Blog – Studio Flash

The Studio Flash Strategy

Joachim — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 09:19:15 +0000

Studio Flash =

1) our own drawings and illustrations

We start brainstorming, the most crazy ideas first. There is always somebody (me, Jolien ) keeping the brainstorming crowd in the Real Life,

stating things like ‘we need a card for a newborn’ or ‘wait, we do not need Christmas ideas now, that’s next collection’.

After the brainstorm, we start sketching. And next step is drawing it on our iPad.

Important: our drawings always consist of max 2 colors.

Because:

2) our own letterpress printing

We print all our greeting cards ourselves in our garage on an old printing press “Heidi”, from the 1950s.

That is labor intensive and that is why we limit ourselves to 1 type of paper, 1 format, and max. 2 colors.

Because every color is a new print run.

By printing ourselves, we can really stay on tops of things in terms of popular or less popular designs and we have a larger margin to put in our own pocket per card.

That brings us seamlessly to part 3, because by printing ourselves, our margins are quite good to do:

3) our own distribution to shops (wholesale)

We do not sell directly to the end consumer. That strategy would however make more money per greeting card.

So why don’t we?

We choose to only sell to (the coolest) shops. As a result, we earn less per greeting card, but we can invest a lot more time in designing and printing, which we enjoy doing. Shops are returning customers. Once you have one in your pocket, they usually keep on ordering rather large orders for years to come. Because we print and design ourselves and try to keep everything as efficient as possible (see previous points;)), this strategy allows us to offer good prices for us, the shops and the end consumer. I think this balance is an essential element in our success. Everybody happy ;).

I’m not saying the Studio Flash strategy is the only successful one,

Certainly not!

Other competitors apply other strategies successfully,

With, for example, a mix of custom work or no own printing but both B2C and B2B sales, …

Everyone their own recipe for succes!

TOP 10 BESTSELLERS OF 2020

Joachim — Thu, 07 Jan 2021 13:56:42 +0000

Our top 10 of the weirdest year ever 2020 is in!

And these are the winners:

1. P06 ‘Dandelion’

A classic one, the dandelion. The card is used for condolences, as well as good luck, just to express your sympathy for someone, to send out wishes,…

2. A31 ‘happy…’

How cool, this card always appears in our top 10 since it’s launched. You really appreciate the multiple choices for multiple occasions and the humor of this one, I guess?! Designed by Joachim.

3. A54 ‘cassette fuck you’re old’

Always making people smile, even with the dirty f-word on it. People just like to be remembered by the good old times when things appeared to be much more simple, especially in uncertain times like these.

4. D12 ‘washing line’

A cute one on place 4! Especially during times like these, when people can not visit the newborns, sending out a card to congratulate the parent(s) on their little, cute baby is pretty much on trend. Designed by Joachim.

5. D25 ‘stork with baby’

Another one for the newborns! I love this one as well, since it combines the more romantic idea of a stark carrying the little baby and people taking pictures with their phone (even a selfie). Designed by Esther.

6. C17 ‘I heart you’

Most of the times the most simple message and drawings are the bestsellers, right?! This is the perfect example! The design is just so simple and that’s what makes it beautiful. Designed by Joachim.

7. A58 ‘Stay wild’

This one on place 7, that always amazes me. I (Jolien) really like the card (I designed it myself ). But I did not think it would turn out to be a bestseller. I guess other people relate to it as much as I do and that fact makes me very positive about the future!

8. C06 ‘hearts’

For all love(rs) out there. An oldie as well, one of the cards designed for the very first series of letterpress cards we made. By Jolien.

9. D18 ‘alarm clock manager’

Based on our own life (which card isn’t? ) this card is very popular since… it is true! Hahaha. Designed by Jolien

10. A37 ‘i wish you…’

This card appears in our top 10 since forever! Haha. People just like the humor and the possibility to choose a message. Designed by Joachim (or was it Jolien? I do not remember… oops).

And I can not not mention this fun fact:

On place 13: F64 ‘all the other cards were really shit’. Haha. I guess this puts all the other cards, bestsellers and my analysis in perspective. Designed by Joachim (he designs all the cards with the ‘bad handwriting’ stuff… hihi)

Is Corona the last push to digital – or the contrary?

