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Make a positive impact using negative space

Master the power of blank space and learn how to use white space in design with our guide.

Pile of extra thick white business cards with a minimalist design making use of negative space

Good design is not only about what’s there – it’s also about what’s not. In graphic design, white space can be an invaluable tool to bring out key elements and create eye-catching visuals.

What is negative space – or white space – in design? Master the power of blank space and learn how to use negative space in graphic design with our handy guide.

What is negative space?

To better understand negative space, you have to understand the concept of positive space first. Positive space is the area of interest in your design, the elements you want to draw attention to. Think of it as the subject. For example, on an artwork representing a chair on a blank background, positive space would be the chair itself.

Negative space, on the other hand, refers to the rest of your piece – the background, for instance. Also called “white space” (no, it doesn’t have to be white), it’s the quiet areas of your design that help it feel less crowded and bring focus to the key elements. In the example above, white space would be the blank background behind the chair.

Pen and note card with handwritten message standing on a white box. The card says with compliments and makes use of white space with a minimalist design.

Why is it so important?

We can’t stress enough the importance of negative space in design. Without it, there’s no focus – and with no focus, creating a memorable design is a lost battle. If it’s too crowded, you’re not offering the viewer a clear visual journey. It creates a confusing information overload – which, if it needs to be specified, is never a good thing.

White space gives your designs breathing room. It brings definition to your focal points, highlights your text, makes your images stand out, and helps you create a piece that makes sense visually.

Poster for a talk on the wall and WiFi flyer on a notice board in a tech company office. The prints are mustard and white and make use of negative space to make titles and icon stand out. There is a post-it on the notice board and a house plant in the corner.

How to use white space in design

Using white space in graphic design is all about finding the right balance between positive and negative space. This ratio can be what separates an OK design from a great one. Here are some tips to use negative space in design:

Alternate positive and negative space

To create balance and a sense of rhythm in your design, make sure you give each of your design elements enough room to stand out. You can group your elements by objective to assess how much space should be left between each item. For example, if you’re creating a Flyer for a festival, you might want to group the lineup together and put information such as the website and contact details in the same area. That means you’ll need to consider white space around each of these groups.

Discover how to play with empty space to create powerful minimalist business cards here.

Give more breathing room to key elements

While key elements will vary depending on your design, it’s essential that you identify the focal points before starting it. This way, you’ll be able to help viewers navigate it easily and access key information straight away by playing with negative space in your design. Give important elements such as titles (on Posters) or logos (on websites) more breathing space to make them pop even more.

Pile of extra thick white business cards with a minimalist design making use of negative space on a white background next to a penguin figurine

Play with contrast

When it comes to negative space in graphic design, contrast is everything. White space doesn’t have to be white. Choose colors that will help accentuate your design elements, it’s always a good idea to revise your color theory to pick the right palette. White space is also not necessarily “blank” it can be a pattern or even a picture, as long as it remains subtle and secondary to your focal points and allows the viewer to navigate the design easily.

Create powerful designs using negative space and bring them to life with MOO prints.

Monotype has been a prominent name in publishing and type design for over a hundred years. Over time, it has grown into a company that provides the design assets, technology and expertise that helps create authentic and impactful brands.

We spoke with Monotype’s Senior Director of Creative, James Fooks-Bale, about the power of communicating a company’s story through branding and typography design.

James Fooks Bale

From traditional to digital

Monotype’s rich heritage lies in the company’s abilities to stay ahead of the curve. “Monotype is known for reinventing itself on a regular basis,” Fooks-Bale told us. “To stay relevant, we need to keep up with design trends, communication methods, and technology so we can give brands what they need before they realize they need them.”

The company’s current technology reflects this, with font design offerings that include more than 2,500 font families, custom font creation, and platforms that let brands deploy visual marketing content. In 2016, Monotype acquired Olapic, a platform which allows companies to curate and activate content from consumers, request it from influencers, or create it themselves. “This allows brands to access content that will resonate with consumers and promote their products in more meaningful and authentic ways,” Fooks-Bale said.

