Desk calendar is one of the top gift choices for companies to offer their clients, partners, and employees every New Year. And tent calendar is the most popular type that everybody thinks of for its convenience of use and compact design.

But sometimes, familiarity becomes your enemy, especially when the client is someone who demands novelty and distinction like Rita Vo. With the desire to create something unique to the brand, they requested us to put out a desk calendar design that is new and different, but at the same time, still caters to the need for note writing convenience. To satisfy that, we – SDMedia – suggested multiple options. These calendar types has already become popular in other parts of the world, but they’re still rather new to the Vietnam market.

What our client picked was the wooden stand calendar design.

However, the road from the idea to the real product was a long story. For us, the project was the first of its kind. There were not many printing companies which could take on the production of this new calendar. Time was not on our side when New Year’s just around the corner. We had other projects to carry out, and so did printing companies. There were big hurdles, but we did our best to overcome them.

Working on the design

For the calendar’s shape, we decided to use the image of a house, as it symbolizes the coziness and happiness of family. Rita Vo also has a home furniture line of business and was going to offer this calendar gift to architects. This house shape idea was a perfect choice.

The first versions

We added a chimney to the original design to make it look more like a house. The information on the calendar was also rearranged for aesthetic purpose.

The final version

The wooden stand was easier to design. It’s highlighted with the red ‘Rita Vo’ logo. The only thing to pay attention to was the inclination and width of the trench.

The wooden stand

The calendar box was something we’re really proud of. Up to that point, we hadn’t seen any boxes specifically made for this type of calendar. This was a barrier to the storage of the product especially since it was going to be given as a gift. So we proactively made our own box to add to its elegance and classiness, and above all, convenience. The box was square shaped with a separate lid. The inside was designed to leave a space for the wooden stand and the 12 sheets of calendar to lie neatly on top.

The containing box

Choosing the right materials

The material that we chose for the calendar sheets was 400 gsm art paper – uncoated, so that it could be written on. The stand was made of rubber wood – light-colored and durable. 300 gsm art paper was used as the material for the box.

Finding the contractor

This step was done almost simultaneously with step 1 and 2. However, things didn’t went so well as the first major company that we contacted was overwhelmed with year-end projects. After looking, we were lucky enough to find a contractor who could guarantee both product quality and time to completion.

But we couldn’t stop worrying until we had the final product in our hands. For us, this project was a real challenge because had something gone wrong, we wouldn’t have had time to correct it. Eventually, thanks to the effort of the whole team (and some luck, too) the product was delivered to our client on time, and we got a lot of positive feedback in return.

The final product

This wooden stand calendar was a product that we took high pride in for its pioneering and innovative value. This success will be the motivation for us to overcome the challenges of future projects and win the trust of our clients.

By SDMedia