Joachim — Thu, 09 Apr 2020 06:41:36 +0000

To webshop or not to webshop, that’s the vital question

I know what you are all thinking: this corona crisis is one big shift into a more digital way of working, living and doing business. We see two evolutions among our customers: those that had already dedicated the time to create a web shop are now damn happy they did, and then there are the brick and mortar shops and boutiques that resisted this evolution who are now -hush hush- creating their own web shop.

I get you, I would do the same. When you see your revenue drop to zero in just a matter of days, you’ll do anything to survive.

We too were contemplating starting our own B2C web shop. Ha! I promise that’s something we would never in a million years have considered before. It just shows how we all behave when the panic is raging through our bodies. So, rest assured: we’re NOT setting up that B2C shop.

Non-essential products

Greeting cards and web shops – we know from experience- are not always a perfect match. With the exception of specialized stationery web shops, all other shops don’t consider our collection of cards very essential to their online environment. To the extent that they don’t even put them in their online displays. Auch, that one felt like a dagger to the heart.

However, we get why. Cards, especially our letterpress high quality ones, are the perfect impulse buy in real life: you touch them, you see the 3D effect and it excites you. From a business point of view, it’s all about the bottom line and greeting cards do not generate a whole lot of income for web shops, especially those that sell high ticket items.

But wait… don’t give up on us yet, we DO deserve a spot in your online shop window, and I’m going to tell you why.

The Online Corona Effect?

You sometimes hear from businesspeople that this global corona lockdown will go into the history books as THE moment where we all embraced the digital life for good. I don’t agree with this at all. A few weeks at home, with our only social contact consisting of online conversations: it will not suddenly turn all of us into 100% digital creatures.

Now 4 weeks into our lockdown in Belgium we start realizing how essential -yes, essential! – a life outside of the digital realm is. We are craving real hugs, a real face-to-face conversation, touching real products not just looking at pictures of them, real sunshine on our faces, the smell of nature, the feeling of watching a football game with thousands of others, the taste of a beer on a real buzzing terrace, the heartwarming small-talk with our favorite shop owner.

Post-lockdown, everything that was scarce to us (physical shops, restaurants, get-togethers with friends, travelling, etc.) will be in HIGH demand. Make sure you’re ready.

The shift to the web was a practical choice

So, here’s a thought, what if the shift to an online shop is not more than a practical one – a way to make a living.

Yes, I do believe that a lot of brick & mortar shops will keep their online boutiques once this crisis is over, as it might be just another way to deliver service to busy customers.

And yes, a lot of companies might discover that their employees are as productive from home as when they are “watched” every day.

Yes, yes, we are all very happy we have access to the internet nowadays. Skyping with the grandparents, having a Zoom cocktail night with friends, Facetiming our colleagues, etc. it’s all very practical and effective. Some of these habits might even stick around when healthier times are back. I hope they do; they are useful ways to keep our human connections alive.

Countermovement: spending money on REALNESS

So, we believe a strong countermovement is on its way, a full-on realness craze.

Once the government gives us the go, we will be doing city trips, partying in real life clubs, drinking dry martini’s in the sun with A LOT of people around us. We’ll love to go shop in beautiful shops and touch and feel the beautiful creations. We will love to invest in a bit of physical beauty. We are out of balance right now, now that our inner social beings are not allowed to thrive. And we’ll have the desire to set this injustice right as soon as we’re able to. If there is one thing that corona has taught us, it’s that a real world is still very valuable to all of us.

Hang in there, better times are coming. We promise.

Esthers top 10 personal favorites

Joachim — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 14:41:20 +0000

The op 10 of Esthers personal favorites!
Esther works at Studio Flash since the beginning of times :), and she knows our cards best, since she’s the one printing them.
So her personal top 10 should be interesting.
Let’s go:

1. A01 ‘Gefelicitaart’

This is one of the first cards I helped to design with Studio Flash and that’s why it is still dear to me. I remember being so amazed to see the process from idea to sketch to a printed result. I am still a little bit proud every time someone orders this card

2. D19 ‘Mamaaaa’

I can’t think of anything more iconic than Freddy Mercury throwing his fist in the air while singing the Bohemian Rhapsody. The large speech bubble represents his loud, powerful voice perfectly and it is overall one of my favorite drawings of the whole collection (made by Jolien). It was my mom who introduced me to the songs of Queen and we used to sing them together while cleaning the house or doing other chores. This card is so perfect for her. Every time I see it, I think of my mom.

