Posted on

Pecage and Pecage Art

What is Pecage and Pecage Art?

Whenever customers visit my market stall they have the benefit of seeing my pictures first hand, inspecting the precision bevel cut mount designs, the quilted fabrics, quality solid wood frames and generally ‘getting it’!  See my tips below on how to use Pecage to create that perfect gift. 

The most common comments are “simple but effective”, “I’ve not seen this before”, “this is completely new and unique”. A regular question then is “What do you call it?”

Although certain techniques I use have been used before they have not been combined in the unique way I do it and to be honest I did not know how to answer the question “What do you call it?” So I racked my brains, considered all the elements involved in making my pictures and all the benefits they offer, options available, personalisation, and feedback from regular customers and I now have an answer to the question.

It is called Pecage.

Now the …age bit on the end you will recognise from words like collage and decollage,  French arty farty stuff, – but the Pec… bit nominally stands for Personalised Elemental Creation.  Hence Pecage or Pecage Art.  The hashtag is just #pecage.

So there you have it. Pecage is your personalised creation made up of elements that you can choose. As an engineer by trade I like #pecage because it is short, simple and easy to understand. Remember the most regular comment I get is “simple but effective”? Well any engineer will tell you that it takes a lot of design, development, work and effort to make something look and work simply whilst the ducks in the background are peddling furiously!

Pecage gives you a series of options. I try my best to create great matches of design, adding character with vibrant fabrics, and mounted in simple but true solid wood frames and lots of customers love the mixes I produce. However, if I don’t quite get it right for you simply invoke the #pecage philosophy and create your own mix of design, fabric, maps, personalisation and framing options.

Here are some tips and some blogs that might help you find that perfect gift:

5 Secrets to finding the perfect gift for someone special

A Personalised Picture makes the Perfect Gift

Birthday Presents for Her – Gift Ideas for her Birthday

Birthday Presents for Men – Unusual gifts he will love

Mens Gift Ideas

Presents for Men

Presents for Mum

Engagement Present Ideas

 

Posted on

Presents for Men

presents for menMy wife Elaine is always telling me that finding presents for men is always a challenge.  I never thought I was that challenging but I think women are over thinking mens gifts to be honest! Nevertheless, our 5 step guide to finding unique, personal and excellent presents for men will help you.

presents for menWe hear it every day when people visit our stall. My wife has a chat and at some point she will be discussing the worldwide difficulty in finding unique presents for men that their husband, dad, uncle, boyfriend, fiancee or brother will appreciate. Especially since many men love sport so lots of mens gifts are sport related, but sometimes this becomes somewhat boring. I mean how many items with their football team logo or name on it can you find.

Your mission is to find presents for men that are different, unusual and something that shows you put a lot of thought into it. Let’s face it you love them right? It pays to put in a little more effort so that your mens gift reflects some of your character and knowledge, and of course affection, as well.

Thankfully we have laid out some options below for you. 5 steps to creating a unique presents for the men in your life to ensure you buy that unique present that no one else will have thought of. Don’t worry this won’t take long, just follow the steps and you will create a picture gift, with our help, that he will appreciate and love forever.

Presents for Men Tip #1 – What are their Interests

Presents for Men InterestsAll men have an interest in something and most have a number of key areas of interest that we can use as the first step in the search for presents for men. If I were you I would start by listing up to 5 areas of interest, and remember there might be latent interests that your loved male might not spend much time on but you know deep down that it is still close to their heart.

For example, I don’t make a big thing of it but I used to play a lot of rugby, I was never a real fan of football, and out of the blue my wife came up with the idea of getting me a ticket to Twickenham for the Aviva Premiership Final. Absolutely loved it and it brought back an area of interest that I am keen to rejuvenate.

So, areas of interest that we can use to come up with great ideas for presents for men. Obviously we need to look at sports of many kinds, perhaps driving, animals, reading, watching films, music – it could be anything. Don’t hold back as we will filter these down later on as we add more ‘Ideas’!

