Archive for December 18, 2009

| December 18, 2009
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PANTONE FASHION COLOR REPORT | spring 2010

Brrrrrr….it’s cold!

I’m going to continue to think warm this week by taking a look at what Pantone has picked out for it’s Spring 2010 colors. It’s grading time folks, let’s see how Finao does:

FINAO LEATHERS: A-

The leathers appear to be the clear winner this round. They are the closest matches to our Pantone palette and can supply some fabulous spring cover options for the Finao ONE and Upper Elements line (select materials only). Best matches go to Lobster & ‘Shroom. We lose points for the blue. Nothing close on that one but our traditional Wedgewood option. Better luck next time, perhaps.

FINAO NON-LEATHERS: B-

The non-leathers by comparison are probably the weakest in matching our Pantone palette, however, there are still loads of nice choices for many of the colors that can be used on our self-mount Elements line. Best matches here go to: Geisha and Platinum Blonde. The Geisha has a nice reflective quality that the scan can’t really capture so go check your swatches to see what I mean. (pssst….you can buy the swatches if you don’t already have them :). Again, we lose points on trying to match the Violet and Amaparo Blue. That blue is just tough to match.

SELDEX MATERIALS: B

While maybe not the strongest of the material collections either, Seldex does get near spot on with a few of the colors. Their Aquamarine is super close and Cornflower is probably the closest match to that Amparo blue yet. They don’t have anything close to the Aurora yellow, however, if you get creative and check out the highlight color in Butterscotch Iridescent you might get close. Just depends on how you choose to accent colors. The Seldex materials here represent their entire line so make sure to check that the material you like is available on that specific product.

That’s all for this week….and this year. We will see you again in January when I’m going to have a whole series of ideas to help gear you up for Valen-tease day. That’s right. It’s time to boost those boudoir sales and I’ll have some colorful ideas to make it happen. Till then,

Happy Holidays everyone,

L :l

Lisa Hoffman

Lisa Hoffman

Lisa Hoffman is Finao's official Image Enhancer for the Marketing Department. She makes stuff pretty...usually.

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| December 11, 2009
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BEACHY CLEAN | take your theme to the beach

Back again for another edition of the Fashion Blog. It’s cold here! I don’t know about you but I could totally use a day a the beach where the sun is warm so that is my inspiration for this week. Our imaginary client this week wants a Beachy Clean wedding so let’s take a look at some ideas on how to pull it off and what kind of materials & products you could offer. Let’s dive in!

1) Opaline (leather) 2) Lusterin’ Hot (suede) 3) Saffron (leather) 4) Willow Tree (leather) 5) Natural Blend (linen) 6) Iridescent Butterscotch (Asahi silk) 7) Faded Jeans (faux leather) 8) Element self mount album in PlatinumBlonde 9) Finao ONE 20×8 Flipbook with ICE cover and Fexy Bleu suede 10) Natural Timber Bookbound Art matted album

MATTED ALBUMS

With loads of new materials added to the mix this past summer, Seldex has some really nice beachy materials that can be used on the Bookbound Art and Gallery albums. Seldex re-introduced some wood covers and the Natural Timber (example 10) would make an excellent start. The spine is normally black on this cover, however, you could choose from a selection of leathers and leatherettes to better match your theme if you like.

Even if you are not doing a Timber cover, Seldex still has plenty of other leather options for the Bookbound Art that could work for our beach theme. Some of my personal favorites are Sandstone Outback leather, Mother of Pearl metallic leather and Ivory leather. Any one of them would be great options to consider as well.

If you are stepping down to the Gallery matted album for a portrait or guest book you have your choice of linen and other book cloths that fit swimmingly with our theme. My top two pics are shown: Natural Blend linen (example 5) and Iridescent Butterscotch (example 6). There are plenty of runners-up here, as well. Sandbank linen, Sky Blue linen, Fuchsia linen, Pink linen, Oyster buckram and even the Soft Blue Gold Asahi silk could easily transfer to our beach theme depending on what colors our client is choosing as the main colors.

FLUSH MOUNTS

Our top choices in the flush mount category for the Finao ONE are pretty much straight up leathers this time. Since these are mostly pretty smooth and plainer leathers, they make great candidates for our tooTone! Album styles. Match one of the colors in our primary beach palette here (examples 1-4) with a plethora of accent colors. Some of my top choice accent colors (not shown here) would be Optimism, ‘Shroom, Sunshine, Lobster, Aquadisiac, Wedgewood, Drifter, Baby Boi and Girlie Girl.