3. ‘Delivering your birthday’

One of my biggest guilty pleasures is being lazy and ordering food (while there is plenty of food in the fridge!). It is probably way too expensive and the delivery guy has seen me in my pajamas way to many times… but I can’t help it. The food is too good! Ordering a cake on my birthday? Definitely something I would do!

4. C24 ‘Yoda one for me’

Yes, I am a Star Wars fan (not the prequels though ) and Yoda is, in my opinion, the best character of the movies. I just love printing this little man.

5. ‘Level up’

This card is inspired by old school 8-bit videogames. I used to be really into the playing the gameboy when I was younger, which was also the cause of many fights between me and my sister. We played for hours and would alternate between levels. I still think it’s wonderful how a simple 8-bit program on a small screen can create such great memories. That’s what I also like about this design. It is so simple and clean, but you can personalize it by filling in the level and making it your own.

6. F26 ’Sunburn’

I think this little guy is just a hilarious drawing and the message is so simple, yet so recognizable. The use of color in this card is also really cool and I always have a lot of fun printing the pink layer which gives this guy his sunburn.

7. C48 ’Sushi love’

I am just very happy with this design. It was a quick sketch that turned out just right and didn’t need a lot of adjustments. Sometimes a design process is as simple as that!

8. J11 ‘Zig-a-zig-aah’

As a 90’s kids I just have to love this card. I think the Spice Girls came out with ‘wannabe’ when I was only 1 years old so technically am am too you to really remember this… But when I see this card, the song immediately gets stuck in my head.

9. F34 ‘Great hairdo’

I don’t think a lot of explanation is needed here… A light joke like this sometimes is the best way to cope with the crazy, confusing political situation we hear about on the news. I would love to give this card to a bald person some day though

10. C20 ‘I would still love you’

What is it about socks in sandals that makes it soooo unattractive?! I think caring about someone despite their questionable fashion choices must be true love . And yes, I have given this card to my boyfriend before (Sorry Arne).

Why we decided to not pack our cards anymore

Joachim — Thu, 05 Mar 2020 10:29:50 +0000

We got a lot of reactions to our announcement that from the 1st of May 2020 we will no longer package our letterpress cards in plastic cellophane bags.

Fortunately, the vast majority of you are very positive about this decision. There were of course also a number of questions / comments / feedback. Thank you for taking the time to send them to us!

We would like to respond to a number of comments in this blogpost and, in particular, to include you in our thinking process that preceded this decision. It is anything but a reckless decision.

Are our customers ready?
We think so.
Europe is ready too. From 2021 there will be a ban on disposable plastic in the EU.
In other words, there is no escaping. As an entrepreneur, we simply like to be proactive.
More so: at Studio Flash we regularly receive an e-mail or DM asking why our cards are packed in plastic.
People (end customers!), who take the time and effort to look us up and contact us online. In our opinion, that is a tip of the proverbial melting iceberg (pun intended) of people who are annoyed by disposable plastic.

Why not biodegradable plastic?
Biodegradable and compostable plastic (PLA) at first glance appear to be ecologically very interesting, but in practice they are not.
Yes, they are technically biodegradable, but the conditions in which they are biodegradable are so specific (50 + °C, CO2 needed etc etc) that it is simply not such a good alternative to regular (PPO) plastic. In practice, they are often only industrially compostable, and are not collected separately as such.
Moreover, this type of plastic is NOT recyclable, in fact, it currently contaminates the recycling process of regular plastic.
And also, biodegradables are more fragile and sensitive for humidity and sunlight. Not really handy as well.
Doesn’t sound ideal right? That’s because it isn’t …
There is a term for that, people call this greenwashing.
(want to read more?
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191030-why-biodegradables-wont-solve-the-plastic-crisis
https://eradicateplastic.com/what-are-the-problems-with-biodegradable-plastic/)

Aren’t the cards going to get dirty faster?
In fact, it’s the envelopes that get dirty faster than the cards. We therefore decided to include a number of free spare envelopes with every order, in proportion to the size of the order.