With this product mix, Monotype stays true to its goal of helping customers create more authentic experiences with their audiences across every touchpoint.

Monotype office

The key brand ingredient

Why are the folks at Monotype so obsessed with fonts and design? “Type is a tool that you can use to emphasize your brand,” Fooks-Bale said. “In many cases, it’s more powerful than your other brand elements, like illustration or color, because it’s often carried through more of the brand touchpoints.”

Fooks-Bale offered the example of an airline. From their tickets to the bottom of their coffee cups, there are only so many places you can put the company’s logo. As Fooks-Bale put it, “One of the only ingredients that lets you carry through to every situation is fonts.”

“Visual and verbal actions are all part of a successful and authentic brand,” Fooks-Bale explains. “But if they are not joined up, it won’t be effective.” Monotype offers brands the ingredients to tell their stories in a way that’s consistent across touchpoints. This is key to enabling companies to develop an identity that aptly expresses what’s at the core of their brand.

Monotype office detail

Telling stories with type

While fonts are crucial to communicating a brand’s story, Monotype recognizes that each font has a history of its own, which is why they developed a series called Font Stories. These stories spotlight some of its most recent typeface designs, and get readers interested in how they came into the world. “There’s a story behind the fonts, whether it’s how someone approached the design, or what purpose the person envisioned the font was for,” Fooks-Bale said.

By highlighting these new additions to their library, Fooks-Bale hopes that people will give emerging font designs a chance. “Our library is huge, which you could argue is a fantastic thing,” he said. “Yet unless we provide a narrative to some of the fonts, we run the risk of losing some beautiful gems.” Through the Font Stories, Monotype plants the seeds to help brands assess the ways certain fonts can communicate a brand’s identity.

Monotype window in office

Living the Monotype brand

Monotype has offices across the globe, but works hard to be “one Monotype.” “We want our employees to live and breathe the brand,” Fooks-Bale explains. “Branding is not a department here—it’s inherent in everybody.”

To build brand consistency, Monotype designed its Business Cards to reflect its typography design heritage. The cards have snippets of Monotype’s fonts on the backs, which allows the brand to highlight its range of typeface designs. The type designs on the backs of the cards are updated frequently as new ones are introduced.

Monotype workspace

“We use the Luxe paper for our cards, which Mohawk produces, so it has more of a weight to it.” Fooks-Bale said. “To hand out these premium quality cards with a tactile feel really resonates more with the customers we typically work with.”

The design is easily modifiable and Monotype employees in all of their global offices can access them through their MOO Business Services platform. “We needed something that was quick and easy to produce,” Fooks-Bale said. “Having something that our offices around the world could order from was really helpful.”

Monotype business cards

Tell your brand story with MOO Business Services

At MOO, we’ve been helping people make their mark in the world with amazing quality print products for over a decade. And as our customers have grown, so has our service offering. That’s why for bigger businesses—with 10+ employees—we offer MOO Business Services. It’s MOO + benefits. MOO Business Services combines dedicated account management with an easy online ordering platform and expert design services. It’s a complete package for businesses to give you more brand control and consistency—while saving you time, stress, and money in the process.

Fill out the form here and a friendly Account Manager will reach out to you.

Originally published on Mar 05, 2019

Finding your muse can be a challenge, sometimes. If you’re tired, in low spirits, or burnt out, inspiration might not be your brain’s first priority, and it’s easy to think you’ve drained it all. Good news: there’s no hard limit to the weird and wonderful things your mind can produce. When inspiration slips away, a few tricks can help you find your lost mojo and remember what you love about creating.

Get inspired with the MOO creatives’ favorite ways to find inspiration.

Stop and smell the roses

If you’re stressed or down, finding inspiration can be a struggle, and you might end up in a vicious circle of guilt and frustration. Taking a break could be the best way to get your creativity and ideas back and running. 

