Online Design Sessions

Leave it to our designers. They have launched online live design sessions that customers can schedule. These 30 minute sessions are booked right from our website. During the session the customer gets to watch the designer’s screen while chatting with the designer on the phone. Designs that have historically taken days and a lot of back and forth emails can now be knocked out in 30 minutes. Don’t worry, we kept the traditional design process for those that don’t have the time for a dedicated session. Booking appointments are also available for 15 minute phone consults as well.


Got a custom quote you’d love to see as a wall decal? Book the appointment today!

Even Designers Get a Chance to Blog!

Welcome to the Trading Phrases Design Blog!


Our design juices are flowing more than ever in the past month... with our new site so easy to navigate and maneuver we are now thinking about the limitless categories and designs that we can now create. We have spun up our new mirror designs, are working on T-shirts, and now have moved to the kitchen with tumblers & KitchenAid designs! Facebook continues to be a fabulous venue for ideas and our fans have a lot of input on what gets put on our site. If you haven't seen it check it out www.facebook.com/tradingphrases and pop over to our "help our designers" photo album to choose which designs we add to our site- get involved!


Tumbling into Tumblers:

Tumblers have been a lot of fun this week, we spun out about 20 designs that are now in the "testing" process to ensure that we are able to produce them so small- once that is completed we will add them to the website for you to order. I was really inspired for these since I currently own about 3 (not via TP), and they are all boring clear plastic with a brown grip and straw- and they cost me $13! Tumblers are a necessity in my house since I have a toddler and animals who all seem to LOVE spilling or drinking my beverages... I'm so excited for the possibility of some personality! We will have tumblers with cute designs that you can choose your own colors for, monograms/initials, school designs, and fun art. Also, our tumblers come in an array of fun colors- so the possibilities are truly endless.

Out of the Fire and Into the Kitchen(Aid):

KitchenAid designs are turning out to be a bit more tricky- have you ever really looked at a KitchenAid? Probably not from a design aspect... I know that I hadn't! They are a very strange shape and size, especially accounting for the round curvature and long stem on them- which makes it a challenge to design for... but beautiful results! Where I tend to balance delicately on the more feminine, girly, designs- many of you (and my co-workers) prefer a bit of masculinity in their designs- like Alton Brown's flame design vs. my swirls (yet to be added). Thankfully Trading Phrases is a wonderful creative outlet and we can suit every one's needs... from the masculine to the feminine and everywhere in-between.

C is for... Custom Designs!

As always we are doing this for YOU so if you feel there is something that you would like to have on our website that is not represented, please don't hesitate to contact us- designer@tradingphrases.com and we'd be more than happy to help you out.


I can't wait to show you some more photos of our new categories in next week's blog!

~Samantha

Renter Decor Ideas & Our Top FAQ Questions

It always comes around to that time of the year, as a renter, when you need to move to a new space. If you’re anything like me, I get bored with a space if I’m there for too long. So now I’m preparing to move to a new space at the beginning of September and I’m starting to make my list of designs that will fill my naked walls. As a renter, you’re typically not allowed to paint your walls, unless you have an amazingly laid back landlord. Unfortunately I don’t, so the wall decals are PERFECT for my space. I can add my personality to my home without the hassle of painting or banging nails crookedly into my wall for the one picture I have to hang.

There are a few things to keep in mind when deciding on your designs.
Size: This is one of the most common questions I receive as a CSR, “How does the sizing work with your designs and how do I know what the right size would be?”. Let me tell you one thing, I wish I could tell every customer what design would look amazing over their queen sized, four post bed, but unfortunately I haven’t acquired that skill yet. I’m still trying to work on it though.
All of our designs are measured in overall size. So, we take the overall length of a design by the overall height of a design. All of our designs are measured in inches as to keep the confusion as minimal as possible. I know it is a difficult process to measure out your space and picture the right size. Here’s my little secret to perfect measurements as to avoid the boyfriend holding my measuring tape up, with tired arms, as I stand back and contemplate the sizing.
First, I acquire my measuring tape and a role of painters tape. You will still need an “assistant”, but I promise their task won’t take up too much time and won’t leave them with aching arms. Next, get the size of the design you’re thinking of purchasing. Measure out the size on the space where you’ll place the design and have your “assistant” mark its measurements with a pieces of painters tape. Now both you and your “assistant” can stand back and get an ideal of how large or small the design will be.

