Fresh Take: Printing Custom Business Cards for an Organic Grocer
Custom Business Cards make a critical first impression for in-person meetings. Designing one for the natural and organic grocer, Native Sun, took on even more importance as it needed to represent the natural food store’s values. Designer Heather Raines ate up the challenge.
Business cards for Native Sun, an all-natural and organic grocer in Jacksonville, Florida
In-house designer Heather Raines has a style that’s refreshingly pure and strikingly clean. It’s a style that pairs well with her employer, the premier all-natural and organic grocer in Jacksonville, Florida, Native Sun.
Determined to make healthy living easy, delicious, and affordable, Native Sun sources the finest organic produce, meats and dairy products. These sourcing trips call for business cards to exchange, but typical business cards or materials wouldn’t be on-brand for Native Sun.
“We wanted something that was unique and celebrated the store’s 100% natural food selection.”
The brief called for Raines to represent all the different areas of the store
Searching for Solutions
“We were looking for something that was a little different to tell our story,” says Raines. Initially, Native Sun painstakingly printed its custom business cards on seed paper, “the kind you can actually plant, water and grow into flowers,” Raines recalled. Well-intentioned, the program proved difficult to sustain because of the seed paper’s limitations.
When Raines went back to the drawing board, the brief hadn’t changed. “We wanted something that was unique and celebrated the store’s 100% natural food selection.” At the same time, she recalls that, “We also wanted to represent all the different areas of the store—from our grab-and-go deli to our gluten-free bakery and our juice bar.”
Communicating it all on a business card was daunting: “Making it beautiful and not overwhelming wasn’t easy,” she said. However, working with an online printer like Smartpress, with business card printing options from paper stock and full-color ink to UV coating, Soft Touch laminate and shrink wrapping, made the design process seamless.
Hint: Learn more about business cards with our Business Card Printing FAQ.
An in-store tagging system was simple and iconic enough to turn into a pattern
Simply Natural
Raines found inspiration in an in-store tagging system she had created to identify products. “I took a closer look and realized that the illustrations were simple and iconic and could be woven into a pattern that was fresh, fun and totally us.” That was the spark.
“Honestly, I didn’t even mock it up at first. We just talked about the concept,” Raines admits. The idea was so strong that the team at Native Sun immediately embraced it and Raines began iterating on patterns for custom business cards.
Printing white ink on craft paper takes special attention to detail
Groundbreaking
To underscore the values held by Native Sun, Raines selected a kraft paper stock for online printing because of its natural, unprocessed feel. This opened up a new set of challenges: printing white ink on craft paper takes special attention to detail. “I never dreamed it would be a problem,” she remembers.
“At the time, in 2016, I guess it was pretty innovative. Designers weren’t really using a lot of kraft paper with white, and neither were printers.” Some online searching delivered the solution through Smartpress and its array of online printing services. “We were able to print the cards without compromising the look or the feel,” she said. “In the end, the cards turned out to be as groundbreaking as our stores.”
Hint: Want more custom business cards? Coming right up:
