Whigby Transforms Printer Offcuts into Quirky Stationery

Photo credit: WhigbyWhigby is a firm proponent of "cardpooling," the printing equivalent of carpooling that commandeers the leftover portions of sheets that are already running through the press for another, unrelated commercial job. "The printer calls us up and let's us know he has a few unused inches of paper at the edge of a sheet," Todd Temporale and Frank Viva, founders of the Toronto-based stationery house, write on their Web site. "Then we scramble to get a design over before the plates are made. Our goal is to see all those empty sheets (and seats) filled to capacity as they pass by on their way to who knows where."

The result? Vibrant illustrated note cards with arresting subjects like a fedora-donning blue octopus, a moose-and-octopus pairing caught en flagrante delicto, and a golden retriever appreciatively breathing in the musk of its feline companion (the tag line reads "You smell good"). Photo credit: Whigby

Whigby's waste-not-want-not approach doesn't stop there. It also repurposes printer "make ready" sheets—test prints that allow printers to align press plates and determine the right ink pressure and density—to create its charmingly ad-hoc Make Ready line of cards, which are distinguished by chaotic graphic overlays, random wedges of white space, and the occasional smattering of printer marks.

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