Telling Your Story with Paper
James Cropper’s Tailor Made service is for brands and packaging designers that want truly unique materials to help them stand out.
Tailor Made allows you to indulge your wildest creative impulses – choose your colour, texture, feel or technical requirement.
Despite the overwhelming possibilities, you’ll find the process remarkably simple. Tailor Made is simpler and quicker than you might think and we are able to meet very broad volume needs - from single project to global requirements.
Insight and Consultation
The key to harnessing our bespoke service is to forget what you’ve done before.
We start by gathering as much key information about the brand and the end product as possible, covering off the customer’s desires as well as technical requirements. Some customers may come to us with an extensive brief, others simply with an idea and a source of inspiration.
Every Tailor Made paper product is as unique as the customer we make it for, so the project consultation is a vital step. It is about building understanding so that we can confidently deliver exactly what the customer requires and ensure they have an end product to be proud of, that truly represents their brand and tells their unique story.
It is a collaborative process between the customer, James Cropper and other partners in the supply chain. Put your expectations aside, take a step back and challenge us with the unique story you want to tell.
During the consultation process we will consider the following criteria to make sure the product is totally fit for purpose, meets all relevant legislative and environmental requirements and delivers supply chain control to the brand;
- Market Sector and Application
- Sustainable Fibre Options
- Unique Colour
- Environmental Credentials
- Texture
- Surface Enhancements
Service Offer and Samples
From insight and consultation we move onto our service offer and providing samples of work to the customer. This is where we will outline exactly what we can do for you based on the information we have gathered during the initial stage of the project.
We will provide samples of our previous work that are aligned to the product requirement so that you can see physical representations of our capabilities in bespoke, speciality papermaking. We make paper for some of the most renowned premium brands in the world, and have created something unique for many of the brands that we work with.
If required, large format colour samples can be arranged for prototyping or print trials to get a feel for what the final design will look like.
Based on your feedback to the service offer, we can then fine-tune and translate your requirement into a product specification so that we can start on product development; maybe the most exciting step in the Tailor Made journey, to see your idea come to life and watch our masters at work in the lab.
Product Development
We are considered world leaders in colour and our colour matching expertise is what really sets James Cropper apart from other paper mills. Our on-site colour lab and extensive range of dyes and pigments, also held on-site, means we are able to colour match almost anything you can think of. From pantone references, printed samples, flowers, fabrics, lipsticks, handbags and shoes to wedding dresses, and even building bricks, we will accept any form of inspiration into our lab for colour matching!
The James Cropper Tailor Made service goes beyond what you might expect from paper, in addition to our expertise in colour we can also develop textures, finishes and creative effects using a wide range of processes. The tactile nature of paper is its biggest and most unique trait, enticing people to run their fingers over it and delivering subliminal messages to the brain without realising.
Maybe you have a unique pattern synonymous with your brand or perhaps you want your paper to have a natural antique finish or super smooth feel, look like leather or have a shimmer like silk. Maybe you don’t want the paper to feel like paper at all. All this is achievable with Tailor Made.
Over recent years we have seen an increased emphasis being placed on sustainability and we are often asked about different fibre options. There are a range of fibres we can consider but the most frequently requested is the use of upcycled post-consumer waste fibres from our CupCycling™ facility. The opportunities are limitless and we work extremely closely with each of our customers, they are an integral part of the process to ensure project momentum and to facilitate product developments and innovations.
Customers are encouraged to visit our mill and can witness much of the product development for themselves, they can see how we test every ‘lab match’ to ensure the quality and consistency of the colour.
Trials, Order and Sign Off
Depending on the complexity of the product development we then move to product trials or straight to first production on machine.
Once the customer has approved the colour match and the surface samples, the product specification is signed off and a recipe translated from lab sample to paper production. It is at this stage we will get to see the paper on a larger scale, a true example of the finished product. This is then sent for approval by the customer and the relevant people within their supply chain.
Once the customer is happy and has signed off the paper standard, a digital and physical sample record is kept in our system for all future makings.
At this point the Tailor Made journey is almost at its end, and customers get to see all of the hard work truly pay off. Their vision comes to life and they can begin to see the end application take shape.
Customer Care and After-sales
Just as your product is Tailor Made, so is our approach to aftercare for our customers.
Each customer is assigned a team that will look after them throughout the process and beyond.
The team consists of a Sales Account Manager and Customer Service Executive, supported by technical and market experts. The multi-lingual team will work together to support each customer, depending on their requirements. From general enquiries, placing and monitoring future orders, scheduling deliveries to meet launch timings and any new product developments.
We have sales support on the ground in Europe, Asia and North America, and technical support from our head office. With strategic partnerships and stock-holding facilities in place across international regions we can ensure that production and call off schedules are efficiently managed in line with customer agreements and expectations.
At James Cropper, our strength is consistency of product colour and quality alongside responsible and sustainable manufacturing practices.
How can James Cropper help you with your next Tailor Made Project?