Behind the Scenes: Design Wrap Pens and Their Designers

Ever wished you could have full creative freedom on a product? Our Design Wrap Collection features a variety of designs for pens, mugs, and notebooks that offer just that. Whether you use a template from our ever-growing library of 99+ designs or upload your own artwork, Design Wrap products offer the full custom experience. But where do these design templates come from? Enjoy this behind-the-scenes look at the Design Wrap artists and get their tips for creating the best custom products for your brand. 

Meet the Artists

Dulce Hipolito

Dulce Hipolito started as an intern on the photography team three and half years ago and quickly advanced to become one of our top designers at Pens.com. She takes on a variety of projects from website photographs to Design Wrap artwork. At home, she has just recently rescued three kittens and loves to paint.  

While Hipolito has many great designs featured in the Design Wrap Collection, she isn’t finished yet! Our Design Wrap Collection continues to evolve so any brand can find exactly what they need to connect with their customers. For those looking for the perfect design, Hipolito can lend some insight. “Browse around, we have a lot of designs you can select from. Just find one that suits your business,” said Hipolito. “Sometimes it can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t hurt to browse all the options you have.” 

Need some inspiration? Here are Hipolito’s top three favorite stock art designs from the Design Wrap Collection: 

Q15: Color waves – Purple

Fluid and vibrantly violet, this template is one of Hipolito’s first designs for the Design Wrap Collection and a best seller. It’s available in a variety of colors, but the purple design Hipolito’s favorite. 

1XM: Brush Pattern 

This pattern was originally tagged for a line of metallic trim pens, but it got so much love that it joined the Design Wrap Collection! Why does it work so well? Hipolito says the simple shapes and neutral colors help enhance the imprint space for customers, ideal for making any brand stand out in style.  

Q41: Dog – Heard of Us?

Of course, the Design Wrap Collection is about more than just stylish colors and shapes. Our humorous section is one of Hipolito’s favorites, featuring delightful jokes and puns to make your customers smile.  

Lyn Kaagan

Lyn Kaagan is one of our most experienced designers, having worked at Pens.com for 31 years. She started in typography and evolved into graphic design. One of her favorite ongoing projects is putting together catalogs and mail pieces, and she is currently tackling our upcoming calendars and weekly planners. She enjoys spending time with her family, including her husband and two adult children. 

Kaagan is passionate about bringing new and relevant art to our Design Wrap Collection. “We’re looking at color trends and product trends, and it’s always something new,” she said. “We’re always on the lookout for the next big thing.”  

Ready to add that next big thing to your branding? Check out Kaagan’s favorite templates offered in the Design Wrap Collection: 

US Patriotic  

An oldie but a goodie, patriotic designs have always been among the top sellers across all of our collections. Out of the many US Patriotic designs offered in the Design Wrap Collection, Kaagan cites this one as her favorite.  

Whimsical Christmas Trees  

This design is a festive forest of fun with an artsy design style that Kaagan loves. If you’re looking to bring a touch of Christmas and holidays into your next promotion without being over the top, Kaagan says this one is for you. 

NO PROB-llama  

Hipolito isn’t the only one who gets a kick out of our humorous design selection. Kaagan cites this laid-back llama as one of her favorites because, like most of us, she always loves a good llama pun. 

Tips for Creating Your Own Design Wrap Pen

Are you ready to find the best template for your brand? While navigating our 99+ design options, here are a few tips we’ve come up with to help you quickly find the one for your marketing needs: 

• Choose Your Tone: We have all sorts of styles to match any tone. Do you want to be funny? Philosophical? Business professional? Casual? Our selection has something for everyone.

• Know Your Theme: Planning a holiday giveaway? Want to shine for your anniversary? Need something stylish for an upcoming sale? Choose a category that matches your marketing campaign.
• Match Your Color Scheme: What are your company colors? Make sure you’re choosing colors that not only look good with your logo, but help it stand out in the best way.
• Fit Your Logo: Do you have a simple word-based logo? Find a fun pattern to make it pop. Got a logo that’s a work of art on its own? Choose something simple that lets your logo take center stage.

Of course, you don’t have to use our templates when creating your Design Wrap Products. Customers are able to create their own artwork to highlight their custom imprint. But how do you go about creating art that works for your brand? 

Kaagan says, keep it simple, keep it to scale, and make room for your logo. “I think people forget that it’s going on a pen,” she said. “As a designer, we struggle precisely because we want to put something there in the design and we forget that it’s just like this piece, this little rectangle, and we need to make sure there is space for the client to put their information, their logo and everything.” 

Professionalism is also essential when making your design. Even our humorous templates are made with simple color schemes and minimalistic background details. Your brand is the most important part of the pen, and you want that to shine without distracting customers with every color of the rainbow. Hipolito warns especially against crazy color schemes. “Keep it true to what your business is,” said Hipolito. “The important thing is that you want to show your information, your logo. That should be the most important thing.” 

Advice for Other Designers

Being a woman in the design industry is difficult, and yet these two have come far and created a lot of amazing art that is used by businesses worldwide.  

However, there are a lot of other amazing artists out there still waiting for their chance. For the new talent out there looking for their chance to move up, Hipolito shared some advice.  

“Don’t be scared to put your stuff out there,” she said. “It’s scary to present something that you created from scratch and put yourself out there. And if you have a mentality of ‘I’m going to get rejected,’ you’re going to get rejected. You will never know if you don’t show it.”  

And for the professionals already established in their fields, our own seasoned expert, Kaagan, has her own advice: Keep your mind open. New ideas and new people are just around the corner, and there’s a lot you can learn from them.  

We at Pens.com are lucky to have Kaagan and Hipolito on our team, helping us create products that let your brand shine. Thanks to their dedication and talents, we have an amazing collection of stock art available in our Design Wrap Collection to help you bring your branding vision to life. If you have a favorite Design Wrap design you’ve used, or have a great pen design of your own creation, share it with us and our other customers on our Facebook and Instagram!