The magic of boxes
Developing a new product is a real stop start process. And each of those stops and starts seems to be marked by the arrival of a cardboard box. Fabric samples to work out what handles best. Then moving to print samples - trying to find that optimal printer who could move from one-offs to small batches. Tricky, but I think I’ve succeeded.
When I sewed it up and thought of things to change it meant more boxes. We live in a small village at the start of the Pyrenees. The La Poste van pulling into our road is a welcome sight - and the various post people have got used to the various packages. As have the delivery vans which are quite a way out from their bases in Perpignan, our nearest city, or beyond.
Things have progressed from a ‘one up’ design to working out how to print the design to maximise the width of the fabric (it’s no good wasting fabric if you’re trying to be sustainable).
Then I’ve been out to a number of manufacturers to try and find one that could produce the finished product for me. Each of their efforts involves a box. Sometimes it’s a disappointing box if the quality isn’t good enough, but lately they’ve been happy boxes. Each one is a step closer to launching the Fold+Rºll.
Freshly printed, freshly delivered organic cotton fabric
I have been working with CottonBee in Poland (who print crisp prints on organic fabrics and are busy planting forests whenever they post anything) and APF east of Paris (a French social enterprise employing people with disabilities that has invested in state of the art production facilities).
By October, the process from print to cut and sew is finally dialled. The cardboard box arrives and I eagerly open it. But what’s that I see?
For the avoidance of doubt, I produce our print files myself (they get a bit of tweaking but it’s 80% me). Back in the summer I worked with an IP lawyer to protect the design of the Fold+Rºll, they filed a patent application for me and registered the design. I incorporated the newly minted registration numbers into the design, or so I thought. Only three months later, reviewing a file, did I realise - red-faced - that I’d printed the lawyer’s file reference number onto the the fabric, rather than the UK Patent Agency application number. Luckily this was before pressing ‘go’ on the first batch of 300. Perhaps the slow rate of progress has not been so bad after all.
For the avoidance of doubt (and just in case you are one of the lucky recipients of the first 6 samples), the UK Design Registration is 62316317 and the patent that is pending is 2313385.3.