There are a couple of specialty covers that I would recommend trying for the beach theme, as well, since they are both directly tied to what image you decide to use. Top pic goes to the ICE specialty cover (example 9) with the Magical Mystery Glass cover (not shown) coming in directly behind. ICE wins out for the sole reason its a metallic print under acrylic and lends an awesome pearl-like sheen when the light hits it. Just seems perfect for the beach.

SELF MOUNTS

The beachy choices for self-mount albums is probably the most limited of the collections. Top pic here goes to Faded Jeans (example 7). Platinum blonde (example 8) is also a nice choice along with Mellow Yellow (not shown) or perhaps even Academy Award (not shown) depending on the client’s colors.

If you decide to upgrade to an Upper Element or Upper Element TXT guestbook, then you open up some more possibilities for yourself with the leather options and could make a nice tooTone! tie-in with a flush mount album depending on what colors you choose. Remember, that not all leather options are available on the Upper Elements lines so if you think this might be an idea you would like to pursue, make sure the leathers you would like to use are available options on both types of albums.

That’s all for this week. I hope we thawed out some of those creative juices and come back next week for another round or ideas and inspirations.

L :l

Lisa Hoffman

Lisa Hoffman

Lisa Hoffman is Finao's official Image Enhancer for the Marketing Department. She makes stuff pretty...usually.

More Posts - Website

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| December 4, 2009
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PUNK PRINCESS | an edgy (but girlie) theme

Welcome back from the break!

I hope everyone had a pleasant holiday. We return to Fashion Fridays this week with the look at recommendations for the Punk Princess. She may be a bit edgy and a bit rock ‘n roll so what would you offer her? How would you keep it fun? How would you keep it feminine? How would you match the album to the other parts of her wedding? Let’s look at some ideas:

1) Mardi Gras (fabric) 2) Willow Tree (leather) 3) Lusterin’ Hot (suede) 4) Ludicrous (patterned leather) 5) Mock Croc Steel (leatherette) 6) Aubergine (macrosuede) 7) Whitesnake (faux snakeskin) 8) Bullet cover with Saturday Night Special (metallic leather) 9) Sunday Shoes (patent leather) with Suspicion (ostrich pattern leather) 10) Something Wicked (patent leather) with Suspicion (ostrich pattern leather)

MATTED ALBUMS

Traditionally matted albums have been pretty conservative, however, this past year Seldex has completely revamped their material offerings and cover designs (like Too Tone options) and delivered a modern punch to the matted album industry. Try a Bookbound Art album in one of the new Wild Animalia leatherettes like Mock Croc Steel (example 5) with a plainer leather and Too Tone it. There are some wonderful combinations that can be made with these new materials.

For the simpler Gallery albums there are plenty of options here as well. Macrosuedes like Aubergine (example 6) work for both Bookbound Art and Gallery albums, making matching different styles of matted albums easy. The Shimmer collection is another excellent choice for our Punk Princess theme. We recommend Candy Pink, Purple or Gunmetal shimmer. Don’t forget, if you order blank mats, Gallery albums can easily be turned into fine art guest books.

FLUSH MOUNTS

Flush mounts tend to be the backbone of any major wedding photography package, and the Finao ONE album delivers just about any crazy combination that you can dream up to match ANY theme. For our Punk Princess we have selected a little something old and a little something new. For the something new we have FABRICS that come in fabulously funky patterns like Mardi Gras (example 1) and patterned leather like Ludicrous (example 4). For the tried and true there are plainer leathers like Willow Tree (example 2) and Lusterin’ Hot (example 3).

We would also recommend our Bullet (brushed metal) specialty cover for some hard-edged, punk appeal (example 8) or some patent leather like Sunday Shoes (example 9), Something Wicked (example 10) or Red Light District for some sleek & sexy appeal.

If your Punk Princess likes to take a walk on the wild side, why not consider adding some Zumanity accents in either Racing Stripes or Kitty Kitty for just the right purrrfect appeal.

SELF MOUNTS

My top pick for the self mount albums & guest books for our Punk Princess is Whitesnake. It’s a nice neutral color combined with a snakeskin pattern for a little extra oomf. The Happy Cow collection offers some nice, plain, leather-like materials and the Garbo collection offers some nice suede-like materials. With over 70 different non-leather choices, Elements make great package add-ons to any theme.

L :l

Lisa Hoffman

Lisa Hoffman

Lisa Hoffman is Finao's official Image Enhancer for the Marketing Department. She makes stuff pretty...usually.

More Posts - Website

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