The Potentials Of A Paper Craft Design Pattern Business

It is an undeniable fact that the Japanese anime industry has become very big. It reaches a very global audience. The paper arts of Japan like Origami are also quite well known. So it only follows that Japanese anime paper crafts would also have global reach.

This could be because of Kawaii, the Japanese technique or even art of making almost anything very cute. The Japanese are such masters of this craft that they can even make monsters and villains look cute.

The Japanese also have a knack for making almost anything look elegant. From the way they design everyday simple things to sometimes the way they conduct themselves, the Japanese seems to have imbibed to us that they make works of arts to even the simplest of things.

Cuteness and elegance are therefore just some of the hallmarks of Japanese paper craft products. From anime figures, temples, dioramas (Ikebana) and so on, the Japanese have been propagating their paper craft throughout the world and not only in Japan.

And why is the popularity of Japanese paper craft and for the most part all kinds of paper crafts that relate to paper dolls and 3D paper sculpture important? Because if you are involved in the arts and crafts market, you may be missing a developing market.

If you look at Etsy for example, there are a lot of sellers there that sell a variety of paper craft products or digital products related to paper craft. The two main products being sold are these:

They seem to be the popular paper craft related products being sold online. What are they? They are simply patterns of dolls, dresses, buildings and other objects that can be downloaded.

All you have to do for example is to type the search keyword “paper dolls” and you would instantly be shown by Etsy a lot of arts and crafts sellers who sell these downloadable, mostly PDF files.

The beauty of this product is that it is a digital product. This means that it has no real physical form as a product. You can keep selling the same digital file over and over again. Though I would like to think that before you can make a final digital product, you have to print out your own paper printouts.

Once you finalize the final form of your digital product, not only would you be able to sell this one digital product over and over again, but you also get to sell the variations of this digital product.

Let us say that you have created a downloadable digital pattern of a paper anime doll. If it so happens that this digital product of yours is popular, you can merely change the color or drawing of the clothes of this paper anime doll to create another product.

The Human Design Pattern:

This is why I especially recommend that you start out with doll patterns to begin your paper craft business. Dolls have a relatively uniform design pattern as compared to let us say making animal or building design patterns.

Humans have a similar design pattern while animals and buildings do not. Dog and bird design patterns are very different just like the very different design patterns of bridges and houses. Once you created one human design pattern, it’s only a matter of changing their skin tones or dresses.

Another advantage of selling human design patterns first when you are just starting out, is that they are the most popular paper crafts being sold. There could be a reason for this which I mainly think of as the cost factor.

Not many people can afford to buy the designer fashion dolls together with their expensive real life doll clothes and accessories, but paper dolls and paper doll clothes and accessories are very affordable.

Perhaps by now you are already inspired to start your own paper craft figures pattern yourself and sell them to e-commerce and arts and crafts sites online, but think of this first, you are mainly creating a digital product.

This means that just like any other kind of digital product, there is a strong likelihood that many others have gone before you and have created their own paper craft figures pattern business. And this is true, this sort of product has existed for ages, even centuries.

There are even online sites that give out free downloadable paper craft figure patterns. There are even YouTubers who teach how to do them. This is another earning possibility that you could consider besides selling downloadable files.

You can monetize your digital paper craft figures pattern the same way you monetize other digital content. You can have ads on your website, affiliate links and direct product endorsements.

You can have a Patreon Account and/or offer premium subscription membership to your customers. You do this by giving away the simple paper craft patterns you have and only giving away the better ones to paying subscribers.

With the sheer numbers of digital files of paper craft figure patterns available as a paid and a free product, you might begin to think that there is no more place for the actual paper printouts themselves as a product.

But the reality is that there are a lot of people who want to buy the actual paper product even though they might seem to be the more expensive option. The simple answer to this is a simple word as well: “convenience and quality”

There are simply a lot of people who can’t be bothered to print out in their usually low tech and relatively old printer the downloadable paper craft figure pattern files. The actual paper of which these paper crafts are printed on are simply so much superior than conventional printer paper.

Another thing we need to consider is the fact that the printout quality from home printers are simply not up to par with the printing quality of papers printed in professional printing presses. Paper printed in printing presses especially if they are colored are always superior.

There is also the cost factor. For the printing quality of a normal home printer, wouldn’t you get more of your money’s worth if a professional printing press used their own paper and ink to print your paper craft design pattern?

