Archive for May, 2009

view

Friday, May 29th, 2009

After yesterday’s post with rêverie bottles: Today a post with Vetiver dance bottles. And a view. For Hotlanta Linda. This is pretty much what I see this morning. After putting some Vetiver dance into boxes for Italy (stocking up), the W.-factor and me will label and glue some samples: Air du désert, Le Maroc pour elle, Vetiver dance and Rêverie samples stocks are down to zero.

This is today’s duty program… once we are done with this: The playground is open!

Already now: A sunny weekend to you!
view from working bench

week twenty something

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

For the time being I am still using my old boxes with my old inlay design. The new boxes come after week 23 or so.

Thus, the friendly W.-factor was nice enough to fold 100 boxes and prepare inlays. Piled up they wait for me.  Together with my iPod this is my morning venture, starting with rêverie and moving on to …whatever is around in bottles.

Talking Rêverie: Thank you, Gaia! Rêverie au jardin made it into the top 10 summer perfumes.
Picture: The left part of my perfume working bench. With a lamp, boxes and bottles. You see: I have a room with a view.
Rêverie au jardin and boxes

roots exposed

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

Water was pouring from heaven like crazy tonight.

The temperature drop of yesterday (more than 10 °C in a few hours) reminded me in Texas, College Station, where I would hit the library at noon, in shorts, sweating, and get out a couple of hours later, and had to run because it got 15 °C cooler and was pouring like nothing I knew.
Anyhow. A busy day ahead. I spend another day in the office, and later in the evening, I need to do some web stuff. Later on Thursday and Friday I need to prepare for next week, that is going to be a special week,  and beyond.

I am stocking up for X-mas and trying to get ready there, getting deliveries and orders organized. Practically, this translates into more room to stock bottles and boxes, more boxes for packed perfumes and samples, and more room for vials and cans holding the juice. And cash flowing from here to there. And I must keep on the other hand an eye on bound cash in my stock. Looking into my perfume bottles like a magic bowl, I am trying to anticipate what is going to happen in 6 months time from now, after the first snow has fallen, and folks start with their Christmas shopping and enjoy candle lights and the stars are gleaming over peaceful cities under white blankets.
Strange.

Below a picture that I have seen while hiking on Sunday, fir tree roots exposed, over the years, by rain and wind, with a dandelion flowering next to it.
roots exposed

orange star

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

first thoughts on visuals going with a fragrance that sits in my cellar.

Not having finished with all the launch preparations for the Rose chyprée, I do not need another one to launch right now.  Thus, I am not ready for a launch, but I had a few ideas for the visuals since a while and i wanted to test them. And I needed an excuse yesterday not to write more mails.
well…

You get an idea where I am heading. Interesting, on an other line, how much difference it makes where you place the orange disk. What I like is how open the picture is for interpretations…
orange star another take the orange disk closer to the semi - circle

orange star another take the orange disk a little bit further away from the white semi-circle.

mountain flowers

Monday, May 25th, 2009

We are still in the low thirties (Celsius) today, the last day up there for this week, though.
Yesterday, we felt that the mountains might be the best place to be. Especially after a week that was so intense, and culminated in an e-mail and interview effort on Saturday…trying to get these words into the computer and off into the stream of bits and bytes that pours endlessly towards an Internet of thoughts.

Nice about the mountains: Time to think, and time not to think.

And going up there is like a spring revival. We were on 1600 meters above sea level and there were still some patches of snow fighting the May sun. And flowers. Everywhere.
flower next to snow

Unknown flower next to snow, in the mountains above Muotathal. Follow this link to google map.
violet flower

Lots of flowers…
valleys with a view
And spectacular views

clementine

Saturday, May 23rd, 2009

Summer is around the corner these days. And my Clementine tree is full of fresh new leaves and branches and white knobs that will open as little scenting flowers, fully loaded with indoles, in the coming days.