We did a months long test case here in our studio. The letterpress cards did not become crooked or discolored by sunlight. And our test carousel stood by the window, next to a door that regularly opens and closes. Very similar circumstances than an average store. Remember: our cards are high-quality letterpress printing, not an off set or digital print! An important difference in terms of being resistant to the natural elements and enthusiastic customers. So don’t compare our cards with a collection of unpackaged postcards that you may already have in your store, that is a bit of comparing apples and pears.
More so: we strongly believe that the quality of the letterpress printing and the colors stand out much better without plastic around it.
In the evening light at sunset, for example: breathtaking! I tell you.

Will the cards sell less?
As mentioned: at the moment we already receive direct questions from end customers as to whether we do not sell our cards without packaging.
A number of our own customers (stores) even consciously remove our cards from the packaging and thereby indicate that they see no difference in the sales figures of the cards.
In our opinion, no end customer will have a problem with the fact that the cards are not packed, but they clearly have a problem if they are packed.

Less practical
Admittedly, from a practical point of view, it is less handy in nature, those unpackaged cards. But more beautiful and more sustainable. It seems to us that this is precisely why customers come to you and not to the large (online) chain around the corner or the Amazons of this world. Someone must dare to stick their neck out and take the lead. Let’s do this together.

Fuck the sidelines, doing business is daring (to change), going for it and making the world a better place. There is no planet B, let’s just join forces and create a beautiful earth!

Joliens top 10 personal favorites

Joachim — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 14:19:00 +0000

We get this question a lot: what’s your favorite Studio Flash letterpress card?
And to be honest, I think my answer is always different. Hihi. So picking only 1 favorite card, no, that’s not gonna work.
Let’s make my personal top 10 of our Studio Flash letterpress collection !
Totally unbiased

1. A02 ‘Party Lama’

Well, it might not be the most beautiful drawing I ever made, and I guess it is kind of egocentric to choose a design of myself as the first one in my personal top 10, yes, I know, but i have my reasons. This card is on of the oldest cards of our collection. It still stands strong and even after all these years is one of the bestsellers of 2019. I don’t know how many Party lama’s we sold over the years in total, but it most be around 5000 times. Lots of lama’s partying, right? This lama also symbolizes my self-esteem when it comes to drawing and designing my very own cards. As you might know: I am not a graphic designer or illustrator. I am a sociologist I did not study sketching lama’s whatsoever. No problem at all, apparently, and when I look at this Party lama I know it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what you did or did not study, what your degrees are, how fancy your drawing equipment is (this one is drawn on a very basic & cheap Samsung tablet with a pen we got for free) or how much time you spend on it (10 minutes? Maybe? Even less on this one? ). You earn 1000 of euro’s with a little creator like this Lama having a party.

2. C16 ‘Jij lekker dier’

This one has to have a very high place in my top ten. I am even thinking about getting it tattooed somewhere on my arm or something. Joachim made this ‘lekker dier’ (loosely translated: sexy beast) and somehow it makes me so happy every time I look at it. Joachim might not agree but for me it is the perfect drawing of a crazy little fox, the perfect amount of awkwardness versus skills. Or something that sounds like I know what I am talking about

3. C47 ‘I love you to earth and back’

There has to be at least one card with a blue gradient in my personal top ten of Studio Flash letterpress greeting cards, right? it became one of our key features: printing gradients. I love it, because the result is so beautiful. But I also love our gradients because it is part of our history as autodidacts. I am not an illustrator or graphic designer, and so isn’t my husband Joachim. And we even had no experience whatsoever with printing, especially not with letterpress printing. It is all due to Youtube and Google, many hours online and many hours of trial and error Joachim somehow mastered the printing part of our business. And it is mainly because of our naivety and open-mindedness we came up with printing these gradients. It is our very own technique based on our very own logical thinking and trying out new things.
So why this one with the aliens in space? Its a drawing by our co-worker Esther, and first of all I like the drawing itself. Secondly I really like the reference to the more cliche version of the quote used over here “I love you to the moon and back”. I like it that we came up with a different take on it, laughing a little bit with the over use of the original quote. And I really like the way the earth is almost invisible, it gives the images more depth and makes it more exciting.

