A Guide to Fraternity and Sorority Coolies
What stands out when designing specifically for fraternities and sororities?
Typically, they have a lot to accomplish in one design. They want to stick with who they are essentially, as a college organization. But they also want to stand out from the rest of the fraternity or sorority crowd that might be at their school. So they’re trying to balance both their organizations’ design with whatever they are planning.
What are the average events they could use a coolie?
Well for sure they’d be an addition to any time of rush events. I would even say make a game out of it. For each rush event that you plan, have a different design that way it becomes sort of exciting to collect each design. That becomes a step into either hopefully joining the fraternity, sorority or being associated with it, if that’s your goal. I think it’s also a great thing throughout the year for any other type of mixer or social outreach event you might be doing to leave a positive reminder of what your brand or message of who you are as a small organization.
How would you respond to someone planning an event only 5 days away?
Say hey guy, we got your back don’t worry about it all. We have rush printing and rush shipping options that’s not a problem. The faster you can email us the faster we can get a design to you. We’ll go back and forth until you love it. Then we’ll ship them out in time for your event. And if for some reason anything happens along the way, we’ll always make sure we ship it 100% on time for your in hands date. We never delay shipments.
Do you have any recommendations for the types of product to be used?
I think the collapsible fabric with single ink is always a really easy way to go. It’s economical, it prints really well. It does really well with designs that are sort of large, less text, really outstanding. The neoprene tends to be considered the upgrade it has that stretch and that smooth finish to the material so if you wanted a little more detail or if you wanted let’s say to stand apart from the crowd of coolies, then neoprene would be the way to go. And if you’re looking for something crazy awesome and totally different, you can customize the pattern for any of our sublimation options. That’s an excellent way to come up with your own design as well. With sublimation you can customize right down to the pattern and with that style you can fit it on just so many different types of containers shall we say. So I think it’s always a good idea to stick with one of those collapsible can styles.
Why would you use sublimation?
Sublimation print is really great for details for full colors for your own patterns so if you’re looking to do something really custom or something along the lines of a crest then sublimation would be great. If you’re looking to do something simple and bold with just Greek letters then single ink can also be a really excellent option.
Will the can coolie fit a red solo cup?
Depends on how much squishing you want to do, Jeb. You could totally get a collapsible can coolie over a solo cup I have done it many times but of course we do also have specific solo cup sleeves that work great for coffee cups so double use and we do have solo cup coolies themselves which work great on pint glasses so you can get a couple double uses out of all of them unfortunately the solo cup is not great on standard cans so the visa versa doesn’t work so well. But if you want to stand apart and you’re looking to do something a little bit different then a specific container fit is a really cool way to go.
What about the graduates of fraternities and sororities?
Well isn’t that such a fun way to celebrate a reunion or to keep in touch with each other or I know my husband has had several events that he was invited to since graduating college and it’s always nice to just have something to commemorate that’s also useful and can be passed around I think they’re sort of no limit there and we’re of course always happy to help with any ideas when it comes to text or design images or colors or even print styles. All that good stuff.
If someone has zero artistic ability what’s the best route?
It’s sort of like if you’ve ever gone into a salon to get a haircut, it’s hard when you say do whatever because do whatever to you means something really different to me and there’s just such a vast variety of options you can choose from. But if you say we really like straight forward bold font and we really want to incorporate the colors blue and green and the event is an “Under the Sea” formal then we can pick text and we can limit the colors and design options within the overall idea that you have. You don’t have to send us text you don’t even have to send us specific images we can definitely help with all of that but just having sort of the basic schematics of what you’re looking for is always really helpful. You wouldn’t want to walk into a salon and ask for a bob and get layers.
What do you wish for fraternities and sororities to know?
I would say in general the less people’s opinions you ask for when processing your design is probably better. That’s just experience in terms of too many chefs in the kitchen. On a side note we are so thankful that you chose to work with us for your fraternity and sorority we know that it’s very important to you and we want you to know that it’s very important to us as well that you not only love your design and feel comfortable with it but that you have something that your sorority or fraternity feels comfortable with and proud to present at your event. So thank you very much for working with us.
