PRODUCTS AND PARTNERSHIPS
However, the folks at CSA have been down a similar road a few times before. Along the way, they learned lessons they’re determined not to repeat. For example, back in the 1990s, the CSA Archive developed a small line of products—watches, magnets, T-shirts, a few metal tables, and even cologne—illustrated with CSA line art and offered for sale outright and as gifts-with-purchase of images from the archive. “We learned that warehousing, marketing, quality control, distribution, and inventory management are a whole lot of stuff that’s not very fun and has nothing to do with design,” says Anderson. “We also learned that men don’t buy things. I asked the guys in my office, ‘How many of you have ever bought or sent a thank-you card?’ None of them had. So we’ll design cards, but they’re not for us. If we like them, it means nothing. Almost the entire gift-buying population is women.”

To create the Pop Ink brand, CSA is sticking to what it does best (design) and developing a series of partnerships and licensing deals with vendors who already have expertise in manufacturing and producing products. “I’ve learned that you need to stick to your core competency, and if you distract yourself with other things, it’s dangerous and can damage your whole business,” Anderson says. CSA developed a Halloween campaign for Target stores that further showed how to create a coherent line of retail products without trying to do it all yourself. Inspired by the inexpensive Halloween masks once available at five-and-dime stores, CSA created patterns, icons, illustrations, screen graphics, type treatments, and color palettes. A variety of Target vendors pulled these elements and used them on their own product packaging, hangtags, toys, clothing, and much more.

“When we saw all those thousands of SKUs coming into and transforming the Target stores, we realized there were plenty of people out there who could do a better job at manufacturing this stuff than we can,” Anderson says. “We don’t have to design every single piece. We can design the template, a bunch of examples to set the tone, and provide access to our database of tens of thousands of images, patterns, icons, photographs, and elements.” Then let vendors, licensees, manufacturers, and distributors take over the rest.

KITTENS, BUNNIES, PONIES, AND FLOWERS
Anderson also feels that the timing is right for Pop Ink products. “It used to be hard to make things that were perfect. Then, technology made it easy to do and perfection became generic and boring. So trends are now swinging back toward things that are more human, hand-done, and illustrated.” Technology may help make the Pop Ink vernacular desirable; it also makes it possible. Anderson points out that advances in digital printing means “there’s all kinds of ways to get images on things and make them cheap, funny, conceptual, playful, and collectible with imagery that looks like someone made it and cared about it.”

Several Pop Ink products are in or on their way to stores. Flamerite has introduced lighters with the “Chuck A” theme. Acme Studios is offering high-quality pens with graphic illustrations of pens on them. Blue Q used Pop Ink images on a line of gum and air fresheners. One pack is called “ABC Gum, when you care enough to share everything.” The label includes a list of ingredients you might find in the gum after your partner has chewed it. Rearview-mirror air fresheners have pictures of everything from big-eyed baby animals to women with bouffant hairdos, dubbed “Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control,” and classic dog portraiture with the line “Dog is my copilot” on the packaging.

In spring 2005, Abrams Books will be introducing the first in a series of Pop Ink picture books, merchandised with related cards and journals. The books were formed by a discussion Anderson had more than 20 years ago with some folks at Hallmark Cards. “They told me that something like half of all the cards they sell have images from only three categories—puppies, kittens, and flowers,” Anderson recalls. “That’s a horrific statement, but after thinking it over for two decades, we decided maybe we should explore ways to come up with some interesting images of these horribly cliché, sappy subjects. This way, we can split the audience. Half will see these picture books and think they’re cute, and the other half will see them as a hip, snarky commentary that’s ripping on itself. Our goal is to cover both audiences. This is not design for designers. We’re trying not to be over anyone’s hairdo.”

The first book, Happy Kitty Bunny Pony, promises hundreds of pages of “adorable critters so sickeningly sweet they’re guaranteed to trip your gag reflex and send you into a diabetic seizure.” Other titles—Goth-Icky, Romance Novel, Well Bred, and Tokyo to Go—will be offered every three to four months. The books will be priced to be collectible and placed in the front of book stores, including Barnes & Noble, where they can be picked up on impulse and as gifts. They will also conveniently serve as guidebooks to the whole “Pop Ink, Visual Pop Culture” brand.