Grant Project Update: Meet the NEW Posterity Paper
Over the course of the last 5+ months, the Minority Womxn’s Business Grant team has been hard at work! Posterity Paper, owned by Tiffany Grimes, was the winner of the grant — and it’s been an honor to work with her. Her greeting card and stationery company was created to honor her late grandmother, with the goal of supporting the next generation of thoughtfulness.
Our goal with the grant was to help use our various skills, from design and copywriting to operations and e-commerce setups, to help the winner realize their vision for their business. We wanted to support minority, women-owned businesses specifically because we acknowledge that systemic injustices may affect their access, their progress, and their results. Tiffany was the perfect candidate, and she put in her own hard work to help us bring everything to life.
What we accomplished with the grant
While we posted a mid-project update, we wanted to share the gorgeous end results! As of April 28th, the new Posterity Paper is live — and Tiffany’s modern, adorable cards are available in her very own shop.
Building her own shop
By sharing our skills with Tiffany, we were able to help her bring new branding, a new website, and her own online shop so she could build her own brand and cater to customers outside of platforms like Etsy and Faire. This will help her scale to more wholesale and retail opportunities, as well as let Tiffany keep more of her money after removing other platforms’ fees.
We set her up on Shopify and Shipstation, which makes processing and shipping orders SO easy and will save her a ton of time on the order fulfillment side.
Branding and design
We also worked on new branding for Posterity Paper, giving Tiffany a more consistent presence across her digital platforms. This will help her attract more retail partners, and elevate the customer experience when they shop! Today, Posterity’s branding evokes feelings of endearment, joy, and modernity — which helps it stand out from other greeting card brands that are more reminiscent of a Hallmark era.
Strengthening her strategy
Working closely with Nicole Boucher and Yasmine Kashefi of Pixie Dust & Profits, Tiffany has also been digging into her business operations, goals, and strategic projects. When we interviewed Tiffany during the nomination phase, her biggest goal was to explore other retail partnerships and to strengthen the ones that she already held. Her work inside Nicole and Yasmine’s business strategy membership will allow her to do just that. Plus, as a homeschooling mom of three, we wanted to ensure Tiffany has a strategy that is manageable with her other roles!
Spiffing up packaging
In line with the new branding, Posterity Paper’s packaging got an upgrade! Tiffany has new belly bands, tissue paper for wholesale orders, stickers for mailers, as well as thank you notes and sticker sets as order bonuses! Our hope is that this really elevates the delivery process, and extends the endearing, joyful brand that Tiffany wanted.
Content + graphics
As part of the rollout for the new Posterity Paper, we also worked with Tiffany to give her a 6-month content plan and graphic templates to help her announce on social media. Along with launch content (including emails and social captions), Tiffany received graphic and newsletter templates that make it easy for her to whip up testimonials, share new cards or products, or display sales.
Product images and standards
Given that Posterity Paper is a product-based business, we knew that photography was crucial. We worked with Ashley Nicole on the branding shoot with Tiffany herself, and Christina Jones on the product photography. We now have an entire library of product images and have updated all the products in her shop with high-quality, on-brand photos.
Tiffany also has a process for masking photos to update graphics, and standards to help her edit other photos to match her new library in the future.
A successful grant launch is now in the books!
As a grant team, we’ve learned so much about the nomination and selection process, as well as the work involved in supporting the winner to our fullest potential. We are definitely going to be hosting another grant in the future, once our debrief is over and Tiffany has the support she needs.
After launch, she will receive a year’s worth of shop expenses paid. After that, our hope is that Posterity Paper has grown to new heights, and Tiffany can use the branding, content, strategy, and tech we’ve supported her with to meet that growth!
All of the grant work and materials were donated by Nicole Yang and the Design Lab, Latasha Doyle of Uncanny Content, Nicole Boucher and Yasmine of Pixie Dust and Profits, and Myrna Daramy. In total, the project value is nearly $20,000, including the cost of photography, site upgrades, packaging, and more (which were paid through the grant program’s funds).
Thanks to everyone who shared the grant nominations, who nominated a friend or loved one, and who applied. We also want to thank the grant team and all the amazing women who worked with us to bring this project to life. Most of all, though, we want to thank Tiffany for having such a wonderful mission for her business, and for working with us to make this project the success that it was. We can’t wait to see what this next chapter of Posterity Paper brings!
Stay tuned for updates on future grant projects, and read up on where your money goes when you work with and buy from the Design Lab. (Hint: a portion of all profits go to projects like this one.)