4. A53 ‘Confettigirl’

The confetti girl, oh, she steals every heart! It just works, and I love the way the red of her little dress and shoes is not outlined in black. These little details make it into one of my favorites. And since this little confetti girl sells like hell, I guess I am no the only one loving her positive attitude!

5. Z34 ‘Sexy christmas’

I designed this one myself. #proud And I still like it. It’s inspired by an old Playboy cover, if I remember it correctly. I think it’s quite sexy and empowering at the same time. #newfeminism

6. Q02 ‘Happy baby – happy parent’

Oh. This one comes with a long story of how it felt for Joachim and me to become parents for the first time. And how we struggled with it the first months. And how sometimes we still struggle. I’ll skip to the best part: somewhere along the struggles we combined all of the well-meant advice into this simple diagram. Because that’s what matters the most. Oh, and i like the colors. Oh, and I like the fact that it doesn’t say happy baby – happy mommy. I hate it when it’s only about the mommies, like there are no fathers? Let’s just use the more gender neutral word parent ;).

7. F35 ‘Bring on the choco’

It should be my life motto. It isn’t. I need a reminder now and then. This card does the trick!

8. I16 ‘Cat on a grass machine robot’

I like e-ve-ry-thing about this card.I mean, a cat always makes you smile. And one of these grass machine robots, OMG, how funny are they? I don’t know how popular they are in other countries, over here in Belgium people tend to like a well mowed little lawn. Haha. It cracks me up every time I see such a small machine strolling around a lawn. I like the grumpy expression on the cats face combined with the party hat. And I definitely like how you see a line of mowed grass where the robot must have worked its automated magic.

9. C49 ‘Ti amo’

Joachim is not going to like this choice :). I know he is not that into this card, but I am. I like the overall result and I like the fact that we made it together. I drew the spagetti, Joachim drew the horses. And I think that turned out to be very romantic

10. Z51 ‘May all your pinterest dreams come true’

I am a huge Pinterest and Instagram scroller. Never ending Pinterests feeds with dreams and hopes fill my account. I virtually created many Pinterests dream lives, with beautiful houses, several wedding parties, perfectly styled little children, and always cute newborns who never poop or cry. I love the tensions between dreaming and creating your dreams. And how it depends on the lighting, photography skills and styling of your pictures ;). I mean: who didn’t try one of those dreamy pinterest ideas and totally failed at it? And when you did not fail, you took million pictures and posted them all over the place, right? At least I did. But if all your Pinterest dreams did come true, would it make you happy? I don’t think so. So this card comes with a sting, and that’s how I like it.

Time for some Showup inspiration

Joachim — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 20:35:53 +0000

Showup February 2020: you were a-ma-zing!

We did not only welcome a lot of new resellers to the Flashy Family,

we got some really enthusiastic feedback and soooo much positive vibes,

and last but not least we met some really cool Showup co-exhibitors and got inspired by these brands and their stands:

&Klevering

The coolest (and possibly the biggest) stand of this edition by far in our opinion was the &Klevering booth. Bright, flashy colors (of course we love that ), very nice way of using some unusual pedestals (like painted styrofoam) and of course crazy cool products. We were impressed!

2. Studio Roof

Studio Roof is one of the brands at Showup and other tradeshows that steal our heart every time. And now even more: look at those colors, those shapes and who does not want one of their little pieces of art at their wall? And it turned out it all started very small, a little family business, out of their own home. Haha. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Let’s put it this way: Studio Roof is one of our business examples :).

3. Foukje Fleur

Ecology is one of our key values at Studio Flash & This is waste, so of course Foukje Fleur has to be on our list! We totally love their soap and soap holder. Beautiful, practical, eco-friendly and childproof, we know that one out of our own experience.

4. Kitsch Kitchen

It is so inspiring to see how a brand known for its Mexican colors and oilcloths still manages to stay on trend somehow and at the other hand definitely keeping its own identity. Not an easy balance, but as far as we can tell a job well done.

5. Umasqu

Just totally in love with these pieces of wall art! I just want them all

6. Susan Bijl

Points for the most original stand of this edition for Susan Bijl. And of course we share their eco-friendly philosophy as well. #thereisnoplanetb

7. WALLY and WHIZ

Nordic winegums you have to taste! Seriously considering to upgrade the candy in our stand to these ones next Showup edition. Stay tuned…

8. koda amsterdam

Recycling waste to the max! At Studio Flash we recycle our very own paper waste into brand new products (www.thisiswaste.com) and we upcycle old books into new notebooks and envelops. So of course koda amsterdam with these beautiful bags made out of tents has to be on our inspiration list of Showup 2020!