Take it from Chelsea, Graphic Designer at MOO Design Services: “if you’re feeling a bit of a creative block, accept it and come back with fresh eyes another time. Nothing great is ever achieved when you try to force it, and the second time around, you may even notice things that your tired eyes didn’t the first time!”

Person holding a pink notebook and a frisbee

Cultivate serendipity

Staying inspired is all about noticing the little things and collecting ideas to feed your imagination. Whether it’s by scrolling through social media, watching a film, or meeting new people, there are sources of inspiration all around you. For Michela, Graphic Designer at MOO Design Services, collecting exciting visuals is an integral part of her creative process. “I’m always saving designs which give me that warm and excited feeling to a folder as I’m scrolling through Instagram – digital, print, ceramics, you name it! Whenever I feel stuck, I go back and look through those designs that excited me before, and it usually jumpstarts my creativity.”

The good news about serendipity is that you can cultivate it both inside and outside the comfort of your home. Millie, our Head of Design, likes to find inspiration in movies: “graphics in films are now huge and I love spotting all the creative work in them, from printed pieces to signage!”. Perfect for introverts. 

Every person that walks by probably has an amazing story to tell and learn from

If you’re ready to face the great outdoors, James, our Associate Creative Director, is always amazed by the new ideas that can spark from a random encounter. “Start conversations. It’s advice that I’ve not always followed in the past, but every person that walks by probably has an amazing story to tell and learn from.”

Get out (and about)

If you’re wondering how to get inspired, leaving the house can do wonders. It’s a suspiciously simple tip, but an incredibly effective one. Think of it as opening the windows to your brain and letting it breathe. You probably do it for your home – why not keep your mind to the same standard?

For Millie, taking the time to go for a stroll is a game-changer. “Go for a walk and take a different route – it is great for feeling refreshed and inspired.” It’s also a great opportunity to draw inspiration from your environment. Phil, Senior Designer at MOO, gets inspired by looking around on his walks: “getting out and about is always inspiring. I tend to take photos of things I’ve seen whilst walking around the streets of London; found type, interesting window displays, fun packaging – those types of things. I don’t often come back to them, but it’s nice to document.”

Just be nice poster on a wall covered in graffiti in London

Learn from the masters

Sometimes it’s good to go back to the basics – and remember what inspired you to create in the first place. Museums, galleries, but also libraries and other cultural institutions are a great stop to feed your creative mind. Like in science, we didn’t start creating “from scratch” – our work is influenced by hundreds of years of culture and socialization. It’s worth taking a peek!

Both based in London, Millie and Phil find visiting a gallery a great way to stay inspired. For Phil, galleries never fail to end a creative block: “I always want to create something after a visit to a gallery. The Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy is always full of so much amazing work it’s impossible to leave uninspired. The Design Museum and the Tate Modern are also my exhibition go-tos.” Millie, on the other hand, likes to find inspiration in more unexpected places: “Now [galleries] have opened up again, there are so many great exhibitions on. I often find visiting more unusual places like the Natural History Museum even more inspiring.”

3 people talking and taking notes about a design exhibition

Surprise your brain (and let it surprise you)

An uninspired brain is often a bored one. Stimulating it with exciting new things can be a good way to reset your creativity – especially if you’re wondering how to get inspired. For James, change helps you exercise your creative muscles. “Do something completely different to what you usually do. Draw with the wrong hand, try a new instrument, use a new tool. It’s good to jolt your brain out of autopilot from time to time.”

Chelsea lets her brain surprise her – and with her Journal, she’s always ready. “Use a journal to jot down ideas on the go when you catch inspiration. I always find I have the greatest ideas on the tube, in a park – once I’m away from my screen. If I don’t write them down straight away, I always forget them!”

Red Kate Moross notebook

Step off the track

James’ advice? Stay off the beaten track. “Look for inspiration in different places. Everyone else is following the same Pinterest boards, being influenced by the same designers and reading the same articles (including this one). The quickest way to be noticed is to do the opposite.” While it’s important to keep in touch with what’s trending in your industry, homogeneity can be a threat to your creativity. 

