"My Grandma thinks the card was made with magic!" - Pogofandango customer review
Not Magic; Just Hard Work and Laser Cutting Machines- How Our Cards are Really Created
Our Cards Are Designed In-House
Each laser cut card starts life as a doodle. We don't use any stock images or AI generated content. It's just me (Emma) and a sketchbook and pencil to start. I have countless lists of ideas, brain-dump pages, doodles and tiny sketches on the go at any one time. Each design gets researched and doodled in my notebook before it becomes a thing.
Thanks to 7+ years at art school, I'd like to think I've gotten pretty good at trend-spotting, composition and developing ideas for new designs (even if I do say so myself!)
Once I have a rough idea of what I'm creating, I'll start drawing digitally.
Each card starts with the same shape and dimensions to give our cards consistency. I'll then start to roughly map out the layout of the design. That means blocking out areas for personalisation and deciding on the main elements of the card and where they will sit. Each area then gets filled in and tweaked, and I'll add in decorative elements to fill any gaps and balance out the design.
It's a time-consuming process, but I think it's worth it.
Personalised Laser Cut Cards Are Drawn to Order
It always makes me chuckle a tiny bit when we get enquiries asking if we have a particular card with a particular name, in a particular colour in stock. We make everything to order, we definitely don't have an infinite stock room filled with every design and every name in every colour combination. We are not Argos or Amazon!
When someone orders a personalised laser cut card, we open the template file (that's a blank version of the card with no personalisation added) and copy and paste it into a new file. (Note to self: do not forget to copy and paste. Working in the original file causes all sorts of problems)
We then add the personalisation as per the customer order. Sometimes (most times), we need to tweak and make sure it will work as a laser cut card. That sometimes looks like manually moving letters to make the spacing more even, sometimes it means thickening lines so that they will hold together when cut, and sometimes we have to re-draw parts of the template to make sure everything fits- this is only usually the case when there's an accent or a lower case letter that drops below the line and overlaps with a design element underneath (darn those pesky 'y', 'g' 'j' and 'p' letters!)
Once the personalisation is in place, we erase lines that would stop the laser cut from working so that the whole piece stays together when cut. After 17 years in this job, I can now say that I "think in stencil-mode" and know instinctively which lines need to come out. This skill blows my husband's mind - he can never understand how I can look at a page of chaotic lines and know which ones need to be removed and which ones need to stay!
The Laser Cutting Process
Sending a design to be cut is sort of like sending a file to a printer. We make sure the settings are all correct and load the card into the machine for cutting.
We've had some special bits of kit built specifically for holding our cards in place in the machines so that they will be in the exact right place every time. Without these, it would be impossible to get the paper cut design in the centre. Trust us when we say that- we have stressed over millimetres and have many a sleepless night over getting our cards to cut in the perfect spot.
You can read a bit more about the laser cutting process in this article here.
Hand Finishing Laser Cut Cards
Once the cutting is finished, each card needs to be hand-finished. This involves two main stages.
1- Weeding the Papercut Card
Weeding is the process of removing all the tiny bits of card that should have come out during the cutting process. Sometimes they simply don't fall out and need poking with a pointy end, and sometimes they haven't cut all the way through so they need some hand cutting.
This stage can take AGES. Especially on designs with the teeny tiny details like this one:
2- Assembling the Card
Once all the fiddly bits have been painstakingly removed, it's time to turn a sheet of flat card into a finished greetings card.
If the customer has requested a free printed custom message inside their card (yep, we offer this at no extra charge), we will print their message on their chosen paper colour at this point.
Then, the coloured paper is trimmed to the correct size, folded in half and glued into the card. We have to take real care at this point to make sure the paper is glued in straight, in the right place and with no crinkles, creases or bumps.
Side Note: It is SO easy to mess up here and have to start over with a new sheet of card. Luckily, Charis (who makes up most of the cards) is a proper professional at this and can assemble cards like the best of them.
Packaging - The Finishing Touches
When assembled, our cards are then sealed in a biodegradable, plastic-free cello bag, along with a quality 120gsm peel and seal envelope. They are given one final check to make sure that everything is correct, and then they are packed into a board-backed envelope, franked and handed over to the posties.
We are lucky enough to send out enough mail every day that our lovely local posties come and collect our mail. Thankfully, long-gone are the days of post office runs, and queueing to buy stamps. And if Jason (the local Post Master) was feeling particularly ruthless, he'd give us the licky stamps. That was never fun.
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