Presents for Men Tip #2 – Memories & Experiences

We find that this is onPresents for Men Tip experiencese of the most powerful emotional drivers when trying to find the perfect mens gifts. Since we have been running Gecko Designs we have become awakened to just how much impact memories and experiences have on people’s happiness across the age range.

For example my late father in law sometimes mentioned the time he drove down to the south of France in the 1940s with a mate of his. It was a long time ago but you could tell that it was still a strong emotional memory for him despite it being suppressed in the following 60+ years.

Perhaps a very strong memory is associated with a vehicle. It could be a first car, mine was a mini that was close to my heart but also many people meet and go out in a car and relationships started in cars and the cars themselves have become a poignant element of the memory that lead to a happy marriage for example.  Perhaps your man’s children now live away and he does not see them as often as he would like. Maybe he was a hippy or mod in the 60s and rode a Vespa or drove a VW Camper van to music concerts. Anything like that is great stuff to consider when looking for presents for men.

With younger people though experiences and shared experiences are very powerful images that warrant serious inclusion in mens gifts thought process. Today life is driven by achievement and often joint achievement whether that be having a first child, running a marathon together, the wedding day, going up in a hot air balloon or even buying their first house. These achievements are solid experiences that mean a lot to the person or people involved and are typical ideas that need to be put into the presents for men options pot.

So when you are creating your presents for men ideas you might like to remember that there were experiences that mean a great deal to him that did not involve you like a classic bike ride or challenge he did with a friend, playing footy with Mike down the road, restoring an old car with mates from the car club, camping in Cornwall, waterskiing in the south of France, the list can be endless.

Presents for Men Tip #3 – Preferences

Presents for Men Tip preferencesOne of the other things that helps to come up with mens gift ideas is understanding their preferences. For example there is no point getting him something that is wine related if he is a beer lover and remember if you live with this bloke your preferences might have to get involved too.

Chances are that you have shared preferences when it comes to your home, although this is not guaranteed, for example liking wooden frames for pictures rather than white. Or knowing that your house is more black and white than red and blue in terms of home décor. Is there a preference for homely, country colours like greens and browns or do they love bright colours, stripes, or is there a generic colour that comes through via their love of a certain football club.

This reminds me of a story here on the south coast. You might or might not be aware of the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth. In fact some of my bio photos are taken in the coffee shop at the top.  Well, not long after Elaine and I visited the tower, which was all white at the time by the way, it was announced that Emirates were planning a sponsorship deal with Portsmouth Football Club. Now one of the key colours of Emirates is red and the plan was to re-paint the Spinnaker Tower partially red.

Supporters of the football club went bonkers because the main colour of Portsmouth Football Club is blue and to make it absolutely unbearable is that the red Emirates had chosen is the main colour of their arch south coast football rival Southampton. Needless to say the colour scheme was redesigned and it is now blue and white. So this is a clue on preferences.

Presents for Men Tip #4 – Locations

Presents for Men Tip locationLocation Location Location. Don’t forget this when trying to nail the perfect presents for men gift ideas.   All the work you have done above thinking about memories and experiences had to happen somewhere. My wife and I got engaged in Paris and married on the Greek island of Zante for example which would be good information for someone wanting to buy me a great gift, but the location does not have to be  abroad of course unless something special happened on holiday or on your honeymoon.

The bike ride they did might have just been London to Brighton for example, or your man might have been born in Cape Town, South Africa, or Sherborne in Dorset.  Perhaps they  had a memorable holiday with the ‘Lads’ in Ibiza . They might have taken a year out and traveled around Asia or Australia. They might have gone to the World Cup, chased the Ashes to Australia or something like that.

Their most important memory might have been going to and graduating from University, but which one? They might have cycled from Lands End to John O’Groats, bungee jumped off a bridge in New Zealand, or run the New York Marathon.

When you think about it everything has to happen SOMEWHERE, and that ‘somewhere’ becomes very important to people and the location becomes a massive part of the visualization of any memory or experience.