9. Studio Nok Nok

We are not only a customer of their jewellery, we also love their very cool stand lay-out. The wooden rail on their backwall presenting their earrings is just genius. Oh, and of course, one of the Studio Nok Nok designers Fleur used to work at Studio Flash ;). We are fan!

10. Studio Macura

A totally new discovery for us at Showup this February: Studio Macura. We met their Belgian representative at the network drink and even though our stands couldn’t be further away from each other, I am very happy I took the time to have a look at their crazy beautiful products. Totally different from our products and style, but definitely made with the same amount of love.

Handmade In Belgium Award

Joachim — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 13:49:51 +0000

It was 2018. In an impuls Jolien signed up for this concours by Unizo (= union for self-employed in Belgium) called ‘Handmade in Belgium Award’.
I mean, what did we have to loose?

Nothing! We gained! A lot!
We won the Handmade in Belgium Award for our district (East-Flandres).
We met some really nice fellow makers (you can check other Handmade in Belgium Makers over here!),
got this beautiful award and made friends with Unizo.

But I think the best of all was: we had to pitch our company to a jury.
So we had to take the time to put a few things in words: our values, our story, our goals.

The pitch went well,
and we got some good questions afterwards from the jury that made us think even more about what we want to stand for.
By now I think if we would have to pitch our company again, it would be even more clear, more vision, and even more passion (is that even possible? I don’t know )

This pitch for Unizo gave us that little push of self-esteem we needed to get us further, to make this blog, to get on more stages in real life and virtual.
So thank you Unizo for this award,
and the label.
A label for Belgian Makers ==> loving it!

(photo credits: Unizo)

Environmental Manifesto

Joachim — Mon, 27 Jan 2020 09:25:07 +0000

You might already know this, or you don’t and then I am about to tell you all about it:

we at Studio Flash are pretty much hippies. Hahaha.

Yes, we are and always were. Although I may have to explain what we think our self-stated hippie-status is about:

it is about taking care of our planet.

Because we only have one and it would be nice if our own lives and definitely the lives of the ones to come are lived on a beautiful, more or less balanced and definitely green earth.

So that’s why for us one of our key values of our business (and lives o be exact) is ecology.

Since we know we are hippies, and now you know we are hippies, what do we hippies do to put our key value of ecology into practice?

Well, here is our one and only ‘Environmental Manifesto’!

Waste reduction
CO2 neutral
Green energy
Raw materials sourced locally
Recycling
Minimizing Transport
Even reducing other local companies’ waste
Fast Consumption Ban
The bigger Picture
The little things
Innovating

– Waste reduction

One of the key topics here at Studio Flash is trying to reduce our waste to the bare minimum.

Since we print about 20,000 cards each month, maximizing the efficiency of this particular part of our business is the most important.

So one of the things we do that has the biggest impact is reducing our paper waste.

How we do this? We buy our paper from our supplier already cut to the size of our cards, except for a small piece at the top of the card of a few millimeters. This little piece is needed for our beloved Heidelberg press (Heidi, the printing beast) to have some grip on the paper. This little piece of paper (… mm x …mm) and our misprints is the only paper waste we have. For the misprints we of course first of all try to make sure we have as little as possible by perfecting our printing skills. The misprints we do have and the little pieces of paper waste we do have, are recycled. By ourselves. Here at our Studio Flash HQ. Later more about this recycling.

That’s the main part of our waste reduction, but we do so much more of this. Prevention is the key: we try to only buy to raw materials and things we need. No big stocks. if we design a new product, even a new card, we keep in mind it might not be a hit, so we produce not too much of it. Keepin’ it lean, baby. Packaging and filling materials from our suppliers are reused to send out our own packages, products/stand material used at trade shows are reused as much as we can, even our furniture in our Studio Flash headquarters are made out of (our own) waste most of the time. Eco-efficiency is a mindset, and it often equals economical efficiency.