Texture: This is another common question that I hear daily, “I have a (insert texture here), will your decal stick to my wall?”. Currently I have the same issue. The walls in my new living room are covered in that lovely, I say this with deep sarcasm, wood paneling. Now don’t get me wrong, some people can work the wood paneling but I just can’t seem to do it with my taste. I love modern designs and can’t seem to figure out a way to make the wood paneling modern. I won’t let the paneling defeat me! I’ve contemplated this for several days and have decided to hang large canvases on the wall with a mixed media design. I’m going to place some of my favorite vinyl designs on the canvas and add a bit of paint around them as a background color. Before doing so, I need to know if our designs will adhere to that type of surface. Luckily, we offer working samples just for that reason. When on our website, you can order a working sample. Please allow a few days for these to be processed since unfortunately my worker gnomes are currently on strike and only I am processing them. All of our working samples will arrive via USPS in a white envelope. Once the sample arrives, you will apply it just like you would any of our designs. We offer this service free of charge to all of our customers since it would be so annoying to be excited for that perfect design and when it finally arrives, it won’t stick to your surface. If you ever, EVER have any doubt just pick up the phone and call me. I’ve tested many surfaces and I’ll be able to give you plenty of insight.

Color: This one is very simple, well if you order color samples it is. We offer one set of six color samples as a free service to our customers. These will arrive on a postcard via USPS. Again, please remember that the worker gnomes are still on strike. You can use these samples to decide on which color will look perfect with your Sherwin Williams (insert color HERE). That has to be one of my favorite questions of all time and is another skill that I’m working on. “What color would look good with my Sherwin Williams Grim Blue?” Now, keep in mind that I have no clue what that color looks like. When you call and ask me that question I will go online and look up the color to try and give you my best opinion, but the color online may look completely different then how it looks on your wall. The lighting in your house is also another factor, but I will NEVER turn you away. Plus, this always helps me shop for paint colors if I ever need them in the future. So what I’m trying to say here is, ordering the color samples is the best way to know for sure what color to choose. You can hold the card up to your Sherwin Williams Milky Cream and know exactly how the vinyl will look against the wall.

That’s all I have for our bloggers today. If you have any questions, or would like to discuss anything I talked about, my worker gnomes and I will be happy to answer your questions.

~Anastasia, Production Manager and Chief Customer Handler

Business Designs for the Do It Yourselfer

We've recently beefed up our business category and added a lot of business-based designs that will work well in a restaurant, retail shop, salon... the list goes on and on. The idea is that small business owners (like us) don't have a lot of time and money to spend at the local sign shop. These pre-designed decals are easy to order and even easier to install. No installation charge necessary, just bring a ruler and a level (there are apps on smart phones for the level--how easy is that?). If you know a small business, you may want to do them a favor and introduce our business category to them. They may thank you for it!

New Website (Finally!)

We finally launched the website. It took 2 years, and a lot of work, but it is finally up and working. Check it out and let us know what you think on our comment page or on Facebook.

Our wall mirrors have been really popular. They are fun little designs that are repositionable and reusable. Add a bit of vinyl design to a wall mirror pack and voila, instant decor!

Watch in the coming weeks for a few new fun products. We're looking at adding t-shirts, plastic tumblers, and more fun items.

Cheers!

Morgan

Waiting for the Dust to Settle

We recently had the opportunity to double our shop by taking over an adjacent space in our building. We have the same trepidation as everyone else in this economy... scale back, do more with less, ride it out... But in the end, we decided to do it. The elbow room and additional storage space will be a huge bonus right now, and the extra space will give us the opportunity to start 'playing' with a few new concepts that have been on the back burner. The walls are coming down and we're scrambling to work in a construction zone.

