IN MID-MARCH we launched a new business series that has been a little less frequent than intended, for in that time, we also launched an actual new business as well. Many who follow along on Instagram might have caught the many glimpses of where most of the work here happens, either at a desk or on a laptop. Today, we’re working with HP to discuss the “tools of the trade”, or the things that make business run more smoothly.
At the office, we have been using the HP Sprout computer to help run all three of our businesses: This Is Glamorous, Belgrave Crescent, and the newly launched Shop
For This Is Glamorous, it is easy to create editorials placing photographs onto the touch mat and then using the stylus (or even an index finger, as shown here) to add your own handwriting. You can also scan magazine tears, polaroids and add other images found around the interwebs using the touch mat to create collages. The entire display is also a touchscreen, making it easy to navigate through creative projects and photos.
For the shop, the HP Sprout is great for scanning products in the shop. It is the most fun placing 3D items such as notebooks & pens the touch mat, scanning them, then artfully rearranging them and adding text or handwriting, resizing the new images right on the touch mat using pinching and expanding fingers, as with any touchscreen device.
For Belgrave Crescent, the HP Sprout has been indispensable for getting the designs for new products — which flow from our heads onto paper — to our leather
craftspeople in England quickly and easily.
We simply lay the sketches on the touch mat, capture the image with the overhead projector, and send by email instantly, without the need to resize, as is often the case with using traditional scanners. Notes can also be added directly onto the scanned image using the touch mat, the stylus, or fingers.
Using this method, designs on paper magically turn into actual items made of French leather . . .
We’ve only just begun finding new uses for the Sprout, but so far, it has been a great tool for enhancing our creativity and furthering our businesses by helping us get our ideas across quickly and easily.
Still to come in the In Business series, Five Favourite Apps for Everyday & Five Things We Learned About Running A StartUp
{p.s.} The first installment of In Business and Five Books to Inspire Your Business & Life
All photography by PFM & Roséline for This Is Glamorous
This article is in collaboration with HP
