Sheri Promoted

On Thursday, January 5, Sheri was officially promoted to "Art Director" after a little more than one year on the job. While she appreciates the recognition and raise, her enthusiasm is tempered by the ongoing constraints on her creativity which the company's management and culture imposes.

Another simple reality that keeps her from dancing in the streets: At K & Company, almost EVERYone who has been there a couple of years is called "art director." The place is swimming with so-called art directors, most of whom direct absolutely nothing, including the creation or recognition of actual art. In fact, a lot of them seem to have difficulty directing their own rear ends into a chair every day to put in even a regular 40-hour week of work of any kind.

Some new Sheri Berry designs are showing up at Target now, although Sheri is frankly embarrassed by pattern and color changes made by others during the production process. However, if anything gets through the process unslaughtered, I will post it here immediately. Scroll down for previous product postings.

Teal Brown Paper and Die Cut Pad

This pad features a wide selection of 12" x 12" papers and small die-cut pieces that are ideal for scrapbooking, card-making, and other papercrafts. Miniatures of the pages in the pad are shown here on the cover packaging. Sheri designed all the die-cut sheets in this product, which feature nostalgic photo frames, "swizzle stick" shapes, classic tag letters, and word-plates with family-oriented sayings selected or written by Sheri. No cutting is required. Just punch out the shapes you want. The actual product is brighter than this low-res photo indicates, but should provide enough visual guidance to help you identify it at Target.

Baby Domes

"Domes" are small, self-adhesive stickers with a design behind the slightly raised transparent surface. These alphabet domes are designed for use with any scrapbooking or papercraft project, but the colors and type styles would work especially well with Sheri's other baby-themed products (below). Available at Target.

Pastel Paper Pack

These 12" x 12" papers feature a variety of baby-themed patterns designed by Sheri. They are intended for scrapbooks, photo albums, or any other papercrafting use you can imagine. The photos below are poorly lit, but should give you enough to go on if you want to find the real thing at Target. The first two shots show the front and back of the packaging. The next image is a reduced-size view of one of the papers included in the pack, but not shown on the printed packaging insert.

Baby Albums

Sheri's original assignment was to do four spreads of internal pages for a baby book, but the project was later expanded to be two complete baby albums, one for boys and one for girls. The books feature soft blue or pink tone-on-tone coloring, classic typography, a sheet of matching monogram stickers for the cover (to feature baby's first initial), and pages for baby's birth statistics, family tree, and other milestones. Softly patterned background pages throughout allow free placement of photos and other memorabilia.

Friends and family members who look closely at the packaging will note that the merchandising label on the protective wrap features a miniature sample of the page "Baby's First Birthday," shown completed with a photo of our daughter on her first birthday.

These albums may be difficult to find due to limits on merchandising space in smaller Target stores. If you can't find this at your closest Target, check a larger store. Sheri was told that 300 Target stores nationwide have enough room to carry the full K & Co. lineup, which would include this product.

Boy/Girl Stickers

The first two items are called "Dimensional" stickers because they consist of multiple layers of the same design, strategically die-cut and built up by skilled Asian laborers to give them a sense of depth. Then they're vacuum-sealed for freshness (well, sealed, at least) and sent to eager American scrapbookers. "I designed these as part of the baby line for Target, and you'll see some of the same characters appear on other products, such as embossed stickers and papers," Sheri says.

The next three items are embossed stickers. One is for boys, one is for girls, and one is "generic baby." The text for these is also written by Sheri, or in some cases selected from traditional proverbs and sayings. As always, Sheri's ideas for these designs begin in her fertile mind, followed by pencil sketches and finished illustrations on the computer.

SB Clothing Tags

Sheri has always thought of vintage clothing tags, each featuring its own combination of words, typography, and illustration, as tiny works of art. Her collection of old clothing tags inspired her to create a series of such tags specifically for baby book scrapbookers, one of the main groups of buyers for K & Company's products. These self-adhesive tags, woven like real clothing tags by skilled Asian manufacturers, are Sheri's original designs and feature copy she wrote, with one set for boys, and one set for girls. They are ideal for baby books, scrapbooks, and even accents to framed photos. Both sets will be available in the photo album/scrapbooking supplies section of Target around the middle of September 05. Please note that these scans show the tags' colors a little more "loud" than the actual products. Go to a Target near you to get a more realistic view of these Sheri Berry originals.