2010 was a banner year for us. We grew from 8 to 14 employees, had sales in over 66 countries, and got to meet some great designers who are using our designs in a myriad of fun and exciting projects. We brought in a full time CSR to free up our design staff who work with customers on custom quotes and on new and fun designs with more of an artistic bent. We've grown this year to just over 17,000 fans on Facebook, which we frequently poll for design ideas and to pick a winner from a couple of competing designs. We love the medium and will continue our 'conversation' with our customers as long as they'll continue to give us feedback, opinions, and ideas.

Thanks to everyone that made 2010 a great year. Here's to 2011 and new goals and products. Onward and upward!

Cheers!

Morgan

Trading Phrases

PS. Check out our current Valentine promotion design for a little romantic whimsy!

Waiting For a Website

Did you hear? We put our giant decals on sale--Save 20% through the end of November. Want even more fun discounts, find them on our Facebook page, but you have to become a fan to see the codes. Sneaky, aren't we?

Have you ever seen the commercial where someone talks about hiring someone to create a new website for them "5 months ago"... Well I definitely feel their pain. The new website project has been in the works for over a year. We are getting close, just at the time of the year that we said we would not be converting websites. I've never been good at timing, so add this to my less than stellar track record!

In the meantime, we're still working on making our current site a bit more user friendly. We've added a realtime chat feature, have extended our Customer Service Hours (now 10a-5p M-F) and added social plugins to all designs. Stop by for a chat when you are on our site!

We lost one of our favorite competitors recently. We will miss you, Wonderful Graffiti. You were a class act that exuded professionalism, and were head and shoulders above the fray with unique graphic designs that were beautiful and inspired. We hope you all are on to bigger and better things and will be back with a redesigned concept soon!

New Designs for Halloween

Time flies when you’re having fun, or in our case when you’re swamped. The kids haven’t even had a chance to break in their new backpacks, while Target is now displaying Halloween décor. We run on a perpetual seasonal and holiday clock, and ours is not pointing to fall and trending to winter.

We put together some fun designs for Halloween this year, including some fun packs with a bunch of whimsical art that can help with the overall effect. Consider adding decals to the realistic foam pumpkins for a display that can last for years. Add a touch of macabre to a mirror with a spider web, or invite a friendly ghost to take up residence for a spell. It is a great time of year to finally experiment with that funky shade of orange you’ve been threatening to try for the past 6 months!

Supersize Me!

We finally got in the giant rolls of 48” material and are excited to be creating huge designs to go with the media. We’re also doing Henry Ford one better right now—you can have it in any color you want as long as it is black or chocolate! We’ll get more colors in over time, but for now we’re focusing on trees.

I hail from the Oregon coast, which has some of the most beautiful forests on earth. I love trees, and I love the way they look on the walls. We’re starting with adorable and fun trees, and will add the more forest-y looking trees along with other designs over time.

We’re still getting in more and more colors in the 30” material size as we change over from the 24” format. If you find a design that needs to be bigger, shoot us an email and we’ll see if we can work it in. We can order the 48” vinyl in any of our colors as well, so if you find you absolutely have to have something that big, we have you covered.

My personal favorite design today has to be the windy tree, because I love the effect of the curling leaves ‘blowing’ across a wall. Which one do you like best? We’d love to hear from you!

Morgan

Reclaim Your Space

I look forward to the day that I can call myself an empty nester. I dream of coming home and finding the house the same as I left it, I snicker over having to load a dishwasher occasionally. I also dream of what I can do to convert those coveted bedrooms to more functional space. Now, granted, my empty nest days are a long way off, but I can dream. If you have a bedroom that you have been eyeing as your hobby room, exercise room, library, media room, or home office, we have several designs that can help you proclaim your space.