Time to enjoy the season.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend

Clementine flower bud Picture: A Clementine flower bud, seen this morning in Zurich, one of many.

vintage

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

After having answered interview questions and writing e-mails and more computer work: I am tired of writing and happy that there exists Nathan’s blog.

Lucky me: I can just send you there, and recommend reading his thoughts on the Rose chyprée, enjoying his pictures that are truly stunning and please, leave a comment because you can win a  rose chyprée … Here is the link to Nathan’s post on the rose chyprée.

I wish you a lovely weekend. Enjoy!

all excited

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

because I got another big parcel ready for shipment tomorrow

because the W.-factor managed to get a really nice picture of me presenting a little rose chyprée bottle with some real roses from the garden without me closing the eyes or looking otherwise weird

because it is now official that I will be at the booth of Guido, my partner in Italy who imports all my fragrances, for a day, presenting my fragrances, getting a chance to really nicely lovely present my perfumes in Florence in September.The event: PITTI Immagine fragranze. THE EVENT TO BE. Pitti, I am coming!
because Guido got the rose chyprée bottle (test specimen) that I sent by courier a long time ago, after the rose chyprée got a “sanitary inspection” by Italian customs. Please do not ask me what they inspect there. For sure they charge for it. 125 Euro to be precise. Makes me think “Pirates of the Mediteranean”. Let us hope I will not get a sanitary inspection when crossing the border in September on my journey to the PITI.

And now: Happy boxing of more air du désert marocain.

The picture shows you one of the series made by the talented W.-factor: Perfumer presenting rose.

perfumer presenting rosesBut I got a better one that will be used by friends….

teaser set

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

continuing there where I finished yesterday… a quick look at the state of works when it comes to teasers. The business card (5.5×8.8 cm) relations between width and length is not identical to the flyer’s. Thus , I need to adjust all a bit, while trying to stay close to the flyer’s visuals. First, I thought to catch the opportunity and bring all the text and layout into one scheme. But this does not work for me.
Now: Sorry for the bad quality of the picture below. It got too late and I wanted to bed….

But, I think, you get the idea: To the right is the teaser card back side with vial for the l’air du désert marocain; at the bottom is the example of the rose chyprée.

All of them fit into a simple box, 11x 16×1.6 cm, which is the perfect format for sending from Switzerland, or in an envelop. To be seen when I got a specimen of the simple box.

And now, I ride to Berne again, in the train, through green wonderland.
all teaser cards front Picture: The business card sized teaser cards that will be used to produce teaser (samples) for a teaser set.

simple simpler samples

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

Before talking about today’s topic: Here is the winner of the draw of last weekend. Sarri, like in Sarah Th…. Please send me your coordinates by mail and for which of my fragrances you have decided: I will put a bottle of your choice into the specimen box and ship immediately.

Congratulations to Sarri and good luck to the others who will get another chance soon. ( Chances were about 1/50 …hey: That is still better than in the lottery!)
Thus, today’s topic: Samples again. What you see below is a photo of my desk, later in the evening. Keyboard to the right, and a first test layout print of an extension to my sample program. As some of you may know: I am present in Italy in a selection of top perfumeries and have probably the broadest coverage there: It is nowhere as easy to get to my fragrances nearby as in Italy.

To support these brick&mortar perfumeries, I am considering another sample program. Not replacing the classical samples, (that come with nice atomizer pumps), but extending the program by an alternative, allowing perfumeries in Italy to be somewhat more generous with my fragrance samples.

Maybe I should change the name for these simpler samples: Let’s call them TEASERS.

So here we go: Teasers come simple vials, sticked (glued) to the back of cards (business cards). On the back there is the name, the allergy declaration and where they are coming from. On the front side there is the visual line that you find on the regular sample flyer, too.

Thus, I thought, if I make a teaser like that for my lovely Italian clients, I could make a teaser set for my international clients.

Thus, more on a teaser set tomorrow.
simpler samples 1

Picture: A part of my desk.
Showing first print layouts for a  simpler sample front and back

simpler samples 2 just to give you an idea on the back side…
(don’t look on the colors…it is a quick print out)