What’s in a name?

Recently it’s come to my attention that my company name, Papillon Press, has been stolen by a company in the US. This “father daughter design team” also makes letterpress products, and to add to the confusion, uses the same CP & Co. press as we do. The owner of this company sent me a very unprofessional message on Instagram, attempting to leech information as to whether or not we were still in business (e.g so she can swoop in and take all my @papillonpress handles and domain names).

Although we have downsized the letterpress side of the business, Papillon Press is still very much alive and is not going anywhere. Joel and I spent a decade of our life developing the brand and the level of quality we put into our original designs and printed products. We poured a decade of blood, sweat, tears and not to mention money into the name Papillon Press. We came up with an original business name that meant something personal to us, created designs that were 100% unique in the stationery world, traveled to industry tradeshows in the US, craft shows, maker faires, etc. worked hours and hours to achieve the quality and originality associated with Papillon Press products.

The owner of the other Papillon Press ignores all that. She couldn’t care less. She only recently changed her company name to Papillon Press (in July 2020). A cursory ten-second Google search on her part would have revealed the name to have already been in existence, as well as several pages of Google content dedicated to OUR company, since we are well-established.

What does she hope to accomplish by co-opting our name? Your guess is as good as mine. She has not responded to my email, and continues to operate under the same name as us, going so far as to take out Google Ads for her website. Is she hoping to capitalize on our Papillon Press brand recognizability? Maybe, but our products are far different and superior to hers so I doubt that will happen. Does she want to take our buyers? Again, this is unlikely to happen since her products could never be mistaken for Papillon Press originals. Is it shameless profiteering? Maybe. Is it a case of “they’re in another country so it doesn’t matter”? Probably.

What is likely to happen is confusion, because this is what always happens when one company names itself after another. Confusion from buyers, store owners, suppliers, you name it. It’s also an incredibly stupid business move. There is no business course out there that would advocate: “go forth and thieve your company name from another” as a recipe for success.

It is NOT OKAY to steal another company’s name for your own fledgling business. It is unethical, unprofessional, dishonest and just plain wrong. We put so much work into building the original Papillon Press, and to have our identity stolen like this feels very personal. 😦

Thanks to all our customers and supporters over the years!

Original Papillon Press products are still for sale in our Etsy shop: www.etsy.com/shop/papillonpress

-Chantal

Clearing out

Shop the clearance sale

In April last year, I wrote that Papillon Press was on hiatus while I explored another direction with my career. For the last 8 months I’ve switched gears and have dived into freelance illustration. I ended the year on a positive note and am encouraged to persevere with freelance illustration as my new career choice in 2017. I had fun with Papillon Press while it lasted, but I’m no longer interested in continuing in the stationery industry. There are many factors involved in this decision and, while I may feel like ranting about it, I won’t bore you with the details. Suffice to say that I am thrilled to no longer have to attend god-forsaken industry trade shows 😉

I’ve decided to close down Papillon Press and clear out my remaining inventory at low, low discounted prices…up to 75% off everything! It pains me to do it, knowing how much work goes into one single letterpress card, but there it is. Help me clear out space in my studio and replenish your card stashes for the coming year at the same time!

Joel and I again want to thank those of you who supported us over the years by buying our products, coming to see us at craft fairs…and even just laying down $6 for one single card. You know who you are! Happy 2017!

P.S. I’m keeping my equipment for personal use, so I won’t be selling any right now.

On hiatus

Joel and I founded Papillon Press in 2009. I impulsively bought a letterpress and shop equipment on Kijiji and moved it to our first home and studio in Sudbury, ON. We started with wedding invitations and eventually expanded to selling our greeting cards wholesale. We went to the National Stationery Show 3 times. We’re even up for a Louie award this year! We built the company from the ground up, and so it is with mixed emotions that I am announcing that I am putting Papillon Press on hiatus for the foreseeable future.

There are a couple of reasons for this:

-I would like to pursue another career path

-I have taken Papillon Press as far as I can with what I have. To bring it to the next level would have required more time, more money and exponentially more effort; something which I am not prepared to do at this time.

