The short...

 

For those interested, The Procrastinator range of timewasting products was developed by a miniscule

creative ideas production company, Production Line Limited. We think they're pretty good!

 

...and the long

 

For those a bit more interested, our first product was a family boxed game called The Great I Am. Based on

a familiar concept the game was an immediate success with retailers such as John Lewis, Toys R Us,

WHSmith, Hamley's and many other chains and independent stores selling thousands. The Great I Am was

nominated as a Daily Telegraph Game of the Year and achieved critical success with exceptional reviews.

 

This success enabled Production Line to develop and produce a unique concept that preceded many of the

doodling and grown-up colouring products available today. The original Procrastinator Timewaster provided

hundreds of prompts and unfinished concepts to be completed as the user wished. The concept was

immediately recognised as something very different and entertaining, so much so that the product became

one major online retailer's top ten selling products within a month.

 

This doodling phenomenon was applied to a number of other formats, all doing equally as well. High street

bookshop chain, Ottakar's, sold thousands of timewasting mousepads and notebooks, as well as

commissioning even more new formats. Production Line also worked with retailers such as Gadget Shop to

develop new products to suit their markets. A variety of formats were used as corporate promotional gifts for

brands such as Virgin Trains and Michael Page International. A version was even produced specifically

for one of the United States' largest publishing houses, Running Press.

 

Not bad for a miniscule company.

 

However, large retailers' decisions about who they wish to deal with can, for one reason or another, be

somewhat baffling. For example, when Waterstone's bought out Ottakar's, they decided not to continue the

relationship with Production Line, despite the sales numbers. Were we too small, did our faces not fit, did they

want to produce their own versions (as some other publishers had, even enfringing our copyright)? Who

knows?

 

We are where we are, online, offering some of the most ingenious, creative and entertaining products on the

market. And we're still minuscule, doing our own thing, which isn't so bad.

 

There are now some other sites we've developed offering creative stuff other than timewasters that might be of interest, or not. Try www.screamprint.co.uk for other stuff that you might not be able to get anywhere else.

The long and the short of it

 

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