• Book designs for a library
• Motivation or business quotes for a home office
• Movie quotes for a theater room
• Sewing, scrapbooking, quilting, or other hobby designs
• Motivation and exercise quotes for an exercise room
• Welcoming messages for a guest room

If you can dream it, we can come up with a design for it

Grad Motivation

Ah, grad season is upon us. Soon the studious will be fresh from school and will spend their days ‘recovering’ from their ordeal. We’ve got a few great designs that are perfect little motivation reminders. If you’ve ever felt you might as well be talking to the wall, then let those walls do the nagging for a while. Don’t see any that work, then we’ve got designers at the ready to help you create a custom design that will be absolutely perfect—just think of the possibilities!

Designers, Bloggers, and Room to Breathe

Debbie Travis, one of my favorite designers and television personalities recently reached out to us for some information and photos for an upcoming newspaper column. We’re tickled pink (or rather tickled carnation, bubble gum, or…). We can’t wait to see what Debbie says—especially since her forte is paint, plaster, and the covering of bland walls.

Debbie is not the only one talking about us, we’ve been on a whirlwind with bloggers recently, getting together give aways, sending out samples, and generally getting to know some of the social media press circuit. I definitely missed the social marketing chapter in my moldy oldy Marketing 301 class in college, but I’m learning as I go.

Our big news (at least to us) is that we moved our production facility this week and are really enjoying the elbow room. The blank walls are both refreshing and intimidating—the old space we put up any random thing that we had lying around. In this space I want it a little more thought out. For now it’s a little minimalist until I get a spark of creativity and a few minutes with my favorite cutting machines.

Photo Contest Grand Prize Winner

We just wrapped up a photo contest, and we were thrilled at the response and the great photos. Our grand prize winner is Elaine S. who used the birch trees and bird cages to make a great headboard design for her bed. The chocolate color coordinates with her bedding, and the yellow bird is the perfect accent. We hope Elaine enjoys the $50 gift certificate and comes up with something just as fun and creative for the next contest.

Visit us on Facebook for even more fun customer photos such as the one below. And get those photos ready for the next contest. We had a blast!

Photo Contest Runner Up

Jennifer J. took the $25 gift certificate where she used a custom monogram centered over her daughter’s crib. We think that the effect is absolutely adorable and we’re sure that it’s getting plenty of oohs and ahas from everyone that sees it in person. We just want to know how she managed to talk her hubby into the pink and green walls.

Visit us on Facebook for even more fun customer photos and get those photos ready for the next contest. And visit us often for the newest designs–we have over 1600 designs and more are added every day.

Photo Contest Honorable Mention

We had to create an honorable mention category for Cathy R. who tugged our heartstrings. The design was presented to her friend who is battling cancer, and the message is just too perfect not to include in our list of favorites. She says “This isn’t in someone house, it’s in someone’s heart…” She too gets a $25 gift certificate for sharing the photo and story. We love the gift aspect of the designs, which is what the ‘Trading’ in Trading Phrases is all about.

Visit us on Facebook for even more fun customer photos (the canoe with the names of the rivers it has been on is really fun), and get those photos ready for the next contest.

Spring - Make it Bloom Where You Want it

If you’re like us, spring cannot come fast enough. We are out of the snow, but still are looking at some gray days with the rain and the plants that are just beginning to shake their long slumber. We’ve got a great idea to help spring color along—add a few vibrant designs to your walls. Bring the blooms indoors, and add a colorful branch to your wall, or add some vibrant birds to make you smile.

The Vintage Frog blog recently featured a chalkboard heart design. We love her idea of using it to keep score during game night. We’ve also had people use them to ‘decorate’ old furniture to give it new life. Vinyl chalkboard is great for dresser fronts, for table tops, or anywhere that a little temporary creativity can be added in unexpected places.