-We have invested a lot of money in the company and sadly just aren’t seeing the returns. It’s difficult to make a living selling letterpress paper goods.

What this means for you, the customer: it means we are phasing out the wholesale portion of our business, as well as the wedding invitations and custom letterpress printing service. Our online store and Etsy shop will remain open; we will even introduce new cards during the next year. We will also continue doing craft fairs. We are strictly retail now, so you can still buy our cards! 

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the last 7 years. I’ve worked my ass off and learned so much! I want to thank our loyal customers; every person who has bought their wedding invitations from us, or had something printed with us (the clients who didn’t whine, that is) or even those who have bought one single card has helped to keep us going. You know who you are!

Now, on to new things. Sincerely,

-Chantal

Beware of Printingthestuff.ca

I am not one to share my grievances publicly, but my hope is that when someone is contemplating using the website Printingthestuff.ca they will come across this post and think twice.

At Papillon Press we sell our greeting cards wholesale to stores across North America and internationally. I wanted to introduce a couple cards with gold foil accents this year so I sent two greeting card files to Printingthestuff.ca. I asked them up front if the cards would be printed in Toronto, because they seemed kind of shady and I did not want the printing outsourced to another country. It’s our company mandate that all our goods be made in Canada; it says so on the back of all our cards. The sales person, Steve, wrote back in an email: “Yes we print within Canada”. He also confirmed this on the phone when I spoke to him.

My second up front question to them was: could they print on a particular paper stock which all our offset greeting cards are printed on (Cougar Cover Smooth Natural White 100 lbs) and they replied “Yes we can print on 100 lb paper”.

Fairly satisfied but still apprehensively, I sent the files off to be printed. After a couple weeks DHL calls me up and tells me we have to pay $18 in brokerage fees  because we’re told that “printing materials” are being sent to us from Pakistan. Having no idea what this package could be, I start to get a sinking feeling that they are the greeting cards I ordered from Printingthestuff.ca. Lo and behold, those “printing materials” are the greeting cards. Not only that, but they were not printed on the specific paper I requested (wrong shade of white and gloss coating on the inside of the card). Both these facts were a direct contradiction of what Steve had written and said on the phone.

I first tried calling Steve 3 times, no answer or voicemail. I emailed Steve with my complaints and asked for a full refund because we had been deceived about the origin of the cards, and they printed on the wrong paper stock. He fired back an email that said he had never guaranteed any of the above things (I had even attached the emails he had sent as proof, but he still denied it) and refused to give a full refund. He said that he had never guaranteed to print on Cougar paper, just 100 lbs paper. He also said that he had never said the cards would be printed in Canada and that it clearly states on Printingthestuff.ca that the printing is outsourced (I can’t find that info anywhere on the website).

Here’s the best part though; he then called me a racist for having a problem with the cards being printed in Pakistan and not in Canada:

Regarding racism, Yes your statement is defiantly racist. Because you are concerned with countries not your printing, whereas we clearly state on our website as we do outsource work overseas to give best prices to customers as well as this is not to be informed to customer as our responsibility is to supply them with correct printing.

There defiantly is no refund as product is right.

I love how he “defiantly” refuses to give a refund or basically do anything to accommodate my dissatisfaction.

I wrote back saying this was extremely poor customer service and that he had deliberately deceived me. He wrote back reiterating that I am racist and again denied any of the above claims, despite having emails as proof.

Let me be clear that I never would have ordered from this company if they hadn’t assured me on the two aforementioned points.  There is absolutely no way I would have been fine with the printing being done in Pakistan…or on the wrong paper stock. We’re talking about over $700 in goods here that are completely useless to me.

