The Perfect Client

We at Crack of Dawn Crafts take great pride in saying that we have the most awesome customers. It's been almost 2 years since we began and in that time we have built up a client base of over 800 individual customers. Some are business customers who order from us to serve their customers and others of course are end consumers who are looking for something perfect for the special event in their lives. And since this is our second year, we have so many of our wonderful clients coming back for subsequent orders

During the course of all these interactions we had the privilege of working with a truly stellar individual. She is the kind of customer who has a fair idea about what she wants and is able to communicate that clearly. She also understands the effort involved in bringing such creations to life and values this effort. Over the last 14 months, we have worked together on three separate events and each time her vision is super interesting and through our collaborative discussions, we are able to create something truly memorable.

It all began with her daughter's first birthday. The theme was Rainbow and she had a totally original vision in mind. She didn't want the theme to be literal - a rainbow shape - rather an interpretation of the colours. She loved the idea of a pop up card with a pocket style envelope and after a bunch of back and forth, we finalised on a fabulous Rainbow Spiral Pop-up Card which has been a design that we will be perennially proud of!

 

The Rainbow Pop Up Spiral Card has been ordered by numerous clients on our website and we have also been asked to tweak it to a bling balloon theme for another very supportive client. Check out how we played with the design to create a Pink Bling Spiral Pop Up Invitation!!

Our next project together was a wedding anniversary party for her close friends which was to be an elaborate affair spanning 2-3 days. The theme was King and Queen of Hearts and she wanted a gift box as well as an invitation card. We agreed that the colours should be red, black and white and this time around our discussions focussed on the deck of cards concept. After a whole lot of Whatsapp messages, back and forth, we finally froze on the Deck of Cards Box and Deck of Cards Invitation both pictured pictured below!

The Deck of Cards Box was so attractive that we decided to make it one of designs for Diwali. We tweaked the colours a little and created a variety of sizes and voila! we had a brand new Diwali Cards Nigh Box. We have to say that this design was one of our most popular for the festive season!

Now comes our favourite design! With her daughter turning two, this amazing client had another fantastic idea for her little one's big day. This time the theme was Teddybear's Picnic!! How cute is that!! Her idea was simply inspired!! She wanted each invitation to be a picnic basket. Inside the picnic basket would be little shaped cut outs of picnic food items and on the reverse side of each food item, we would add the details of the party text. OH... MY... GOD!!! How we LOVED the idea!! All we had to do was execute!! We found a fabulous file at www.myscrapchick.com and had a blast playing with the colours and prints. Check out the final result - We're super proud of this one - The Teddy Bear Picnic Party Invitation!

What more can we say! She truly is the Perfect Client! She has the best ideas, she is open to all our suggestions, she always gives us PLENTY of time and she values the effort that goes into each creation! Thanks to her we have fabulous designs to add to the Crack of Dawn Crafts catalogue and for that we will be forever indebted!! 

Needless to say, we are so glad she found us back in 2014!

Jungle Fever!!

A few months ago we were tasked with the challenge of creating a Jungle Theme invitation. A client who had seen a Crack of Dawn Crafts creation through another client contacted us from Nanital to order invitations for her son's first birthday. We hadn't yet done a jungle theme invitation so we were super kicked with the theme!! The brief was simple - We needed to design 2 versions, one had to be 3D that could also fold flat for easy postage to out of town guests and the second version needed to be an elaborate 3d invitation for local city guests. 

The immediate thought was lush foresty greens, cute brightly coloured animals and a pop of yellow to contrast! Wow wouldn't that be fun!! We created two fold flat designs. One was a Jungle shadow box frame invitation and the other was a Jungle Box Card design. Both versions could fold flat and both were made with the same colour family. We just LOVED my creations and was sure my client would be ecstatic too!

Sadly it was not quite the case. The client had something totally different in mind. She wanted a jungle theme yes but she wanted to be more babyish, more pastel and more gentle. She wanted 'animals' more than 'jungle'. Boy were we disappointed, we really thought we had hit a home run with my jungly designs. But back to the drawing board we went determined to create something spectacular for this special event!

This time around we created a Animal Box Card that was was soft and sweet, just as the client had ordered. We used the most adorable baby animal pattern and combined it with blue and yellow card. Animals popped out of everywhere and a bold number 1 stood at the front! All the party details went on the reverse side of the card. 

Now this WAS a home run. The client was totally delighted and gave the go ahead for production. We had also created a Animal Explosion Box design with the central 3D element being a baby cot filled with animal cut outs. She was thrilled with this too and we were a GO!!

We churned out about 100 invitations for this event and they were a total hit with the guests! The client was over the moon with the cards and called to tell us that almost every person she gave it to wanted to know who had made it. Of course she said Crack of Dawn Crafts. Right now we are working on a wedding card design for her brother! Exciting times ahead!!

Since Crack of Dawn Crafts was born there have been countless designs that have been rejected. Sometimes we lose an entire order because we are just not able to get the design right. Of course it is tremendously disappointing when a design is rejected but the good news is that whatever we make forms part of the Crack of Dawn Crafts catalogue! And now 2 years on, we have a product range of close to 400 designs!

Which of the designs did you prefer? The lush jungle version or the pastel baby one? Would love to hear your views, do leave a comment and let's compare notes!