Pretty much all of the custom gifts we create for people have some indication of location, mostly using maps but often words and sometimes the picture image portrays a location too, like the Eiffel Tower in Paris for example. So don’t forget this crucial location element of finding mens gifts.

Presents for Men Tip #5 – Unique, Individual & Original

Presents for MenThis is where you start to put it all together to come up with an unusual presents for men in your life.  If you want the best present for him then the main aim is to make sure that your man gift is Unique, Individual and Original.  You might be thinking how the hell can I do that?  But never fear there is a way you can create the perfect present and someone can make it for you.

What you need to do now is to bring together all the information you have assembled above, look at the options available and you could be giving a handmade, One-off or limited edition, attractive and extremely poignant gift to your man on their special day.

This is where you have to become a little creative so to help you out I will give you some real examples of actual commissions our customers have asked for to enable them to give that perfect gift.

Presents for men – Real Examples

mens gift ideasA couple had a close family friend.  All of them were into skiing and their friend was famous within their group of skiing buddies for skiing down a mountain wrapped in a Union Jack. His birthday was in a few days and they were struggling to decide what to get him as a present. They saw our skier cut out and our Union Jack fabric and their perfect gift search was over.

DragonDevilJenny’s father was going to attempt the famous Dragon Devil cycle ride in Wales and it was his 70th birthday  coming up. An enormous challenge with more than 6 massive climbs. This is an annual event and one that mad cyclists fight to get accepted to take part in. She asked us to use one of our Bicycle cut outs and use maps to signify important segments of the ride. This was the perfect birthday gift for her Dad.

CapriMk1-FrenchFlagJohn was visiting an old friend in France. This old friend had owned a Mark 1 Ford Capri and it had been a lasting memory for him and all their friends. John put together the two key items, Ford Capri Mk1 and France and so we created a cut out design of a Mk1 Capri and put a French Flag behind it. Delighted.

These are just some examples of how to take your hard work and come up with mens gift ideas. In a lot of cases we might be one jump ahead of you. Based on customer feedback and sales we have identified 3-4 fabric choices for each of our designs that are most popular. This does not mean that your perfect picture is not unique because the fabric placement within the picture is never the same twice.

But this does not take away your ability to make your own choices so you always have access to our wide fabric swatches and of course for that absolutely personal picture you can send us your own fabric. Clearly any map based perfect gifts are also unique to you.

So you have the idea distilled in your head, an idea of colours, locations, designs etc.  The next stage is pulling it all together and producing your perfect gift. This includes your own creativity, add some of our magic and you can create the perfect gift. This is the way to do it:

  1. Choose the cut out design from our online shop
  2. Select your choice of size (if available) and select your frame preference from the dropdowns
  3. Select your choice of popular fabric – or select the ‘Custom’ option and then
  4. Select from our wider swatch of available fabrics – or
  5. Send us your own fabric
  6. Make a map choice if this is part of the design (we will be in touch directly to confirm the exact locations)
  7. For all custom choices complete ‘order notes’ at checkout and we will contact you
  8. Select your delivery/collection option (only select local collection if you will be collecting from us in Dorchester)
  9. Pay via Paypal, Debit or Credit Card
  10. Then it’s over to us

So go to our online shop – Gecko Designs Shop – and get started. Need some more reassurance – have a look at what our delighted customers say. 

Please don’t forget to tell everyone you know how easy this is. Use our sharing options to tell everyone you know. We do run competitions and offer seasonal discounts so everyone can benefit from knowing a little more about Gecko Designs.

 

We hope our guide has helped you come up with some unique and great mens gift ideas

If there is a design that you feel you need to complete the picture just get in touch  we will do all we can to help.

All the best

Tim & Elaine

 

Posted on

Engagement Presents

engagement-764364_640Buying Engagement Presents is sometimes tricky. It is an important event for the “engagees” (is that a word?!) and you need that perfect balance of thoughtfulness, uniqueness and something they will treasure.  Use our 5 steps to produce Engagement Presents that hit the spot.