Love is in the Air, and Maybe on the Wall

February harkens thoughts of romance, roses, and chocolate. The romance should last throughout the year, but the roses and chocolate are short lived (unless you count those calories, and then it may be more permanent). For years we’ve done the Valentine’s dinner at a nice restaurant, but this year the sentiment is to cut back a bit. It can be fun to prepare a favorite meal at home together—especially if it’s a recipe that you’ve never tried before. If cooking is not your thing, then get a nice takeout meal break out the china—go for the candlelight and some soft music and you’ll have a dinner to remember. To make that dinner even more special, dress up your dining room wall with a few romantic words or a great quote. You may want to save the wildly romantic phrases for the bedroom, however.

Valentine wall quotes and phrases are creative and unexpected, are personal and classy, and are a great way to get your message across. Our favorite idea is to ‘write’ out a marriage proposal, but the possibilities are endless. Designs range from subtle to strong, from simple to sophisticated. Whatever design you choose, it will last longer than those roses and the box of chocolate—especially if it is good chocolate!

A Sign of the Times?

A recent article from US News about “17 Ways Consumers Are Changing” got a discussion started among the staff about current spending habits. What we all agreed on is that we’re a bit more frugal, are less willing to impulse buy, and are focusing on spending money on things that make us happy well beyond the fleeting “shopping fix” feeling.

The trend has been emerging over the past few years. ETSY and DIY sites have grown exponentially, and that growth stems from the notion that shoppers want something special, something personal. You don’t get comments about a sweater from Target, but you do for a sweater from Anthropologie or a unique ‘find’ from ETSY. Of course your purchasing power is 3:1 for Target sweaters, but the Anthro sweater will be a closet staple long after the Target sweater has been forgotten.

Today’s consumers still want to shop (or at least the ones I’ve talked to), they just want to make sure that the purchase means more than it did a few years ago. They want to pay with cash/debit rather than credit. This may be part of why wall decals are really taking off as an alternative to standard artwork. Words, quotes, and phrases tend to move people. They reinforce a message; make people think, smile, or both. They reinforce what you want to be or want to do, and are a personal affirmation to yourself and to your family. They are affordable, removable, and are easy to install. They are a perfect compliment to how we’re beginning to live today as we shed excess clutter along with economy that is also doing a little housecleaning. Wall decals convey a more long term connection than any mass produced print found in a store, and that longer term commitment is what consumers seem to be looking for today.

Idea File: Updating Mirrored Closet Doors

Mirrored closets were all the rage circa 1982. Mirrored doors can definitely serve a purpose by bouncing precious light around, let you check your look before heading out the door, and of course hiding a multitude of shopping sins within the closet. If you're facing a mirrored closet and wondering how to update it, vinyl is the perfect answer. New installations have updated the look a bit with frameless options, but a mirror is still a mirror, and it is the perfect medium for a bit of closet creativity.

We've all seen some basic block shape updates that provide a contemporary, clean look. Other options are to include a favorite quote or series of quotes that inspire you. Consider a satin gold, copper, or silver to compliment the shimmery mirror effect. The words help break up the mirror visually, while still letting the mirror serve it's purpose overall.

Add some fun graphic designs to add a touch of whimsy to your space, or add a monogram for a more classic traditional look. Frosted vinyl is the perfect medium to add a design without it overpowering the mirror. The effect is instant and absolutely removable, which is perfect for rentals or converting spaces as your needs change. Whatever your style, vinyl is an affordable solution to your mirrored door problems.

Early January Planning

It is mid January and we’re pondering what we can do to keep the momentum going this year. We have several irons in the fire including redesigning the website, using more technology to help streamline customer interactions, and of course more fun and exciting designs. We’re planning some fun new nursery and wedding designs and of course working with customers to design more fun custom creations. For those of you who have purchased designs, send us some pics that we can share on our website and we’ll send you a discount code to use or to share for future purchases.

Look for us on Twitter and on Facebook as we try to keep up with the latest happenings in the social media world—and keep those great comments coming—we LOVE to hear from you! Our favorite feedback from December is from Karyl W in Champaign, IL who writes: “I used to think that great customer service was a thing of the past...until I worked with Samantha and Trading Phrases. Congratulations on a great product and customer service that is second to none!” Wow, thanks Karyl!