Perhaps one of the biggest reasons why paper craft enthusiasts still like to buy the real printing pressed paper craft pattern dolls is because the high quality paper also comes with a professional stamp cut.

They can be so professionally stamped cut that the buyer does not even need to use a scissor or a paper cutter to cut the individual parts of the paper craft figure pattern. There are even paper craft figure patterns that are printed in a very thick paper that using a scissor or a paper cutter is not suggested.

As you can see, the beauty and convenience of professionally printed paper craft patterns are much more superior than home printed ones. They are even easier to assemble than home printed ones.

It is safe to say that professionally printed paper craft figure pattern designs would always have a big market no matter how the DIY movement progresses. The average DIY hobbyist can’t simply compete on quality and convenience.

But this presents a big problem to anyone who want to offer the same quality as professionally printed and stamped cut paper craft figure patterns. How would they get the expensive machines to create professional quality ones?

One thing you need to do to compete is to buy a high quality industrial type color printer which could print very high quality printouts at fast speeds. I think you should have a budget of about US$ 1,000 for this alone.

Next, you would need a laser cutter. I saw decent ones online that sell for about US$ 100. And this models can already cut materials such as wood. Cutting paper should be no problem for these inexpensive but very useful machines.

Of course, you need a decent computer to design your paper craft patterns and to run the two abovementioned machines. Any less than this and I fear that your paper craft figure pattern business could become fruitless.

Don’t forget that you also need to design the packaging for your paper craft products. The beauty of your product though is that it is very light and compact because it is paper. You don’t need to spend much on inventory or delivery costs.

Take note however that you are dealing with paper which is very fragile even if they are thick. It takes only water to destroy them, so you may want to invest on sturdy and waterproof containers just to make sure that they don’t get damaged. Cheap plastic containers should do.

One of the great advantages of having a paper craft business is that all you need is an industrial quality color printer and an inexpensive laser cutter and you already have your own small factory or printing press, depends on how you see your business.

It could be possible to accept orders as they come and not print any inventory at all. In essence, you are custom manufacturing and you yourself is a custom manufacturer. The beauty of this is you could also go the extra step.

Let us say that due to your sheer marketing genius, you were able to convince a school for young children to order from you about 1,000 paper craft business patterns which have the design of a school boy or a school girl.

You can offer to change your existing design such that your child student paper doll will have the school uniform of the school which you have a contract with. You can do the same to the other schools you manage to have a contract with.

The school can use your paper dolls as arts and crafts projects for their students, as giveaways, or as decorations. But it doesn’t have to be only schools, you can apply the same principle to any organization. Companies can use your paper dolls as giveaways like child entertainment companies.

It is pretty obvious that you would probably make the most of your money from this sort of business from bulk buys. You can sell custom manufactured one to individual clients at premium prices, but unless your design is popular, you would likely end up working hard just to make money for each of your designs.

Could you design cup noodle paper packaging so that they would become highly desired paper craft figure patterns for marketing purposes? Chances are, you can. But will the cup noodle company pay you to create such a design? Maybe and maybe not…

Highly desirable design jobs and bulk orders for paper craft like this would likely be done by the big companies themselves. Let’s face it, making paper craft patterns is no rocket science, even a reasonably skilled young person can do this.

This is the reason why you must target organizations with no design departments or even available manpower. Sure, the order volumes might not be that big, but it perfectly fits one man and small home based businesses.

I have given schools as an example, how about another one? How about small companies who can’t afford expensive gifts for their clients? In the companies I used to work for, they always give greeting cards during Christmas and New Years.

A few of the companies I work for usually just display these greeting cards during the occasions they were meant for and then just throw them away. I think you can market your paper craft designs as replacements for boring Christmas and New Year cards.

This is especially true if your paper craft has a very desirable aesthetic appeal. Imagine a toy company using a popup book paper craft you designed to entertain their child visitors. It’s only your imagination limiting the use of your paper craft products.

Paper craft design patterns might look like simple products, but in reality they are very hard to do. You need drawing skills to design the paper craft, and you need also tailor like skills to create a cohesive but separated group of paper craft design parts.

Since all you need is a decent computer, industrial quality color printer and a laser cutter, you can readily setup your own factory or printing press for creating such products. You also need good marketing skills to convince your bulk buyer organizations that your paper craft products are ideal for their own use and as giveaways.

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