Vary your content diet to stay inspired and make your work stand out. That’s how Chelsea finds inspiration as a graphic designer: “don’t limit your research and inspiration to just graphic or print design. Some of the best color palettes I’ve made in the past have come from nature, natural fabrics and food!”

Stay inspired and bring your ideas to life with our cleverly designed Notebooks and Journals.

We’ve all seen some beautifully tragic business card fails in our days. We’re probably even still suffering from the WordArt aftermath. But while 3D curved fluo gradient text is a clear no-go for most people, there are other, less obvious mistakes you can make when designing your business cards.

Want to avoid business card mistakes? Discover our top design tips to make your business cards memorable – in the good way.

Think hierarchically

You want to bring focus to the most important information on your card. Think about your ideal scenario once people have your business card in hand. Do you want people to call, visit your website, follow you on social media? The answer should be the most prominent element of your business card – after your name and brand, obviously. 

People holding 3 business cards

Don’t overload

A common business card mistake is to include every single detail about you. Too much information will drown the essential and make your business cards less striking. Your design needs breathing space! By overcrowding your design with less important details, you’re depriving key information from a prominent place and making the call to action less clear. Plus, potential clients probably don’t need your MySpace.

Sim-pli-fy

Less is more. A business card is a physical product – that means your full site URL or Instagram link are not needed, because no one is going to copy paste them into their browser. Replace your https://www.website.com/ with website.com – we swear people will understand! In the same way, you can use your @accountname for social media just once, especially if it’s the same for all platforms.

Great Good minimalist business cards
Credit: @greatgoodcreative

Prioritize readability

Another big revelation: business cards are not big (especially if you choose our irresistible MiniCards). An easy business card fail is to prioritize aesthetics over readability. Make sure you use a font that’s not too lightweight and avoid overcomplicated script fonts for small text. The size of your text should also be considered. Check your design at real scale to test how readable it is. Lastly, make sure the color of your text contrasts with the background without blinding the reader. No, bright red on fuchsia is probably not a good idea.

Hands holding gradient business cards with a foil message

Be consistent

We’ll never repeat this enough: consistency is key! Your business card should represent your brand – even if your brand is just you. Make sure you use the same colors and fonts as your other materials – whether it’s your company branding or your résumé. A lack of consistency doesn’t make your business cards bad, but it makes them less memorable. Your potential clients or employers are more likely to remember you if you tell a visually consistent story.

Use the back

A bad business card is not necessarily an ugly one. Another very common mistake is being too… boring. Yes, your contact information is important, but so is what you’re promoting, whether it’s your coding expertise, your portfolio or your products. Use the back of your cards to show your range. With Printfinity, you can print a different design on the back of every Business Card in a pack at no extra cost. This way, you can showcase your favorite artworks like photographer Steve Carty or add a catchy tagline like on our All About Me template.

Forget about bad business cards! Design your own or use our templates to create memorable Business Cards with MOO. Worried about other potential fails for your business? Check out our guide to avoid packaging mistakes.

He might not have a motto, but Richard Moross definitely does have a lot of experience in all things MOO. He set up the company, after all. So we stacked a deck of burning (and not-so burning) questions in front of him and let him do the talking. The result was a mixture of business advice, Instagram follow advice, and what not to name your brand.

What’s your motto? 

I definitely don’t have a motto. I know what the Arsenal motto is. That’s Concor Cre… Actually, I don’t know what it is. I should create a motto. I’ll have one ready next time.

What’s coming next?

About 20 more questions that I’m not gonna be able to answer! From a business perspective, change. The business has grown a lot over the last 15 years. And the pandemic has forced us to rethink a lot of things, but also allowed us to think more freely about what the future can hold.

And the last 18 months have been very hard and devastating in some instances, but also there’s a lot of exciting new things to think about. We’re thinking about the business, and about sustainability in the business, in a different way. We think about our products in a different way, we think about our culture [in a different way]. So without giving too much away, I’m telling you that there’s a bright future, and it’s really exciting. And a lot of it has been based on the reflections of the last 18 months, and a kind of optimistic view of what comes next.

