Bright Idea: Product Catalog Printing With Niche Lighting Studio
| Updated on 8/9/23

Bright Idea: Product Catalog Printing With Niche Lighting Studio

Tapped by the modern lighting studio, Niche, designer Sarah Brown relied on product catalog printing to complement the brand’s hand-blown collections.

A stack of four product catalogs with NICHE printed on the spines.

Two hands holding a stack of custom product catalogs with Niche on the cover and an abstract design in pale colors.

Blown Away

When Sarah Brown took an in-house design position at Niche in late 2017, she didn’t realize that her first project would be as ground-breaking for the company as it turned out to be. “Niche never really had an official catalog,” Sarah said. “When I joined the team our CEO and creative director, Jeremy Pyles, asked me to take it on. I was surprised to learn it had been 14 years in the making.”

 

Brown explains that, for this online printing project, she used the lighting as her inspiration. “It was important to me that the catalog was as elegant and thoughtfully designed as the lights it showcased.”

Lamps in blue, pink and clear color displayed in a product catalog.

The Stamen pendant is the signature piece of the Niche collection

A Bright Start

Based in Beacon, New York, a community of artists and professionals at the heart of the Hudson Valley, Niche came into the clean forms and luminous colorways of its lighting collection somewhat by accident in 2003. “After hunting for modern pendants to light the front of his homewares store in New York City’s East Village, Jeremy teamed up with a glassblower,” Brown said.

 

Soon after their signature piece, the Stamen pendant, was hung, it became the shop’s best selling item. A new business was born (along with a new need for product catalog printing).

An infographic of a lamp's dimensions in a product catalog.

Details in the catalog give product dimensions and background inspiration

Two hands holding open a custom booklet with a perfect binding.

Letting the Products Shine

“Clients had relied on our website and tear sheets for years,” Brown said. “We wanted to change that, elevate our brand, and put our full collection at their fingertips. So, I laid out each pendant page in a way that made the catalog not just beautiful, but useful.

 

“There’s detailed information on each pendant that covers everything from dimensions to colors, as well as background on what inspired its creation.”

Two custom product catalogs overlapping each other with abstract cover art and NICHE in black text.

For the cover, Niche hired Lian Ng, a San Francisco artist known for work based on algorithms

Working At Light Speed

“The challenge wasn’t just about developing a design that reflected the brand—its originality, its beauty, and its sophistication,” Brown said. “It was also about managing the timeline—four months from concept to photo shoot to finish.”

 

A premium online printer like Smartpress was up to the time task, too. Creating custom Perfect Bound Booklets takes not time at all with options recycled paper stocks, digital die cutting, UV coatings and more.

 

“We hit the ground running,” Brown recalled. “We chose a simple but sophisticated design. For the cover, we approached Lian Ng, a San Francisco graphic artist who’s known for his cool designs based on mathematical algorithms. Then we focused on the photo shoot.”

 

Essential to the product catalog printing process, the shoot was a huge undertaking. Brown’s intent was to create lighting images that radiated luxury and left the viewer with a sense of awe.

 

“Getting everything shot and positioned in the catalog the way we wanted took some juggling,” she said. “But I kept remembering Jeremy’s words, ‘If you have a good idea and believe in it and work hard, you can make anything happen.’”

A custom product catalog laying open to a blue lamp on the left and right pages.

Simply Brilliant Results

Smooth, uncoated stock gave the piece an organic quality that complemented the soft glow of the Niche lighting collection. Perfect binding elevated the catalog’s sense of quality and permanence.

With the catalog complete, it’s clear. The graceful shapes and elegant details of Niche’s collection have not only redefined the look of hand-blown lighting, but also the look of traditional lighting catalogs.

 

Print Details

Perfect Bound Book

100# Uncoated White Cover, 100# Text Uncoated White Pages, 8 x 11.5 Portrait Format

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