Catalogs by Lorél

Lorel Marketing Group and Journeys have announced the successful launch of the new Journeys Digital Skate Catalog using Lorel's Digital Catalog Suite. The DCS offers the Journeys customer an interactive online consumer experience, delivering an engaging, content-rich branded presentation, helping consumers shop and spend time engaged with the latest Journeys merchandise.

The clock already may have struck midnight on postal reform, but that doesn’t mean your catalog has to turn back into a pumpkin. There’s no need to strip it down in ways that sabotage branding, creativity and, most importantly, sales. Even within the design and financial confines of today’s postal rates and structure, the dream of an effective, financially viable catalog doesn’t have to be a fairy tale. Through postal reform the U.S. Postal Service is developing a more accountable rate-making structure, as most catalogers should be aware by now, replacing irregular rate hikes with more predictable and regular adjustments. It’ll take serious housecleaning

Bluewater Books & Charts is a 104-page consumer catalog that offers navigational charts, instruments and gifts to the nautical community. In addition to the catalog, the company operates two retail stores and, of course, a Web site. I suspect this catalog markets to high-income shoppers willing to spend a great deal of money on their hobby-based lifestyle, and Bluewater needs to capitalize on this with a design that’ll make sailing enthusiasts want to part with their dollars. But the Bluewater catalog is as predictable as a nautical chart in its careful organization. Let’s look at some specific problems as well as some creative solutions that

During an intensive session at the ACCM Conference in Boston on May 21, a panel discussed assorted ways to maximize catalog photography budgets. Most notable among the tips fired out by Carliss Million, VP/creative director of catalog consulting firm Lorel Marketing Group; Geoff Van Sonsbeeck, cofounder/owner of pregnant women’s cataloger Isabella Oliver; and Sue Blesch, senior account executive at North American Color, a pre-press and printing company, were a 25-step plan to make your catalog shoot a success. Below is their list, a hodgepodge of necessary tools, actions and assorted quirky suggestions. 1. concepts and mood boards 2. implications on creative 3. the right team 4. copyrights and

They say “don’t judge a book by its cover,” but with a catalog, you must. A catalog has about three seconds to inspire someone to open it — or toss it. My first impression of the Botanic Choice catalog is chaos. This catalog, which sells nutraceuticals, vitamins and supplements, features no fewer than nine fonts and 12 point sizes, a free shipping offer call-out, a free shipping coupon, and seven products — and that’s just on the cover! Perhaps people who shop this category respond to this type of visual onslaught. But my initial impression is that shopping from this catalog would be like

Cool design and real-life models keep the Journeys catalog on the cutting-edge of teen fashion Taking a cue from MTV, the networks are filling their schedules with reality-based TV, especially after the success of “Survivor.” It’s easy. You don’t have to pay actors, write scripts or spend for big-time special effects. Just turn on the cameras. Viewers seem to have great interest in seeing real people in front of the lens. And one company has taken that ball and run with it into the catalog space. Officials at Journeys, a retail chain with more than 400 locations, launched their catalog during the 2000 holiday

Your catalog photography, and particularly your cover shot, must brand and sell. Where to shoot is a crucial choice, but it is not as simple as A or B, "studio vs. location." Studio options themselves are many: • Daylight studio. With windows or skylights, this option offers the beauty of natural lighting with the relative ease of a studio shoot. • Studio shoot with backdrops. Results vary from simple silhouettes to the beautifully dramatic shots seen in books like The Sharper Image. • Studio shoot with constructed sets. Create an environment to closely control every aspect of set and lighting.