Publications International - Publisher
New Season's Gift and Stationery Division
My role: New product development
I was the co-manager of a department charged with product development. We attended trade shows, followed the markets, and recommended products for development. I designed physical formats and communicated with Asian vendors to have them prototyped. I traveled to Asia several times a year to meet with manufacturers and source materials.
After selecting a prototype was approved, my department produced files for the first product of each kind that we developed.
A new product could be something completely new, like adding a metal frame that holds a photo onto the cover of a photo album. An examples of that is the Metal Craft line which was very successful.
Or it could be as simple as adding a new twist to a common product. An example of that is the School Memory Keeper. I developed a format that also incorporated a way to display school photos in the binder cover. We accomplished this by designing a die-cut cover with a flap that folds in and is held in place by flanges. This format was very successful and expanded to include sports, baby, and general kids themes. This and variations of it have sold over 6.4 million copies as of June 17th, 2013.
