What a difference a business card can make. When I go to visit farm shops, artisanal food producers, restaurants or food fairs, it is incredibly difficult to describe to people what The Foodie Bugle magazine is. It’s an online food and drink magazine, I explain, which tells the stories of the many people employed in the industries, either as growers, producers, writers, photographers, cookery school owners, brewers and so on. I then have to go on and explain that it is not just for one region, but the whole world, it’s on the world wide web. By that time, although still suspicious I am about to ask them if they want to advertise, they definitely want to see the website. Don’t worry, I assure them, it carries no advertising.
So I went to see Athena Cauley-Yu at Meticulous Ink in Bath (www.meticulousink.com), with a drawing of what I wanted. She then drew several templates and sent them to me on the computer. I wanted the cards to look very similar to the website that was built by Moresoda (www.moresoda.co.uk), so the font, the colours and the overall visual “feel” had to be the same. I chose four of Keiko Oikawa’s (www.keikooikawa.com) beautiful photographs that she took for the website, and they were mounted on the cards. Letterpress printing on both sides of a card is not cheap, but the quality is immeasurably better than anything else.
The finished result is so wonderful: the cards are pleasingly heavy, the photos are light but matt, the printing is elegant and clear, and the vellum lined envelopes that accompany them remind me of my wedding invitations, with their crinkle cut edges. The name of the business is Meticulous Ink for a reason, and one step inside their Walcot Street emporium will instantly make you want to throw a party, get married, have a baby and move house, just so you can order some stationery, make an announcement, invite people.
So now The Foodie Bugle has cards, it all feels official. I no longer need to write down www.thefoodiebugle.com on my own personal cards when I go to interview someone. And as you can see from the huge number of articles in the new edition, coming out on 16th May 2011, there are an awful lot of places that we visit and research for the magazine. I am also going to send some of the cards in the post, to invite other writers, food bloggers, photographers, producers and artisans to take part. Yet there is one very big problem, as I sit and look at them, touch them and turn them in my hands. They are so beautiful I do not want to give them to anyone.
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No wonder you struggle to give them away – they sound magnificent.
Charlie, you are right, they are magnificent. I am so pleased with them. If ever you are in Bath you must go and visit Meticulous Ink in Walcot Street, right next to The Fine Cheese Company. It’s a heavenly experience.