Why “MOO”?

The original name for the business was not MOO. The original name for the business was Pleasure Cards. It’s a terrible name. It has a lot of terrible connotations. So the idea was to reimagine, reinvent the business with a name that wasn’t “Pleasure Cards”, that didn’t really mean anything, was a bit more friendly, a bit more international. Short, memorable, a little bit strange.

There were a bunch of names that got shortlisted, I think MOO was originally written like the Greek Mu. I remember there was another company that had a similar name, and I was interested in that. And then it just became m, o, o. And then I saw that website was available, and started tinkering with logos and it stuck. And it has nothing to do with cows. [It’s] short, memorable, with two lucky o’s.

Desk with the pleasure cards brand name

What would you tell the “you” of 15 years ago?

I’d say in about 13 and a half years, go and live in the countryside, move to New Zealand. On a more serious note, there’s nothing I regret. I’ve obviously made mistakes, the business has done stupid things and discovered a lot of stuff along the way. And I think that’s all part of the really fun tapestry of building a brand and a business and growing a company. And the fun of growth is always making mistakes and messing things up and learning from them. It’s part of the process of getting better at what you do.

I don’t think I’d want to spoil it, either. I often think if I could [time travel] backwards or forwards, which would be more interesting or valuable. The journey has been brilliant, and I wouldn’t really change anything about it.

Why did it start with business cards? 

It didn’t, is the very simple answer to that. It started with pleasure cards, as I’ve already explained. So it was almost an effort to build a consumer version of business cards in the first instance. So it wasn’t about business, it was about the anti business card. And actually, in pursuing the creation of an anti business card, we ended up making business cards that were better than business cards of the time – bringing a lot of fun [and] design that was lacking. Talking to businesses in a new way, helping them in a new way. So in a way it didn’t start with business cards, it started with an attempt to subvert them.

Old MOO website interface

What brands have inspired you, then and now?

Brands that I thought were very well constructed, not necessarily a brand that evokes anything to do with MOO, but I was talking about how Orange did their branding when they launched as a mobile brand here in the UK, and just how tight and clever and crisp that was. I think if you look today, there are very well thought through brands like Oatly, who I think we talk about internally and admire a lot of the work that they do.

What advice would you give a young entrepreneur?

I can tell you some of the things that were taught to me that I practice today, that have been powerful and have helped. One of the things that one of our early investors, and board member for this whole time, Robin Klein, told me way back in 2006 was get the bank balance sent to you every day. 

And every working day of the year, I get the bank balance. I know exactly how much money the company has in the bank every day. And obviously it moves in and moves out. We pay salaries, we pay for services and so on, but it’s a very good pulse to the economic health of the business. It’s not a very sexy answer, but it’s a very powerful thing to be reminded of every day in the business.

What’s been the biggest challenge?

The last 18 months have been the biggest challenge. But if I think about the entire life of the business, it’s probably more subtle than that, in that you never really know how long it’s going to take it. I’ve described it before as being [like] you’re not sure whether you’re in a 100-meter race or a marathon. And pacing yourself, and managing your energy and managing the expectations of the team and your people and the board and your investors. 

Understanding what type of a race you’re in, how much energy to put in, how to preserve your emotional energy, your stamina, as an individual but for the whole company, is really important. And that’s ultimately how you end up surviving, getting through challenges, as it’s more of an underlying KPI for you. 

The last a few months have been enlightening, devastating, hard. I think where we’ve gotten to, what we’ve come through, how we’ve performed, how we’ve pulled together, how hard people have worked… has been amazing and very difficult, but the learning experience of my career, certainly to date.

MOO office in Farringdon, london

When did you think “This could be a business”?

