General

The first question people ask me when I tell them about Duckprint is: “Why bed linen?”

It’s a good question. Aren’t there already enough companies out there doing the exact same thing as me?

The short answer is no.

A few years ago I was looking to replace the much-loved doona cover that I’d had for around 7 years, and I actually gave up because I just couldn’t find what I wanted. I mean, who wants to fork out $100 plus for something that’s just ok?

For a young person, your bedroom is your own personal sanctuary. Whether living with your parents or in a sharehouse, your bedroom is the only place where you can creatively express your individuality. I spend countless hours in my room doing everything, be it reading a book, eating lunch, or surfing the net. Not to mention 6 to 10 hours a day sleeping.

So I wanted something that made a statement about me because, after all, the bed is the most important feature of the bedroom!

I had no idea how hard it would be to find something I liked, because there is such little choice out there.

Most of what’s available is either white (which just gets dirty), a repetitious pattern, or a complete floral overdose! And if you’re a guy you can just forget about finding anything interesting at all.

I wanted to create a doona cover set where every element of the design came together as one. I didn’t want to just create one single pattern and slap it on everything. I wanted the pillowcases to be a little different to the quilt, I wanted vibrant colours. I wanted to mix it up a little with the design and create something that was different to the options I’d seen when visiting the retail outlets.

The most frustrating thing that I've found is that the few good designs out there are most often of poor quality, so you’re stuck choosing between dreary bed linen that’s comfortable, or attractive styles that make you itch and quickly fall apart.

Duckprint’s vision was to create eyecatching designs out of high quality materials and deliver them to you at a price far lower than what you would pay for quality linen in store.

At Duckprint we’re really proud of our products, and we believe so strongly in what we’ve created that we offer a 30 Day Money Back Guarantee, no questions asked, no strings attached.

Please take the opportunity to look through our online catalogue, because we think we’ve got some awesome stuff that’s truly unique, and we hope you will too.

The Team

Joey

Joey has always had a passion for art and design. Since she was a child she was constantly collecting and making things, and she loved showing off all her latest creations.

Growing up in a family of entrepreneurs, she’s always had the itch to start her own business. When she was a kid she used to run around collecting stray balls from the local golf course to earn a few dollars. Of course, back then most of her investments were in lollies at the milk bar!

Never a person to be kept in one place, Joey has travelled extensively throughout the world, often by herself. She’s lived in both France and Canada, and recently she’s spent a lot of time in Asia searching for suppliers.

After completing her degree in Marketing and Psychology, Joey set about using that knowledge in the real world. Through her early work in the homewares and furniture business she quickly developed a strong passion for the industry.

Joey’s always questioning the status quo, so after a while she decided that she needed to spread her wings and unleash her creativity and launch her own business, and hence Duckprint was born.

Joey loves learning new things and has a passion for foreign languages, having learnt French, Spanish, and Japanese.  She’s also a keen fitness fanatic focusing mainly on cycling, tennis and hiking.

Andrew

While Joey is the creative genius, Andrew’s the technology guru who has helped bring her ideas into reality.

Andrew’s always loved pulling things apart to see how they work. He fondly remembers separating his parents’ camera into pieces to see how it was put together. His parents remember it less fondly, he never quite figured out how to make it work again!

But in recent years he’s stepped up in this area and now he’s the go-to man for anything technical. He has built everything from go-karts to computer servers and it was his dream for Duckprint that made it what it is today.

While Joey knew exactly what sort of product she wanted to make, it was Andrew who saw this as a fantastic opportunity to put his range of skills to the test and create a successful online business.

In Andrew’s experience working with a number of large firms, his innovative thinking has helped both to vastly improve customer experience and bring down prices. He is now excited to be able to use this accumulated knowledge to help Duckprint bring these fantastic new designs into your bedroom.

And he’s not just passionate about bed linen, he also has a wild side being an avid motorcyclist, snowboarder, and wakeboarder. Keep an eye out for him at Bonnie Doon because you might just catch him doing a backflip.

The Story

Duckprint was actually an idea that I had way back in late high school.

I’d had my doona cover for quite a few years and, as much as I loved it, it was starting to get a little bit past its use-by date.

Initially I just started keeping my eyes out for something, but then even when I started to search a bit harder I was really struggling to find anything that I wanted.

All I found was white, floral, or repetitious patterns, no matter where I went.

I definitely didn’t want to spend over $100 on something that I didn’t really like, so I just stuck with my slightly worn but well designed doona cover.

Being frustrated and somewhat intrigued by the lack of interesting designs, I proclaimed: “I’m going to design my own.”  My Dad, being the entrepreneurial person that he is, said, “Well why don’t you?”  Fast forward a few years and I began to turn this idea into a reality.

After studying marketing and psychology at university, I found myself working at an online homewares and furniture company. I learnt some great practical business skills there, however I was itching to get my own business going with a product that I really felt passionate about.

I owe a lot to my great family friend Ken who really inspired me to get the business started. One day, when I was just talking about a couple of my ideas, he said to me, “Well, what’s stopping you?” My dreams of starting Duckprint probably would have just stayed as dreams without Ken who really helped me get into gear.

He introduced me to a contact of his in China called Connie who was an absolute blessing to our business. Everything about her, from her mastery of Australian slang to her sharp negotiating skills, made her an irreplaceable asset in our search for a supplier to live up to my dreams for Duckprint.

It was difficult to find a supplier that could provide everything I wanted in our products: great quality, affordable pricing, and perfect implementation of the designs. It took many trips to China, months of hard work, and some bad experiences with shoddy producers before we finally found the perfect people to create our products.

Our partners are among the most respected in China in this industry. They have a proven track record of creating the most innovative and high quality products and we were absolutely thrilled to have them on board.

Months of working closely with their team has resulted in the great range of doona covers you see today on our website of which we’re really proud.
This brings the tale of Duckprint up to today, but it is far from the end of our story. It’s been a wild ride, and sometimes stressful, but it’s always been exciting. We can’t wait to bring you more great products in the future, and we hope you enjoy using our creations as much as we have in bringing them to you.