Intro to Designing and Manufacturing Enamel Pins

1. Making Enamel Pins INTRO: Hello, I am Evan. I think I'm a freelance artist and designer. I'm also the owner of Fox and Pro Paper Co. Ah, small greeting cards, stationery and gift company. About a year ago, I started to notice these awesome enamel pins everywhere. I love the idea of taking my art and making it something that someone can take around with them in their life rather than have upon their wall. Pins are a great way for people to express their beliefs. Interests in style in this class will learn how to make an amul pins from start to finish, including the design process, manufacturing options, budget, packaging and sales. 2. DESIGN PROCESS: step. One of the design process is checking out what's already out there. What are people excited about? What are they buying their added pain collectors? And they're people who have never bought a pin before. But if they saw one with their favorite book or animal, they might just become a pin person. I use Pinterest and instagram the most for product research. Check out hashtags like pins and enamel pins. Those are obvious, but also pin life and pin look fine animal pin that you love and go on a hashtag adventure . Check out what hash tags have been used for it and go through them. Click around and see what's exciting to you. While it's important to know what's out there and consider your audience and market, I find it best to make something that you would want to wear. There's a pin designer who made a pin of the 10 sided die from Dungeons and Dragons. While not everyone plays Dungeons and Dragons, the people who do tend to really love it and that pin is the designers bestseller. Once you decide on your concept, create several versions in whatever medium you're comfortable with. It's really smart to have multiple designs. It's also really smart to get feedback. I like to post my work on social media, Instagram and Facebook primarily and ask the people who are already engaged with my work what they think of it. It's a really great way to make sure that my designs are clear. If it's not clear to my friends and followers, it's not gonna communicate clearly to the manufacturer. It's also a great way to get people excited, engaged about your work. You have an audience and people who want to buy your stuff. Often people who voted or offered advice on my designs end of buying the finished product. 3. PREPARING FOR MANUFACTURE: I've worked with several manufacturers, and I highly recommend that you shop around manufacturer. That I like the most is pin Mark. Pin Mart has a really great balance of price quality and customer service. Customer service is really important with the manufacturer because you're gonna be going back and forth with getting the design just right. Most manufacturers will allow you to send them any kind of art, including a pencil drawing with little lines saying this color here in that color there. That's a fine way to get your design mate. Personally, I do like to make a little bit more of a finished image either vector and photo shop, so that I can really communicate clearly to the manufacturer what I want. I communicate best visually, so that's what works for me. If you communicate really well in writing, that might work best for you. 4. COST AND MANUFACTURING OPTIONS : there are many different ways to have pins manufactured. Hard enamel, soft enamel, die cut three D photo etching These are all different options that will be different. Price is the most common types of pins are hard, enamel and soft, and those are the ones I have experience with and those are the ones will be talking about in this class. Hard enamel pins are smooth, they're sort of plastic, and I think of them as being more upscale and traditional. I happen to like them the most. Soft level pins tend to be great for bright colors, separating lines are raised and the colors dip a bit. I think of them as being a big, younger cooler. Maybe hard enamel pins tend to be a little more expensive than soft enamel pins, but the price difference is small enough that I make the decision based on the design rather than the cost. Let's take a look at this pricing table from lapel pins dot net. The size of the pin has a huge impact on pricing. So far, I've kept all my pins at one inch of the widest point. The absolute, biggest, most important determining factor for cost is quantity. There are some other factors. Keep in mind for costs such as type of pin backs and metal that you would like the manufacturer to use and, if you would like the manufacturer toe, also make your packaging for the product. 5. MANUFACTURING PROCESS: your first step is to get a quote, though you can see general numbers in price tables, you need a specific quote for your product. To get a quote, need to provide manufacturer with specific information about what you want. Here is the quote request form from Pillar. You have to give your contact information. I slept the number of pins that you want to your quantity. Remember, if you go higher your price per pin, drop significantly. You need to select your pin size, and also you need to select what kind of pin you're going to create. What's great about this quote is that you can just hit on the link here and see the details . If you have more questions about the different kinds of enamel pins that you want to have made, here's where you can select your plating option. And here's where you can upload your artwork. You can send a quote request without artwork, but I would not do that because it might not be a totally after a quote that they'll give you. And it also asks you how soon you will need your pins. This is important to note because it actually generally takes a while for pins to be manufacturer. It is an in depth process, so that's something to keep in mind. You will have to pay extra if you want a rough order, so that is the we'll request for him. Soon after you submit your quote request form, you're gonna get an email from the manufacturer that looks something like this. It gives you the quantity you've requested, the price per pin and the total price for your order. If you have any questions or if you want to play the price of it and see you know if you change one thing. If you can make it less expensive, you can respond to the email and they will. They'll work with you and help you figure it out. Or at least a good manufacturer will. It's a red flag if they won't go back and forth with you. Once you approved the quote and pay, the manufacturer will send you their mock up of your design, which will look something like this. Even if you sent them a perfect full color vector image, this may look different. They may not be able to produce the exact color you used in your design. Do not be afraid to give them edits and adjustments. Once you approve design, you're completely locked in. This is a big investment and you should be jumping for joy when you're pins are up. 6. PACKAGING: packaging is really important. You can either add to or take away from your design. Some manufacturers will offer you the option of creating packaging for you. It's usually about 25 to 40 cents per pin package because I've already set up with my printer for my stationery business, I designed and print my own packaging for my pins. 7. RETAIL AND WHOLESALE TIPS: now they've designed and manufactured your pins. It's time start thinking about selling them. I sell retail through etc. And I do tons of local markets in my area. So here is my Etsy store for AT T. You need great product photography to sell anything. Make sure you have at least 2 to 3 photos showing your pin in use as well as impacting. People also prefer that you showed the scale of your product both in writing and in your photography. As for markets, check out what is local to you. Markets can cost anywhere between 50 to $300. In my experience, you will need a tent for outdoor markets. It could be a big investment, and the truth is, markets are only as good at your fit with the customers. If you're just starting out a recommend trying an indoor market where you just need a table , a tablecloth in some display stuff wholesale is also a great option for selling your pin. First, consider who'd buy your pin where they hang out where they shop, then approach those places and share your products with, um, generally, store owners don't love walk ins because you might be keeping them from important work or from helping customers who were there. I find the best way to reach out is by sending or dropping off a package with two or three samples and a hand written note. An email can also be a great way to reach out when approaching wholesale clients remembered position your product is right for them. I think your customers would love this because of X, y and Z. I noticed you with this product, and mine would go really well with it. Most importantly, don't be afraid to follow up. Everyone's super busy and emails get lost. I've gotten big clients before from following up after not hearing back from them. And I have even had people say, Hey, thanks for checking in. I totally forgot about this and I do want to follow up with you. Something really important that people knew the wholesale don't necessarily know is that you need your wholesale price to be 50% of your retail price. So if you're selling your pins for $10 your wholesale price needs to be $5 per pin so that the store can sell it for $10 make a profit. Make sure your price yourself appropriately. I don't have a retail price. Be too low. Otherwise, you can't do wholesale it all. Make sure you have a minimum of your wholesale orders. My order minimum is $100 for first time clients. I like to keep my wholesale minimums for every client around $100. But if I had a client for a long time and I have a nice relationship with them, I'm always happy to accommodate by sending them a few pins here and there as they're restocking. 8. YOUR PIN: Thank you so much for taking this class. I can't wait to see the work you make. Please share your designed and finished products with me on at Fox and Pro Paper Co. On Instagram or you consider them through skill share.