Written by: Alexis Poole
Panache Partners and Signature Publishing Group have rejuvenated the print and publishing industries. And they’ve done it organically, by creating a product that pools creative talent and practically markets itself among affluent, on-the-verve communities. They’ve even created jobs in printing and publishing that allow the industries to experience growth.
In 2002, Brian Carabet and John Shand pooled together their 25 years of experience and created the now internationally acclaimed Design by City series, Spectacular Homes series and Perspective on Design series, along with a host of other coffee-table book series stretching from North America to Canada to London. Panache even custom-designs look-books to fit clientele tastes and needs.
Brian Carabet and John Shand created the City by Design Series in 2002.
The books are published by sister company Signature Publishing and distributed by Independent Publishers Group, which was the first to market titles solely from independent presses to the book trade. Since 1987, IPG has operated under the Chicago Review Press and has enjoyed many successes with clients spanning the globe. For all their efforts, Panache Partners are experiencing great success and growth. Even better, the company is headquartered in Plano, Texas, a bustling Dallas suburb that is affluent with an elevated cost of living and operations. In Plano, Panache finds a great audience to whom they can market and almost assuredly experience success.
But the thing that sets Panache apart from others is their product. Panache creates the most visually-appealing, creativity-inspiring, luxurious-feeling coffee-table books. They practically open themselves up to a wide audience, from the architect looking for samples of what a particular region might find warm and inviting, to the orthodontist looking for an interesting book to keep her waiting patients occupied. It is the product–hundreds of high-detail, oversized photos on slick, high-quality paper–that markets better than any agency ever could. By organically engaging the senses with a well-made product, Panache created the look-book that doesn’t need a commercial or a billboard to sell it. A product that can sell itself liberates a company from too much of a dependence on marketing and advertising. With more than 40 titles of coffee-table books, Panache can focus its money on Research and Development, pumping more of their resources into travel and photography, writing and editing, print production and finishing–creating jobs in the writing, printing and publishing industries that are in direct competition with their online counterparts.
And when the book is done, every description wittily and stylishly written, every photo oversized and in eye-popping detail, every spine, cover and page offering that visceral texture, scent and aura of a high-quality, well-made item–the coffee-table books put traditional marketing to shame and sell themselves, by referral only.