The next thing to do was to file a dispute with Paypal, send a complaint to the Better Business Bureau and write this blog post. Printingthestuff.ca OR K & Z Services Pty Ltd OR  Beeprinting.com.au or whatever they’re called again refuse to give me a refund through Paypal. The dispute is then escalated to a claim and Paypal looks into it, doesn’t bother contacting me for any supporting documents (remember I have proof in the form of emails of the lies Steve told) and finds in favour of Printingthestuff.ca

I am now filing a complaint against Paypal for not giving me the chance to show supporting documents or explain over the phone (they had afforded this chance to Steve, apparently). As it stands right now, I am over $700 out of pocket because of being lied to by a shady printing company. The battle continues and I can’t tell you how frustrating this whole process has been. Not only was I blatantly lied to, but then subjected to the absolute worse customer service on the planet. Consider this a bad review. What should have been an obvious resolution to Paypal is now leading me into another battle with them. Ugh.

I hope this blog post will help potential customers of Printingthestuff.ca steer away from their shady company. I wouldn’t want anyone else to have to go through this. Beware of companies that claim to be Canadian but drop ship their goods from somewhere else.

Update Paypal is telling me their Purchase Protection does not cover custom made items or customized items and service which is why they decided in favour of Printingthestuff.ca, because the cards are custom-printed. Make a note to yourselves; that’s a huge range of items that Paypal will not help you out with if something goes wrong.

Papillon Press is moving

I’m going to follow up our fake April Fool’s announcement with a real announcement now…

Papillon Press is moving!

We’re moving 7 hours south to a pretty little village called Westport. We bought a new house with a detached 1000 sq. ft studio that will be turned into the Papillon Press studio. We’re so excited to get settled in! Our time in Sudbury was beneficial in many respects, but it’s time to move onto the next chapter. 

How does this affect you?

If you were thinking of having your design letterpress printed by us or of ordering either business cards or wedding invitations, now is the time to place your order. Things are going to get crazy with moving and with the National Stationery Show in May, therefore we need to wrap up all print jobs by the end of April.

That means you need to place your order and send in your artwork by Wednesday, April 10th, at the latest. 

We plan on resuming custom print jobs by the end of June. Call it a short hiatus in order to get organized. We’re not taking a hiatus from this blog or the internet however, so stay tuned for the step-by-step renovation posts which are sure to pop up on this blog. Let the DIY begin!

Westport, ON – future home of Papillon Press

 Keep track of us on Facebook or Twitter

Going electronic

**We pranked you, sorry, we couldn’t help ourselves. April Fool’s!**

We’ve been keeping a low profile lately because we’ve been working on launching a new product line:

Papillon Press e-greetings and e-vites

Designed for individuals with incredibly busy lives, all our best designs are now available at the mercifully instant click of your mouse. 

We’re phasing out letterpress printing in the hopes of going completely paperless. The reason? Letterpress just takes too much time and is too much work. We also want to optimize our green policy and this is by far the best way to save trees.

Browse our new collection of e-cards and e-vites

Custom invitation design – Claire & Robert

We’re so thrilled to have the chance to be working with more local clients lately. This custom invitation comes courtesy of a lovely couple living in North Bay, Claire and Robert. They came to visit us with the idea of having the chapel where they were going to be wed featured on the invitation. They also loved our Hivernale invitation and so wanted some of the elements of that invitation incorporated into theirs.

Chantal gave three sketches (below) each of which featured a different aspect of the chapel.

Initial sketches for Claire and Rob's invitation

Claire and Robert chose the 3rd sketch, which features an illustration of the chapel and a lovely decorative border, printed in light grey ink with the text in fuschia. The result is a lovely, soft invitation with matching envelope. Thanks for being such fanstastic clients, Claire and Rob!

Printed on Crane Lettra, 300 gsm, pearl white in light grey and fuschia. 6.5×6.5″.

Final letterpress invitation for Claire & Robert

 

 

 

 

Restoring the Kelseys

A few months ago I (Chantal) decided we wanted to own a tabletop press so I could take it with me and host workshops elsewhere. I was not afraid to get my hands dirty, so when I saw an ad in a journal for several Kelseys in Pennsylvania, the first idea that popped into my head was…ROADTRIP! We’re no strangers to driving long distances for the sake of letterpress 🙂

We brought back 3 Kelsey Excelsior presses, two 5×8 and one 3×5. One of the 5×8 was in good shape while the other two needed a bit of work. The original grey paint was peeling and they were quite rusty. The one in the best condition came from a funeral home, the other 5×8 came from the side of the road somewhere and the 3×5 came from an estate sale.

the Kelsey Excelsior 3x5 before restoration

Kelsey letterpresses, before restoration

The first step was to remove the rust. Following instructions found on Briarpress, I soaked all the removable parts in a vinegar solution overnight and the rust basically wiped off. I also used a soft Brillo pad dipped in the vinegar solution and gently went over the rest of the press to remove the rust. Afterwards I wiped all the parts with a bit oil to prevent the rust from returning.

