Maura Kang
© Maura Kang

WONDERFIL SPECIALTY THREADS


PRODUCT DESIGN & MARKETING

WonderFil Specialty Threads is a sewing thread manufacturer heavily involved with the quilting industry. I wanted to showcase a fun, friendly, and colourful visual design to connect with like-minded community members.


I began working with WonderFil during a turning point in their branding, and therefore played a large part in modernizing the company's identity. As the sewing industry is full of creative people, my goal was to include a theme of colour with fun, cute characters and elements our customers could relate to.

PRODUCT PACKAGING


Retail packaging design for one of WonderFil’s most popular products.

— PROJECT

Eleganza Thread Packaging


— ROLE

Concept

Design

Product Photography

Colour Selection

The company needed a package for their Eleganza cotton thread line. To save on costs, it would need to display various colourways in a single printed design.


The process involved calculating the number of threads to MSRP value, measuring the product, and designing a functional and aesthetic package that still visually displayed the thread.

The patterns throughout the design are based on traditional hand embroidery stitches, which is the main use of this product. Using existing information about popular colours and customer demographics, I created four colourways for this product.


This thread pack is sold online and in retail stores internationally.

PRODUCT BROCHURE


Informational guide to all 36 thread lines carried by WonderFil.

— PROJECT

Thread Brochure


— ROLE

Layout Design

Copywriting

Product Photography

One of the greatest challenges in the sewing industry is educating the customer on using the correct tools and techniques to reach the desired outcome.


By speaking directly with customers at trade shows and answering questions on social media, we determined that thread education is paramount to a positive user experience.

I looked at the most frequently asked questions:

1. What needle size should I use with (thread line)?

2. What bobbin size fits my sewing machine?

3. Which thread line should I use for (technique)?


Being able to immediately answer these questions for our customers would allow them to use our products frustration-free.


The solution: the WonderFil thread brochure.

With the most common questions answered in a single place, this vital marketing document has been globally distributed in the hundreds of thousands at trade shows, with online orders, and retail stores across the US and Canada. This same information was repurposed online and with email marketing campaigns and helped improved sales by upselling comparable products.


Customers keep their educational brochure in their sewing rooms to refer to while they sew. This also serves as a constant reminder of the WonderFil brand so users know where they can return for more sewing products.


While the success of this project is difficult to track, we noted that competitors later started listing the same information for their own products. This is an indicator that customers in this industry started expecting this information to come with their product purchases.

SOLIDARITY CALENDAR


An inspiring and memorable calendar showcasing a diverse group of international artists.

— PROJECT

2022 Solidarity Calendar


— ROLE

Layout Design

Copywriting

Editing

The 2022 calendar idea was conceived and produced during the height of the pandemic to connect our customers with a diverse group of international artists that each had an important message to share. The theme of the calendar was “solidarity” and was distributed to wholesale and end user customers free of charge.

Because the COVID lockdown kept people indoors, many of our customers turned to hobby sewing as a way to stay busy. This calendar was a way for the WonderFil brand to remind our users that they weren’t alone in a community of like-minded sewists.

TRADE SHOW PINS


A set of four collectible pins given out each day during a trade show event.

— PROJECT

QuiltCon Pins


— ROLE

Concept Illustration & Design

A set of pins given out at the QuiltCon trade show to encourage visitors to come by our booth. Pin collecting is popular at this show so we wanted to give visitors something cute and fun to remember the brand by.


Designs were drawn in Illustrator.

BUSINESS CARDS


A collection of business cards designed to showcase the variety of colours and product lines available.

— PROJECT

Company Business Cards


— ROLE

Concept

Photography Design

The company requested a modern update to their business cards and I wanted to create something both memorable and representative of the brand.


This idea was perfect for showing off the variety of thread lines and colours WonderFil carries while immediately conveying their key product: thread.

EVENT MANAGEMENT


Event coordination for trade shows, including sponsorship events and presentations.

Sponsorship with Cake Boss: The World’s Largest Quilt Cake at AQS Paducah, KY.

Booth set up at Road2CA in Ontario, California.

— PROJECT

Event Planning


— ROLE

Print materials

Deliverables

Booth planning

With 1-4 events every month, I was responsible for planning booth layouts, choosing products, and coordinating materials that would need to be shipped.


I would frequently lead teams to these trade shows while also designing signage, promotional materials, creating speaker presentations, and coordinating with sponsors and third-party representatives.

DISPLAY INSTRUCTIONS


A series of highly-detailed drawings and written instructions on how to assemble retail product displays.

— PROJECT

Display Assembly Instructions


— ROLE

Illustrations

Copy

WonderFil sells multiple display units for retail stores which still need to be assembled when received.


The problem:

While instructions were included with the display, they were a single page without much detail. As a result, the office was receiving multiple calls each month with questions on how to assemble the displays.

Solution:

To address the confusion, I created new “IKEA-inspired” instruction booklets that took the customer through the process step-by-step. These were available on letter size PDF documents so they could be printed from the warehouse or emailed directly to the customer to print themselves.


The new instructions reduced help calls for these display units by 100% so our office staff could focus on other tasks.