– CO2 neutral

Since we still work with paper goods, still have to transport our products to places all over the world, still sometimes need to take a plane to go to a foreign tradeshow (although we keep that one to a bare minimum as well), and so on, we do have CO2 emissions as a company. We are of course transparant about this. (Transparency is one of our Studio Flash Key Values) Nevertheless we want to be a CO2 neutral, even positive, business! How do we like to achieve this? Of course first of all by looking at all the little steps and pieces of our company and minimizing the CO2 emissions along the way. Secondly we calculate/estimate the CO2 emissions we do have every year and we compensate this with trees.

Trees? Yes, trees. Those beautiful living creatures, our longues and our anti-depressants. Trees eat CO2 and poop oxygen. Perfect. We need more of them, not less. So to compensate our CO2 emissions (and the ones of our private life, since it is way to intervened ) we plant as many trees as needed and more. And we plant them ourselves, locally. We are not paying some other company to plant our trees in some other country somewhere. In 2020 we will plant them on the playground of a local school that wants to green-i-fy there space. Next year we are planning of buying our own piece of land to plant trees and making our very own forest (a childhood dream of mine).

– Green energy

This one does not need many explanations: the electricity at our Studio Flash HQ is green. And by insulating our space, underfloor heating, … pretty much keeping everything energy efficient as much as possible, we try of course to rather save then spill our energy.

– Raw materials sourced locally

When green energy doesn’t need much explaining, I guess this one does. By sourcing our raw materials (paper, envelops, boxes, …) locally we minimize the transport of materials. Pretty much every raw material of our company is sourced in the EU (or when the Brexit comes to life, Europe ). I am sure there are some expensive fancy terms to describe the path a products has traveled ecologically, but the transportation and the way the raw materials are produced or sourced are a key element in minimizing the impact of a product on the planet. So this definitely is part of our Environmental Manifesto!

– Recycling

In Belgium people sort their garbage as much as possible to maximize the recycling potential. Of course we do this as well: that’s the least somebody over here can do.

But we like to take it a little bit further. Enter our new brand “AFTRPRTY”! A project that started with our upcycled envelops (envelops made out of old books rescued at our local recycle center). These envelops gave us the inspiration and most of all the materials for our upcycled notebooks (notebooks made out of the covers of the old books rescued at our local recycle center). And we always wanted to do something with the little pieces of cotton paper we cut off our cards. Enter: our AFTRPRTY vases! For the vases we combine the paper waste of our cards with the ones of our envelopes and books (yes, although they are upcycled, they have little pieces of paper waste as well) AND the waste of some local restaurants and bars in the form of empty wine bottles.

I can pretty much summarize all of this by stating: waste isn’t waste until you waste it!

If you look at it from a different angle, the waste of your company can by the raw material for another company or another line of products. That last one is the case over here at Studio Flash. By making our own waste and the waste of other local companies the raw material of our new brand AFTRPRTY in our own facilities, we recycle all of this without having to ship it to another facility. How cool is that? The party ain’t over when things get wasted!

– Minimizing Transport

By sourcing raw materials locally, by grouping the transport of our own packages, by focusing on a small range of products, by working with local students and using public transport or our bike and feet as much as possible, we minimize our transport and CO2 emissions. The emissions we do make, are compensated with our tree planing projects.

– Even reducing other local companies’ waste

Waste reduction is sooooo inspiring and fulfilling to focus on. It is a never ending story where every tiny bit of waste can be reimagined as the raw material and new beginning of something else. Creative people like us are thrilled to get into these challenges. And although it was not our main goal, along the way we set up some cooperations with other local companies because we thought their waste is that interesting it became part of our raw material. It even went on the become its very own brand, a Studio Flash spinoff, appropriately named ‘AFTRPRTY’, because the party ain’t over when things get wasted. We reduce the huge piles of books our local thrift store can not get ride of and we collect the empty wine and champagne bottles of local restaurants and bars and together with our own paper waste make them into beautiful handmade vases.

– Fast Consumption Ban

Surely there is also an expensive, fancy English word for it, but in the context of Fast Fashion (inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends) unfortunately there is such a thing as Fast Consumption of other goods as well: decoration, small gifts, accessories, … you name it and you have some mass-market retailers almost throwing it at you for some very low prices.

