box, and a lot easier find - and store! It still gives extra protection to the item inside, but at the same time, creates a sense of eager anticipation. That noise as you rustle the paper! Should you tear it right off or open it gently? Either way, you’re already excited as soon as you’ve opened the envelope.

This item, is again packaged for the Nest Decorating store. Using just simple tissue paper she’s added a special touch with a bright ribbon - and again, a great use of a MiniCard.

And this little package is actually for a swap, rather than a sale, but it’s so nice, we thought you should see it anyway! Wrapped by Laura Fallulah, it includes a little charm, and several sheets of MOO Stickers. These stickers are actually MOO designs – but would work equally well with photos of your own products (great way to promote your range), or your logo, or url.

stickers are currently only available from MOO’s UK store - but we do ship them world wide.

These are the main things to think about when using tissue or paper
• cheap
• easy to store (packages flat!)
• easily available in many colours, so you can find a colour to suit your style
• available in co-ordinating colours so you can wrap many items in co-ordinating style
• simply branded or personalised with a rubber stamp
• very easy (and cheap!) to add nice touches - floral ribbons, stickers, platted yarn or twine

Plastic

Plastic doesn’t have to be mean to the environment. It’s possible to find recycleable and biodegradeable bags out there, and they’re quite cost effective and efficient. When packaged and used well, clear plastic can create a real sense of anticipation - you can see the item - all you want to do is get at it right now!

These packages by Yarnissima are really something. We’ve mentioned them here before, but they always strike us as a such a thoughtful and creative idea. Her shop sells wonderful yarn and patterns, and the packaging looks like a fantastic treat!

Crazycatladymel is another one that uses plastic to great advantage - look at these packages ready for swapping! Colourful bags of treats, you can see everything inside, but the candy striped twine and the MiniCard add the perfect finishing touches. You know who ever receives these will spend a few minutes looking at the package before they crack it open it for the goodies inside.

These are the main things to think about when using plastic
• cheap
• easy to store (again, packs flat!)
• works well with bright, colourful items inside
• works well for multiple items
• waterproof (more so than paper) so good for items travelling long distances
• slightly more ‘ordinary’ so the finishing touches really make it - colourful twine, ribbons and MiniCards.

We hope you’ve enjoyed these examples - in writing this we’ve realised there are lots more, different things you can do - all easy, and cost effective. We’ll leave it here for now, but we’ll be sharing even more ideas in the coming months.

Are you a seller? Or have you ever received a wonderfully packaged item from a seller?

We’d love to share more examples from the MOO community, so feel free to add your thoughts and ideas in the comments. Perhaps you’ve had a great ideas for your own store, or you’ve received a great package from an online seller? How did the package make you feel? Please do let us know what you think!

Taking the card carefully out of its case with gloved hands, we’d place it on the table and smile secretively to ourselves as we abseiled out of the window, landing deftly on a motor bike below. We’d head straight for the nearest impractical stairway we could find, and drive down it shouting triumphant phrases in multiple languages.

Our card of course, would contain no traditional names and numbers, just a beautiful, graphical representation of our unique DNA. You want to find me? Match up my DNA first!

Well. Something like that anyway.

In real life, a company called DNA 11 made these cards - and they’re a lot more practical, and a lot easier to produce than you may think. They can already create unique artworks from your own DNA, so they decided to make themselves some Business Cards with the same images.

Each image is created from a real-life swab (you get your own kit when you sign up!) The DNA is then extracted from the swab and run onto gel. A raw image is captured, which is then digitally enhanced and coloured.

The images they used for their own cards have been coloured in different ways - it makes a great looking pack and is the perfect way to showcase their business. They’ve also made some with fingerprints too.

If you like the idea of coloured packs, but not the idea of handing out your biological signature, we’ve recently added lots of new packs to the ColourLovers portfolio! You can mix and match designs, or buy Ready Made packs, with different colour themes.

We’re rather attached to this pack, Dreaming in Green, which looks great when fanned out as you offer them to a new contact:

And this City Slicker pack is good for a more ‘traditional’ businessy approach. Read what ColourLovers have to say about the new packs and palettes, on their own blog.