Category: enterpreneurs

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uwpluxe.com – O, such painfull name

Do you know them? Interesting! But not quite Original pop-up cards.
The cryptic name “uwpluxe.com” ensures that you are going to forget it quickly.
Straightforward construction. It catches my attention for two reasons.
1) They supply a nice selection of pop-up cards to MOMA NY “Museum of Modern Art.”
2) Simplicity of the construction of the cards on the border of boredom.

No, they are quite nice but seeing the selection of available cards, I put them above the Chinese/Vietnam-designed cards (Too ornamental) and below the British ones.
What attracts my attention is that one of the designs mimics one of my first ever designs (Green wardrobe). Of course, this is their own (White Color) interpretation, but I think the designer may have difficulty coming out with their own new subject.

Surprisingly I see one of their best designs in the “sale” section of their website. “Dream Big” card.

I think this “Southwest Skull” subject may play well in the EU but not in the United States of America where people subconsciously avoid subjects referring to the painful areas of American Lives and the feeling of guilt.
The world “stockists” used on their site suggests that the owner of the web site is from the other shores, a lucky escapee from the abyss of Brexit
So we wish them good luck but, overall we are not impressed.

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Up with Paper. Pop-up simplicity.

When I first saw “Up with Paper” greeting cards I was impressed with their small square cards. Their traditional book format was something new in the right size, and they were a success story with virtually no competition. Graphic3D existed much longer but was and still is invisible, focusing on a steady business market. Far away from the hustle and bustle of retail. I think “Up with Paper” initial success was not justified for a period of time because their made in China cards did not stand out exactly with their quality. Their rough-cut pieces glued together did not make an impression when inspected close up. It changed, and now you can enjoy well made and designed cards with nice simple artwork. I do not see any new concepts, but as with every established business, they focus on their proved holdings. A nice choice for occasional mailings to your friends and family. They also try their hands on a small collection of pop-up books. I am less impressed with it, but they addressed it to kids, and apparently, some kids enjoy their work.

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Your Christmas Card may pay you well.

December is the time we can see collections of Christmas Cards posted all over the offices. I never asked what is happening to this display after Christmas time is over. Mostly this is a missed opportunity to keep your name up the front of your client’s eyes.
Nobody keeps them and there is no reason to do that. The usual generics with simple messages and very simple designs are not exactly eye and heart catchers.

Smart Marketers know well that 3-dimensional mail has an unusually high 25 to 50% response rate. and that’s why smart companies like graphics3inc  are selling pop-ups almost exclusively to business customers.

Every few years they refresh their existing contraptions with new graphics and with a limited number of designs they serve their customers for more than 20 years. You can grab some of their designs right away from their website.

If you like something original there is the option. Contact us with your requirements and we will provide an original design with original art and higher impact than any generics.

Pop-up cards

1. Grabs authentic attention2.
3. Create an instant positive impact

4. Have very high response rates.
5. They leave a lasting impression.

 

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The end of the Reign of the Ring Binder.

 Friedrich Soennecken inventor of the Ring Binder should certainly wake up from his well-deserved final rest knowing that finally there is something/ somebody good enough to challenge his invention “Ring-binder” 133 years long reign in every office on the earth.

To my surprise, the new solution comes not in form of a complicated mechanism but as a single, flexible sheet of material cut a certain way. All rings and metal parts are eliminated. And it works. There is no sticking-out spine always taking the same space on the shelf even if empty. The New Ring-Less Binder is flexible and quite pleasant to handle, the same as the rest of this new family serving the same binding functions.

The Challenger has no worldwide ambitions currently trying to find a licensee for his invention in the U.S. and then eventually in the E.U.

This is not the first time the Reign of the Ring is challenged. There are numerous challenges to its rule sponsored by many companies. None of them were successful, lingering on the fringe of the Office market mostly due to the fact that they introduce their own sets of problems.

In the U.S. there is an additional problem with the office market dominated by very few big players with immense financial resources not taking any risks when it comes to the introduction of a product competing with their well-established best sellers.

To make things more palatable for inventors the 2011 Leahy–Smith America Invents Act effectively makes U.S. patents worthless and unenforceable by a small player not having financial resources to finance legal challenges. Leahy-Smith’s act sponsored by Big Tech effectively enables “Efficient Infringement” practiced by already established companies barring entry to the market for eventual startups/competition. Introduced by this legislation PTAB (Patent Trial and Appeal Board ) enjoys well-deserved fame as a ” Patent killing squad” invalidating by own admission 84% of all challenged patents. The effect: Invention exodus to more promising lands already caught politicians’ attention in Congress. The problem is that the incoming Biden administration is already (11/29/20) hiring people from Big Tech with a cozy relationship with the Obama White House.

5 Ring-Less binders by Alfac.us
Ring vs Ring-less
compare Ring-Less with empty Ring binder

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Smart-ass Art

Searching crowdfunding pages, I stumbled upon a Political figure. Mrs. Nancy Pelosi in a pink dress. She looks quite well, even with the pink mask covering her mouth and nose. And there are a few more figures, all of them from the democratic side of the political spectrum. On another site, I spotted Mr. Trump’s image supposedly in the form of quite an ugly doll with a face I would never recognize as the image of the “Stable Genius” Anyway, somehow, it passed the test for others because I see quite many buyers. Intrigued, I checked google for images of more of Mr. Trump’s dolls. And there is plenty of them, quite frankly with faces bearing No or minimal resemblance of our hero. But people still are attracted. I myself was thinking about making a small sculpture resembling our Lysol salesman aka stable Genius as Sumo Fighter with the name:” The Rage,” but the long time effort needed to bring in buyers would not be aligned in time with the spectacle of political theatre bringing in the fans, what apparently are using entrepreneurs advertising political “Action heroes.”

Checking more I see that not every effort trying to capitalize on the political grotesque succeeded because I see 6 other attempts to sell the same subject but all of them appear too ugly in terms of the inability of the creators to do good design. Only Trump Troll Dool succeeded.