For 133 years, Frederick Duckloe & Bros. has been manufacturing handcrafted Windsor furniture reproductions. While the Portland, PA-based company uses old-fashioned methods to re-create colonial-style furniture, it realized that it may be time to give its print catalog a new look and feel. So Sarah Fletcher, creative director of Providence, RI-based consultancy Catalog Design Studios, and Barbara Thomas, partner/creative director of Deephaven, MN-based agency Designwrite Advertising, reviewed the catalog to see if it needed some refurbishing.
SARAH FLETCHER
My father was a cabinetmaker who specialized in historic restoration, and my grandmother was invited to the White House for her contribution to historic preservation. I grew up touring historic homes and have been collecting antiques since I was eight. So believe me when I say that the quality of what Frederick Duckloe & Bros. is selling is extraordinary. It is rare to see such attention to the details that make quality reproductions indistinguishable from the originals except for the newness of the wood and the wear in the finish.
The catalog’s heavy, glossy paper should appeal to furniture collectors. The front cover is well shot and has the “arty” look that will appeal to upscale customers. Not so the back cover, however. Purists who will spend $559 for a First Boston Loop Back Windsor would never put it with a 1950s aluminum table sporting a mod flower-power pattern. It hurts me to look at it. I can hear the stylist saying, “It’s a new look, you need to get some life in this stuff, for heaven’s sake!”
Let me assure you, you don’t need a new look; you need to celebrate the timeless style and beauty that is our national heritage. (On a similar note, the Bishop White Settee on page 27 is not outdoor furniture and should not be shown on an open patio.)
The catalog uses a double gatefold to show its stores and explain the manufacturing process. The photographs of the stores and product are beautiful, but the scattered layout with its odd angles makes browsing too much of a chore. This is an opportunity to add a copy voice that would help reinforce the brand and sell merchandise. Also, the accompanying narrative is limited to captions. This is a serious missed opportunity. And while I like the idea of celebrating the folks who make the furniture, I would have tried to use close-ups of hands working with wood and tight shots that would allow for the fact that we ordinary folk are not always photogenic.
Inside, I like the fancy typeface; it adds a historic feel to the piece. But I would not run small type across the entire page, because it reduces readability. This is especially true on page 45, where the history of the company is in italics running across the entire page, with an image of a chair ghosted behind it to boot. Breaking the text into two or three columns with subheads would help readability. So would adding small images to break up the sections rather than using one large ghosted image.
A great deal could be done to improve ease of shopping. The cataloger includes a separate price list. I don’t know what the circulation is or how often Frederick Duckloe & Bros. prints the book, so I have to assume that it is not economically viable for the company to print prices in the catalog using a black-plate change.
Knowing that customers will have to continuously refer to the price list I would include page references on the price list so that people who lose their place while looking up prices will be able to quickly return to the correct page. In fact, rather than having the double gatefold, I would have looked into producing a pocket for the order form. That way the all-important price list would be less likely to stray from the catalog. I would also make sure that the trim size of the price list was not larger than that of the catalog so that it wouldn’t hang out over the sides.
The pagination could also use some work. On pages 3-4 it looks like there are seven styles of chairs, each with subtle design differences. In fact there are only six styles; #10 is listed twice. Why? The difference between #10, #69, and #17 appears to be size, but this is never mentioned. Shopping the catalog begins to feel like taking an IQ test.
I would not list the SKU number first. People tend to refer to products by the first identifier given. I would put the SKU after the product name and set it off with an easily readable but not aggressive type treatment that is subservient to the product name.
The most impressive part of the catalog was buried on page 19; it is the collection of commissioned reproductions from the Society of the Preservation of New England Antiquities. This is a big story and should be right up front. It positions Frederick Duckloe as the resource for reproductions. If I were to use the front gate to tell a story, that would be the story I’d tell. This section also has fabulous history tidbits mixed in: who made each piece, where the original is, a bit about the family’s connection to the history of the area. I would give every item the same treatment. Except for the contemporary Windsors, every piece in the catalog has a history, and customers not only care, but they care deeply.
BARBARA THOMAS
Gatefolds are an effective means of showcasing important messages and stories at the beginning of a catalog. They are also expensive to print and therefore should be used to their fullest. Frederick Duckloe & Bros. misses a huge opportunity in its front-of-catalog gatefold to give the customer a complete picture of its unique products and production. Pictures of factory production aren’t enough to tell customers what’s in it for them. Plus, as a new reader, I really don’t care who George, Earl, and Marla are, even though they are pictured crafting the furniture. And I don’t immediately get that the story is completed on the back gatefold — probably because no one tells me to go there to see more.
I want to be invited into the wonderful world of Frederick Duckloe & Bros., where accuracy and attention to detail give customers access to top-quality reproductions of Windsor-style furniture. There is a great story here, but Frederick Duckloe & Bros. has hidden it in the back of the catalog.
I advise bringing a shorter letter from the owners up into the opening editorial spread and really emphasizing the quality/value equation by talking about the handcrafted quality of the wood products, the skilled craftsmanship, and long-lasting value these pieces bring to the buyer. With so many low-priced options available, the opening spread needs to communicate why Frederick Duckloe & Bros. is so much better.
I would also offer an explanation of why Windsor furniture is so valued and perhaps include more conversation about the woods and finishes used. These pages need to leave the reader salivating for more. And while I would mention the stores, it should also be made clear that customers can also order immediately through the catalog or on the Web. The opening spread needs a compelling call-to-action.
The catalog takes a storytelling approach to its copy. While this can be interesting, at the end of the day the reader still wants to know how it all benefits him and his home.
Copy needs to make it real — Frederick Duckloe & Bros. needs to get the reader excited about buying one or six of these chairs. Rather than naming spread after spread “Windsor Dining Chairs” (pages 1-9) perhaps color-coding each section with a border treatment would give more benefit messaging on each individual spread.