We at Studio Flash don’t believe in a world dominated by Fast Consumption at low prices. What’s the alternative? Beautifully crafted, well designed and thought after products, locally made with fair wages, fair prices, fair labor conditions, sold at independent stores who know where and how their products are made, who spread the story (our story) of craftsmanship in the large sense of the word, supporting creativity, honesty and transparency. If you are buying one of our cards or products, you are not spending your money on some rich dude driving a fast car, swimming in champagne and bathing in horse milk (that’s how I think the life of the CEO of Hallmark looks like . #stereotyping). You are spending your money on a small family of 4 living a honest life and their co-workers, getting paid a normal wage and free lunches at our diner table .

We believe products made with love are loved so much more. We love making them, we hope our resellers love selling them and their customers love buying them and we do believe in the end our products are way to good to throw away without noticing, without care and love.

– The bigger picture

We at Studio Flash see sustainability, fairtrade and people’s health as one big goal, on a larger scale, the bigger picture. On the one hand we like to engage into our local community (via local school projects, a project with a local prison for the production of our envelops, local students working at our factory and we’re also collaborating with a local organisation who support teenagers dropped out of school giving them some meaningful activities during the day). On the other hand we try to have creative freedom, which implies we are an internationally oriented company. We focus on longterm, high quality relationships with our customers, the retailers. We have a very strict exclusivity policy which we think contributes to this longterm relationship. It is more a way of making the world a better place: we believe in an economy of human connections integrated in a international network. This also explains our choice for independent retailers: we do not work with big-chain-companies. And yes: we already said ‘no’ quite a few times to some major (Belgian) retail chains because of this policy.Our own work-life balance is also very important to us. Raising 2 little children makes us very aware of our impact as humans in our private life. That’s why we calculated ‘how far we can go’, business wise. We have certain amount of maximum revenue and maximum growth we like to achieve. That amount is the one we think is the best balance between work-life, human sized family business and creative freedom. So no economic growth just because of the money or the growth itself. That’s what we mean with the bigger picture. Being sustainable and ethical means so much more than reducing & recycling garbage. It’s about the bigger picture and the little things …

– The little things

It sounds a little bit ridiculous in the larger scope of things, but we believe our impact on the environment is also about the little things. The big steps (reducing our paper waste, recycling, planting trees, and all of the above) are important and have the biggest impact of course. But at the same time we take care of other things that might have an impact as well: we buy environmentally friendly cleaning products, second hand chairs, fairtrade coffee & tea, eco-friendly flowers, embracing bio-diversity in our backyard (haha, that’s soooo easy: just do not garden too much. Lazy gardening is the best way to stimulate biodiversity ), implementing a rain barrel system for our toilets, buying soup for the Studio Flash team from the local soup bike, using our (e-)bike instead of our car as much as possible, going by train to Maison et Objet at Paris (That’s the best! So relaxing), using our misprints and cardboard boxes and other weird stuff that comes into your house when you are running a business as the base for arts & crafts and toys for the children,… I said it before and I do believe it is true: eco-efficiency is a mindset, and most of the times it equals economical efficiency.

– Innovating

Lot of the things written in our Environmental Manifesto are not perfect at all and we are definitely no environmental-saints, if that even exists. We are aware of this. Starting and running a value-driven company out of your own home with the best intensions on the one hand, but keeping it practical and also market-competitive on the other hand is a never ending balance. We believe this is the way to go, though. We do take our responsibilities towards our environment and we will keep innovating every step of the way. Aiming for a better eco-friendly, CO2-neutral, socially engaged company, life and world!

Let’s join forces: we are always in for feedback! You have some insights, maybe an eye-opening thought for us about our Environmental Manifesto our the way we try to make the world a little better? Let us know! Send us an email, baby ==> info@studio-flash.be

Top 10 bestsellers of 2019

Joachim — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 13:16:31 +0000

Our top 10 of bestsellers of 2019 is in!
And these are the winners:

1. A54 ‘Cassette Fuck you’re old’

2. D12 ‘Washing line’

3. P06 ‘Dandelion’

4. A37 ‘I wish you…’

5. A31 ‘Happy….’

6. D18 ‘Alarm clock manager’

7. C06 ‘hearts’

8. C17 ‘I heart you’

9. A02 ‘party lama’

10. A58 ‘Stay wild’