In 2013, Quarto Publishing Group, USA, launched a gift program to complement and expand its book list. It’s now adding to that program with the Rock Point imprint, a new line of gifts, kits, and stationery items. “Along with Quarto’s powerful growth into children’s publishing,” says president and CEO Ken Fund, “the gift line has expanded the entire publishing program into a broader range of stores and outlets, further diversifying our wide-ranging account base beyond traditional bookstores, while simultaneously increasing Quarto’s product line within traditional stores.”
Designed as stylish gifts for those living creative and passionate lives, Rock Point titles include Lindsey Bugbee’s Learn to Create Chalk-Style Notes, which offers techniques for creating alphabet styles that allow anyone to personalize journals, school supplies, jars, and cards, and Lacy Mucklow and Angela Porter’s Color Me Stress-Free: 100 Coloring Templates to Unplug and Unwind (Sept.), a Zen coloring book for grownups who need to relieve tension and avoid burnout, illness, or even worse.
The visionary behind the Rock Point imprint is Rage Kindelsperger, who helped create the proprietary kit program at Barnes and Noble and bn.com. Kindelsperger works directly with artists to create gift books, cards, notebooks, and kits, focusing, she says, on “undiscovered talent like London-based artist Andrew Fox [his Learn to Draw Calligraphy Animals is out in July] and developing licensed products such as the up-and-coming animal humor brand, From Frank.” While Kindelsperger admits the gift market is crowded, “not many companies are in the kit or book-plus area, so upping the selection here allows us to bring something fresh to the market. Now that what I’m creating is no longer proprietary, I want to spread the ‘book-plus’ products to retailers across the market—because I know from personal experience how stunningly successful they can be for a store.”
Visitors to Quarto (booth 2851) can take home a selection of Rock Point products. Today, at 1 p.m., it’s Feathered Friends Notes, 250 illustrated sheets of note paper inside a keepsake box, and at 3 p.m. From the Garden—Botanical Paper Placemats, a pack of 48 placemats. Tomorrow, at 9 a.m., you can pick up So Many Ways to Say Thank You, a set of 15 hand-lettered thank-you cards in five different languages, and at 1 p.m., copies of Wear Gratitude Like a Sweater, a small illustrated gift book featuring memorable quotes from such writers and thinkers as Lao Tzu and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Stop by Friday at 9 a.m. for Art + Words Note Cards, a set of 20 hand-lettered note cards and envelopes featuring celebrated and thoughtful quotes, and at 1 p.m. for Writings Journal, a lined, 144-page, hardcover journal that features a pen embedded in the cover and an accordion pocket in the back.
This article appeared in the May 27, 2015 edition of PW BEA Show Daily.