What we need for Engagement Presents?

It has to be something that involves both of the excited engaged parties. Likelihood is that you know one of them well but not necessarily both of them and if you want your engagement present to be a surprise then you can’t start drilling them too much for informatio you can use to select and customise the engagement present.

Because this is a very specific event that uniquely involves two people (a bit like a wedding or anniversary to be honest) then our customers usually select particular designs that will suit. The theme must be the loving couple and their intention to spend a lifetime together but you can add a few personalisation twists to make it really special. Here you can read more information.

How do I become creative with  my Engagement Presents?

engagement-ring-traditionBecause there are two people involved we usually recommend one of our designs that include two or more cut out apertures to signify the two people. However, if there is a common interest then a single cut out might be OK. It really depends on how well you know them. If it’s your sister for example you will know her well and chances are you know the lucky guy as well and have done for a while so you can use the 5 steps below to come up with something special. Being creative is not that difficult when you have a set of guidelines to help as we outline below. And don’t worry you don’t have to make anything, we can do all that for you, all you need to do is come up with some creative ideas, using our help to produce that perfect engagement present idea.

Why 5 Secrets of finding the perfect gift?

Well when I thought about trying to come up with a unique, exclusive and personalised engagement gift I realised there were five key things to consider. Run through these five things an surely you will end up with the answer.

Engagement Presents Tip#1 – Interests

Personalised Gifts - InterestsHopefully one of the reasons the loved ups are together is that they have or had a common interest.

This might be an animal like their pet dog or cat.  Or maybe it’s a horse for example, maybe they met at a riding club. What about their car or a sport for example. We find that a lot of young couples nowadays have a sport interest in common. We have just designed our Triathlon Sign for a customer whose daughter and prospective son-in law are both mad triathletes so this had to be a major part of a special gift for them.

They might enjoy cycling for example, or skiing or sailing.

I can’t list everything of course, but you will need to if you want to get inside the options for the perfect engagement present. Try and focus on a key interest, rather than a ‘sort of’ interest as this will have more impact.

Engagement Presents Tip#2 – Memories & Experiences

Personalised Gifts - Memorable ExperiencesYoung couples seem to be driven by shared experiences and achievement today. Such shared experiences are very powerful images that warrant serious inclusion in the thinking process for engagement gifts. Achievement, memories and experiences might include having a first child, running a marathon together, a memorable holiday – even the one they met on for example, going up in a hot air balloon or even buying their first house. These achievements are solid experiences that mean a lot to the people involved and are typical ideas that need to be put into the engagement gift melting pot.

Engagement Presents Tip#3 – Preferences

Personalised Gifts - PreferencesThis is where you need to have some pretty good knowledge of the prospective engagees you are planning the perfect gift for. It can be pretty simple to establish though.  For example if you have visited their house you will see how their home décor is. Is it minimalist, black & white for example. Or homely, country colours like green and brown. Do they love bright colours, pastel or paisley colours and is there a colour theme you can establish?

Visiting someone’s home is a good way to get ideas for memories and experiences too. Look for photos or pictures that can give you some indications.

If you don’t know them that well then I would suggest going for a fairly neutral set of colours and a standard engagement style cut out design like the double offset hearts or the lovebirds.

Engagement Presents Tip#4 – Locations

Personalised Gifts - LocationsThis is an often forgotten secret to nailing the perfect gift.  All you have discovered about memories and experiences above had to happen somewhere. My wife and I got engaged in Paris and married on the Greek island of Zante for example. Your happy couple might have met on a holiday in a certain place, or it the deed had already been done they might have got engaged in a specific location. These little details show you have put some good thought into this engagement present.

They might have met at University, for example or whilst doing something in a certain place, bungee jumping in New Zealand, or running the New York Marathon.

When you think about it everything has to happen SOMEWHERE, and that ‘somewhere’ becomes very important to people and the location becomes a massive part of the visualisation of any memory or experience.