I then cleaned all the presses with a brush and tack cloth to remove any dust. I took off the removable parts and taped up any parts I didn’t want painted with painting tape to prepare for priming. There is some debate on Briarpress as to whether removing the original paint is the best way to go before applying a new coat, but I decided against it because, to put it simply, it was too much work!

Using Painter’s Touch Rustoleum spray paint primer, I primed all the presses in white. It occured to me later that I should have chosen a grey primer or darker colour, because it was pretty unnerving to see all the presses in stark white like that.

Priming the Kelsey

Ghost letterpresses

The next step was to apply the final coat of paint. I could have opted to paint them in their original grey again, but I went for black because it never goes out of style and Claudette our floor model looks sharp in black. I used Tremclad black. It took approximately 2 coats, but the result was nice and shiny.

Spray painting the black

The final step was to remove the tape, oil the moveable parts, buy a few new nuts and bolts for the platen of one of the 5×8, buy a few new springs and order new rollers. The rollers cost nearly as much as the presses themselves!

Don’t they look sharp! I’ve already sold one of the 5×8, and the other two will be coming with me on my roving workshops. All it took was a roadtrip and a little elbow grease; not too shabby!

The final result, with a cut locked up in the chase

Kelsey Excelsior 5x8 and 3x5

Custom wedding invitation – David & Zuimei

This has to be one of our favourite custom invitations to date. Dave contacted us to produce a full suite based on specific types of birds, the chickadee and the western tanager. Put a bird on it? Absolutely! We love drawing birds.

We also had the chance to design a more fully illustrated piece to be used as an insert for the Starbucks mug that would be handed out as a guest favour.

Printed on Crane Lettra, 300 gsm, pearl white in Cobalt Blue and Yellow Ochre.

Vintage stamps courtesy of sendmoremail.blogspot.com

Happy 2012!

Happy 2012 from Papillon Press

2011 was a fantastic year for us at Papillon Press.

We had some firsts in 2011 and some highlights. Here are some of our favourites!

• We took part in our first craft show, Idle Hands, in November in Ottawa and it was very successful and a ton of fun – thanks to everyone who came by and picked up some new cards.

• We’re happy to have started selling our cards to retailers in 2011. The Farm, a cool shop in North Bay, was the first to carry our cards and since then our cards have been picked up by The Paper Place, Relish, Kid Icarus, Scout, Victoire and Modern Dwellers in Alaska. Go check out these amazing stores! Seeing our cards on the shelves in these shops is always exciting.

• We were featured in the National Post – twice! Thanks to Nathalie Atkinson for highlighting two of our holiday cards and writing an awesome article about our Twilight invitation.

• We won the inaugural Good Design Award, awarded by the Sudbury Design Society to a company that has demonstrated a respect for great design and contributed to the growth of the local industry.

• We attended the National Stationery Show in New York in May last year to scout it out. After seeing so much great stationery and meeting some of our favorite shops we were inspired and excited to begin working toward this year’s show. We’ve already started our booth and we have dozens of new designs in the works that we can’t wait to show you! [Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr to see some early process shots]

We would like to say thank you! to everyone who ordered a Papillon Press product. You’re awesome. Also, big thanks to all of our Twitter and Facebook followers and blog readers. We appreciate it and look forward to bringing you even more beautiful letterpress work this year. It’s hard to resist a hand-illustrated letterpress card, that’s why we love making them (and why you love buying them, right?).

We’re looking forward to bringing you some awesome new letterpress stuff! Have a great 2012!