Werrin Paper

Overview

Werrin Paper makes notebooks, cards, and envelopes for independent shops. Over the years it had added six product lines, each launched with its own colours and type. On a shop shelf they didn’t look like one maker, and every reprint meant matching a different ink. Shops had started asking which envelope went with which card.

The task was to bring the six lines together through the one thing they all share: the envelope.

Approach

I reduced the palette to two materials rather than two colours: an uncoated recycled kraft and a dyed vermilion stock. Kraft carries the everyday lines; vermilion marks anything bought as a gift. A shop assistant can explain it in one sentence, and so can the price tag.

Every envelope uses the same four sizes and the same flap cut, so cards and notebooks from any line fit any envelope. The only print is a small black wordmark on the flap and a line code on the back, which keeps press runs short and lets the paper show.

For the launch, I photographed the envelopes as a grid on black: kraft and vermilion in turn, square to the frame, then turned on the diagonal. The same grid became the shop display, the trade catalogue cover, and the pattern inside the gift boxes.

Result

Six product lines now share one envelope range in two inks. Reprints run in a single black ink, and the shop display goes up with no design work at all. Trade buyers order across lines more often, because everything on the shelf now visibly belongs together.