It was clear on day one, when we had our first day of sales, that even for a funny little rectangular card, back in 2006. The first day when orders flooded in. We just knew it was there. You need economics [but you also need] what your customers are telling you and how they feel about it, and how they respond to it. And the powerful combination of those two things was validating really early on.

What’s a Pleasure Card?

Alright, so I’m going to give you the pleasure cards pitch from back in the day. I think I tell the story to our investors who invested in Pleasure Cards. They also subsequently invested in what MOO became after that, but credit to them for backing the idea. But the basic idea was [that] the business card has been around for 300 years [or so]. Like all technologies that have been ultimately adopted by consumers, businesses kind of took them on first. So it’s a product that companies have used very effectively for centuries to help their employees hand out their contact information. 

And the premise, back in 2006, and even earlier when I wrote the business plan, was [that] consumers now had far more ways to contact each other to share their time, their email, their mobile phone, their social network details, whatever it might be. So why shouldn’t consumers have the consumer equivalent of a business card? Which I called “pleasure cards” because it felt like when you go on a trip somewhere, they ask you “Are you there for business or for pleasure?” So it felt like pleasure was the opposite of business, although clearly a branding faux pas, and lots of learnings from that.

What’s been the most surprising way you’ve seen the products used?

Well, I know that I certainly use business cards as a thing to stop the table from rocking when I go to a restaurant. Guilty of that. And I think I use a Luxe, which is even more guilty, but very effective. So they do have a secondary purpose. 

Minimalist business card with Luxe Square business card from MOO

What’s the most important thing you’ve learned?

Probably to not stop learning, right? Being in a growth business like MOO is a learning experience. I mean, every day there’s something new to learn. I think the most important thing is being open to learning new things all the time and being open to making mistakes, but knowing that you don’t know it all, and being curious and hungry to learn more and to adapt and grow. I think that’s one of the great secrets of success.

What does Mr Hankey mean to you? 

So, Mr Hankey is the Christmas poo from South Park, I believe. And in the very week that we launched, one of our software engineers, Dan Burzynski, was asked to play a sound every time we got an order. Dan’s choice was “Howdy-ho!” which is one of the things Mr Hankey used to say. It was sampled, and every time MOO received an order from a customer, that sound replay in the office.

I think we started off with every order, which included free orders and promos and stuff. That got so annoying. We had to turn it on to paid orders, which after a while became so annoying that we had to turn it off entirely. I probably would have a Pavlovian response if it was played now. 

Who could you have not done this without?

There’s so many different people that have helped along the way, and I certainly could not have done it on my own. There have been extremely hard times where I was almost entirely dependent on having a brilliant team around me and a brilliant company to support what we were doing.

I suppose probably my family, my partner, my siblings, my parents. There’s no way that I could have done this whole journey without their help and support. Being a sole founder, I think it’s hard to be on your own when you have very difficult decisions. So family help. 

The board [and] my investors have been hugely supportive. They’ve been around for a very long time as well, and I’ve had mentors who’ve been in the long term and helped. So it takes a village to raise an entrepreneur, it seems.

Where would you most like to live?

I love living in London. London is an amazing city with so many different things going for it. Great history, diversity of food, music, people, cultures. But I would love to spend more time in Rome, which is another city that I also love. I’m not sure whether I could live there, but one day I will sabbatical in Rome.

Picture of Rome by Christopher Czermak

Who’s worth a follow on Instagram? 

I follow Rachel Roddy, who is a food writer for The Guardian. Every time she makes a delicious meal I look at it and I just think, “I want to eat that immediately.” She’s just written a great book, which I bought and am cooking my way through it at the moment. 

I also follow Plastic Free Hackney, and have learned a lot through watching their posts, being educational. I follow lots of designers. I follow people whose podcasts I listen to. But I would say, if you like Italian food, then Rachel Roddy is great.

What’s been your proudest moment so far?

Another super hard question! I think [because] it’s multiple peaks. I’m usually really proud of the people in the business when people do well, and they surprise me and I see them grow with the company. When I see people who are going from being the person being educated to person educated, and seeing them manifest.

