Moo / London
Moo straddles the digital and the physical with its online-only business model, offering business cards, mini cards, postcards, greetings cards and stickers, which it prints digitally and mails out worldwide.
Launched by Richard Moross in 2006, Moo was one of the original firms on Old Street’s ‘Silicon Roundabout’ in London. Printing was initially outsourced but, as the business grew in volume and geographic reach, it brought production in-house. That meant moving further East in London, as well as the establishment of a second factory in Providence, Rhode Island, North America to serve that region.
Moross is more aware of the relevance of print, and a better evangelist for it, than many in the print industry. ‘We want to keep people using this beautiful, sustainable and tactile medium,’ he says, ‘to make print more accessible without driving down the quality.’ Moo understands the complementary attributes of physical and digital: it’s hard to beat Moo’s own explanation: ‘We love the Web, but you can’t put it in your pocket.’
‘Our client base spans amateurs through to professional designers,’ says Moross. ‘Before we add to the range, we think very carefully about the implications of each new product.
By restricting the range, and making the process of creating and ordering easy, Moo has built a global customer base with millions of users in more than 200 countries. While many customers use the firm’s designs and templates, designers can also upload their own designs.
Moo offers a basic range of papers and finishes. There are three papers: Classic, Green and Luxe; and two finishes: matt or gloss. Classic is a heavyweight 350gsm paper with a silk finish. Green is a similar weight matt finish. Both those weights are at the limits of what digital presses can print. Luxe, at 600gsm, is nearly double the thickness. Moo overcame the challenge of digitally printing a product as thick as this by using multiple layers, sandwiched together after printing. Turning what was potentially a drawback into a feature, it uses two different-coloured papers, so there is a colour-contrasting stripe down the centre of the edges. By embodying print’s potential for beauty and tactility, it shows how digital technology points to a new future for print.
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