Starting a blog is something I've been meaning to do at some point anyway though! It's just a more practical way to post information.
As you might have gathered, the Moon Factory washi tapes have been pretty badly delayed. I'm so sorry.
A part of this is due to my own mistake in overestimating how much energy I would have to deal with everything on my plate earlier this summer, which ended up delaying my side of the production more than I’m really okay with, and I will do my best to make sure any pre-orders are able to get my full attention in the future, so as not to delay the schedule again.
But unfortunately it’s also in large parts due to some rather lacking communication from the manufacturer I’m working with to make the tapes.
Just as a note before I go into more detail, I actually have two different gold foil tapes in production with this manufacturer because I figured that would be a good way to save some time and shipping costs, but unfortunately it may have contributed to what then happened, as the second tape I'm making that isn't for the pre-orders was the tape the worst affected.
We had some miscommunications early on regarding file setup where I felt that I wasn’t provided adequate instructions for how to set up my files to ensure a smooth process. I thought I would be able to figure it out, but it turned out I didn’t have the correct software to provide the file format they asked me for, so I asked if we could change our method, to which they seemed to agree.
Following that, once we actually got the ball rolling, I received a set of pretty bad digital proofs of the tapes where the gold foil was severely misaligned and there were obvious paper parts showing through – even though I had provided files with what the full artworks were supposed to look like.
This was a bit of a red flag to me, if I’m being completely honest. But again, I wasn’t providing them the original file format they asked for, so I thought maybe this was on me.
This is what the proofs they sent me looked like:
As you might be able to tell, the first tape looks like a mess. with the foil being misaligned and going through parts where there should be none, as well as the white of the paper showing through.
With the second proof, the actual pre-order tape, it's less obvious, but there are white edges around the foiling that don't look great.
What then followed was two more proofs, that while they certainly looked better, still had the edges of the paper showing through. It got a little bit better with each proof, but the slight white edges around the foil were still there. I wasn't quite sure what I was looking at, at that point, and made it clear to them multiple times that if the white of the paper showed through on the final tapes, this was not something I could accept, but that if they were confident that wouldn't be the case they could go ahead with the production. The opted not to, and eventually they gave me a tape proof where they instead had added a background colour to match the metallic colour of the foil. Which was an okay compromise with me. So I finally okay-ed the final proof they sent me, and then the tapes were supposed to go off to production.
At this point we were at the end of July, when the tapes should have technically already arrived at the White Squirrel warehouse and been shipped out. It was already late, but I thought at least the tapes would be in production now.
Then about a week later, I hadn’t heard from my manufacturer at all, which usually isn’t that strange. But I had paid extra for express shipping due to the time sensitivity of it all, so I wanted to see if they at least had an update.
Apparently, there was something wrong with the files, causing the foil to become misaligned again and they didn’t think to contact me about it first. So once I asked for an update, they told me to send me the file format they asked for at the start. Which I think would have been fair, if only they had actually been upfront about that being what they needed right from the beginning instead of letting me believe I’d be okay to send the file format I did. (That is commonly accepted among most printshops I've previously worked with, I want to add.) If I had known, I would just have gone to a different manufacturer who could help me.
So in short, I personally messed up by miscalculating my energy levels and therefore dragging my feet, and my manufacturer messed up by not communicating clearly what was needed from my end.
I’m currently awaiting updates from them and will keep you posted as I find out more.
I'm once again so sorry about all of this.
I'll work to better what I can on my side for the future, and will not be working with this manufacturer again once these tapes have finally been completed.
I’ve also taken a temporary break from Patreon for August, so this is my main focus right now - though I will still need to work on other things in the meantime while waiting for my the manufacturer to respond.
When the tapes arrive at last, I will make sure those who pre-ordered the washi tape will get a little something extra as an apology. It's not much, but it's a gesture of goodwill and apology on my end.
Thank you so much for your patience and understanding.
Edit: 2024-09-05 update
I'm so sorry this update is late and for this situation where those of you who pre-ordered the Moon Factory washi tapes have already had to wait over a month longer than planned.
I just wanted to let you know we finally got the tapes in store, but unfortunately they're all B-grade due to a mistake of mine.
I will be emailing everyone who pre-ordered one of the tapes shortly and you will be able to choose whether to receive the B-grade tape or wait for the regular quality tapes to arrive, with an estimated shipping date in October.
Regardless, everyone who has had to wait will receive a coupon to use in store (no minimum spend) along with their extra sticker as another token of apology for the wait.
For reference, this is what the error looks like:
I know not everyone would mind this error, but it's not acceptable to me, as this was supposed to be a seamless design.
Now, to explain what happened:
This past month and a half I have struggled to get information out of my manufacturer regarding anything that was going on. I would ask them for information and my contact would tell me they would contact the production team, or tell me to wait a minute, but then proceed to disappear until I reminded them.
As mentioned when I first wrote about this washi tape saga, at one point, the tapes were delayed again because the production didn't come out nice and the foil turned out to be misaligned. I had trusted that they would contact me if something like this happened and they needed more from me, but this turned out not to be the case.
They had already asked me to send new files multiple times prior to this, so I was quite frustrated with their behaviour, which I consider to be very unprofessional.
And here is where I made my mistake: When they asked for this final new file, they asked for the highest resolution file I had, and I went back to the original artwork in order to provide that. However, I didn't realise at the time that I had not prepared that artwork to loop seamlessly, as with the other versions of the design I had sent them. I was too frustrated and impatient with all the delays and wanted to get this done as quickly as possible, so I failed to double check the file I was sending.
And that's how the tapes ended up with an error like this.
I will be more careful in the future.
If this was a regular print shop, I would have trusted them to check that what I sent them matched the proof we had agreed on, but this is still my responsibility as I knew at that point that they weren't particularly professional.
I'm so sorry about both the delay in shipping the tapes and me writing this.
As mentioned at the beginning, I have placed an order for a batch of tapes that won't have this error on it, with a new manufacturer this time, who is already proving to be much more communicative and professional. But starting from scratch with a new manufacturer means it will still take some time before the tapes arrive, and the new estimated shipping time is unfortunately as late as October.
I didn't want to give you this update until I had clear answers, but in hindsight I question this decision, as it was clear I would not get them while production was ongoing.
I will do my best be more forthcoming with any information I get in the future when things go wrong, even when I'm not entirely sure what's happening myself.
I will also only work with manufacturers I already know and trust as much as possible whenever I work on time sensitive things like pre-orders in the future and try to be better prepared in general, as well as make sure I double check all my files.
Sorry again, and above all thank you to everyone who have been incredibly patient with me. I appreciate you all so much.