Nearly all the custom gifts we create for people have some indication of location, mostly using maps but sometimes words and often the picture image portrays a location too. So don’t forget this crucial element of finding the perfect gift for someone.

Engagement Presents Tip#5 – Unique, Individual & Original

This is where you start to put it all together but the main aim is to make sure that your engagement gift is Unique, Individual and Original.  You might be thinking how the hell can I do that?  But never fear there is a way you can create the perfect present and someone can make it for you.

What you need to do now is to bring together all the information you have assembled above, look at the options available and you could be giving a handmade, One-off or limited edition, attractive and extremely poignant gift to your loved one or close friend for their special day.

This is where you have to become a little creative so to help you out I will give you some real examples of actual commissions our customers have asked for to enable them to give that perfect gift. GOT TO HERE

Examples of actual Engagement Presents we have helped our customers create

Engagement PresentsJames and Emma met at a VW Camper convention.

With a shared love of VW camper vans it was inevitable that when James and Emma got together the trusty, or is it rusty, old VW Campervan would feature strongly in their lives for ever. There is nothing quite as iconic as the traditional Split Screen VW Camper and we are very pleased with our design as it was a struggle to design it so that our cutting machine would cut it and the design would still look right. Proud to be British was another theme so our Split Screen camper with a Union Jack material is perfect for them. We wrote their engagement details on the bottom of the picture too.

 OurEngagement Presents Double Heart Cutout.

 

A popular choice for engagements, anniversaries and weddings. The hearts can either be side by side or offset but the idea is (and you can play around with this as well) is that one heart map signifies where one partner comes from and the other heart map shows where their loved one comes from. Simple but effective. Engagement Presents

 

engagement presentsOur classic Lovebirds cut out design. Often customers choose this as it is but you can apply the same customisation techniques as before. Why not use the two lovebirds to house the map locations of where the two lovebirds came from and the heart can either stay as it is, have another map of where they live now, will love, or where they met. The variations are endless. Love Hedgehogs Cut Out Art - PurpleCord

Or if you prefer, try our Love Hedgehogs instead.

engagement presentsDid they get engaged in the romantic city of Paris for example. Don’t miss this opportunity.

tripleheartmaps600x600

These are just some examples of how to take your hard creative work and come up with an idea for the perfect engagement gift. In a lot of cases we might be one jump ahead of you. Based on customer feedback and sales we have identified 3-4 fabric choices for each of our designs that are most popular. This does not mean that your perfect picture is not unique because the fabric placement within the picture is never the same twice.

But this does not take away your ability to make your own choices so you always have access to our wide fabric swatches and of course for that absolutely personal picture you can send us your own fabric. Clearly any map based engagement gifts are also unique to you.

So by following the 5 personalisation tips above you should now have an idea distilled in your head of colours, locations, designs etc and anything that will make it special.  We take your own creativity, add some of our magic and then we put it all together for you to produce a truly personal picture that will make the perfect engagement gift.

This is the way to do it:

  1. Choose the cut out design from our online shop that will match your ideas – or contact us for new options
  2. Select your choice of size (if available) and select your frame preference from the dropdowns
  3. Select your choice of popular fabric – or select the ‘Custom’ option and then
  4. Select from our wider swatch of available fabrics – or
  5. Send us your own fabric
  6. Make a map choice if this is part of the design (we will be in touch directly to confirm the exact locations)
  7. For all custom choices complete ‘order notes’ at checkout and we will contact you
  8. Select your delivery/collection option (only select local collection if you will be collecting from us in Dorchester)
  9. Pay via Paypal, Debit or Credit Card
  10. Then it’s over to us

So go to our online shop – Gecko Designs Shop – and get started. Need some more reassurance – have a look at what our delighted customers say. 

Please don’t forget to tell everyone you know how easy this is. Use our sharing options to tell everyone you know. We do run competitions and offer seasonal discounts so everyone can benefit from knowing a little more about Gecko Designs.

Thanks for reading and happy gift creating

Tim & Elaine