I always like it when I’m surprised by how well people can articulate and deliver the brand when I’ve not been involved at all, I just think it’s really impressive. And I love seeing other people show a fully formed idea that’s completely, exactly what MOO’s about, visually, from an idea, architecture perspective, everything. I love seeing that.

It’s our 15th birthday this year. A lot of stuff has happened along the way, but whether you’ve been a customer since day one or you’re only just joining us now (hello!), we couldn’t have done it without you. But, before we start to blub, it’s time to cue the nostalgia – here are some of our most memorable moments so far.

1. Small beginnings

We started really small. Literally. The first thing we launched was MiniCards, which were (and still are) half the size of a regular Business Card. Of course, now our cards come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

Little metal rocket with an old orange MOO logo at the bottom

2. It was a pleasure

Before MOO was MOO, we were known as “Pleasure Cards”. As in business cards, but… pleasurable. It definitely seemed like a good name at the time, anyway. 

3. Creating a buzz

We once made tiny Business Cards for bees. Was it an April Fool? Yes. But the cards were 100% real. So if any bees are reading this and you’re looking to do some networking, give us a shout. 

4. MOO goes offline

There was once a real MOO shop inside a shipping container in East London. Confusingly it was called “moo.com” but was very much offline. Very handy place to pick up your print orders from, though. 

Open glass door with a MOO logo

5. Saving trees (and tees)

Our Cotton Business Cards are genuinely made from discarded T-shirt scraps that we recycle. These little scraps would otherwise go to waste, which seems a shame as they make excellent quality Business Cards. 

6. Royal approval

The Queen of England is a Printfinity fan. We even have her Award For Innovation to prove it. We actually stumbled on the technology almost by accident, but that seems to be the way with many a good invention. 

Yellow crown

7. Going green

The classic green MOO drop used to be pink. And blue. And a bunch of other different colors, come to think of it. Then we had a big swanky rebrand in 2014, when we all decided that green was our favorite color. 

8. Brobots

Little MOO, the friendly email robot, used to have a big brother – Big MOO – who is sadly no longer with us. How can a printer and an email robot be related you ask? We’re not sure, but the DNA is a perfect match, and you can’t argue with science. 

9. Heart-felt

For many years, each MOO employee would get their very own felt doll after two years’ service. They were made by the wonderful Helen Greenstein who is still a master of all things soft and fuzzy. 

10. Good Luxe

In 2012, we set about making the thickest Business Cards ever. And the result was Luxe. our extra thick, high-end (almost too fancy to hand out) range. 

Deconstructed Luxe business card by MOO with layers of colored paper sandwiched between two sheets of premium paper

11. MOO and you, and you…

We’ve done a LOT of collaborations. From designers like Kidyeah and Helen Friel to THREE different team-ups with author Seth Godin. There were also those nice Postcards with Patternity. So basically we just really like collaborating. 

12. US-Yay!

In 2009, the first drop of MOO ink fell on American soil, as our Rhode Island facility opened its doors. The state song is apparently “Rhode Island, It’s For Me” and that was definitely true for us. Just don’t ask us to sing the tune. (We’re very bad at singing.)

MOO white label packaging with the american flag

13. Offline timeline

A Facebook exec loved his MOO Business Cards so much he invited us to become the go-to site for printing Timeline profile pictures. The service automatically gathered your information and created a custom card that mimicked your social profile. Great! (Sadly it didn’t catch on.)

14. Scribblers, rejoice

We’ve loved paper since day one, but it wasn’t until 2016 that we launched our very own Notebooks. Like a Business Card, only bigger and with hundreds more pages. It was the start of things to come. 

15. Thanks a £100 million

In 2018 we reached a marvellous milestone: £100 million in revenue. Not too bad for a humble little print company, eh?

And now, after 15 years, we’re about to unwrap something new. It’s all very secretive right now, but we’re pretty sure it’ll feature on the “30 moments from our first 30 years” blog post in 2036. See you then!

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