Design Originals
- Company typePrivate
- Founded-
- HeadquartersMount Joy, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingHardware or Manufacturing
What Design Originals does
Design Originals is a craft and coloring-book imprint of Fox Chapel Publishing, a privately held specialty how-to publisher headquartered in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania (Lancaster County). The imprint produces a deep catalog of coloring books for adults and children — 321+ titles across themes including mandalas, animals, nature, holidays, mindfulness, manga/anime, chalk-style designs, and licensed-artist collections (Hello Angel, Jim Shore, KC Doodle Art, Notebook Doodles, FloraBunda) — alongside children's activity books, sticker and water-painting products, and digital pattern downloads. Design Originals also publishes DO Magazine, a crafting periodical. The publishing platform is a conventional print-and-digital pipeline: books and patterns authored or curated by named craft experts and artists with step-by-step instructions, full-size patterns, and photography, distributed via the parent's DTC storefront (foxchapelpublishing.com, shipping to 100+ countries), Amazon, and wholesale to bookstores, craft specialty stores, art supply stores, department stores, and home stores globally. Design Originals sits within a broader Fox Chapel Publishing brand portfolio that includes Landauer (quilting and needle arts), Happy Fox (children's books), and Quiet Fox (journals and notebooks), plus subscription magazines Woodcarving Illustrated, Scroll Saw Woodworking & Crafts, and Pyrography Magazine.
The business model is primarily one-time unit sales of physical books and digital patterns, supplemented by recurring magazine subscription revenue and a wholesale/B2B channel for retail accounts. Unit prices span roughly $4.99-$24.99 for coloring books, with premium treasury editions at the top of the range, subscription pricing for magazines, and standard trade discounts for wholesale. Customer segments are consumer hobbyists across multiple niches — adult coloring enthusiasts, children and families, woodworkers and carvers, quilters, and craft retailers — with no single enterprise customer materially concentrated. The company has pursued modest cause-marketing activity (a co-publication with Kids Saving the Rainforest) and has earned industry recognition including multiple Independent Publishers Book Awards in 2019.
Design Originals firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Design Originals
- Legal name
- Fox Chapel Publishing
- Website
- https://d-originals.com
- Company type
- Private
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Design Originals industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Craft and Hobby Book Publishing
- NAICS
- Graphic Design Services (54143), Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers (711510)
- SIC
- Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Children’s Activity & Workbook Publishing (MPAJAFAG)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Design & Maker Skills (Graphic Design, Calligraphy, Lettering) (EDAAAGAJ), Crafts & Maker Arts (Ceramics, Textiles, Jewelry, Mixed Media) (EDAMAAAD)
Keywords
Where Design Originals is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Mount Joy
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Design Originals business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Hardware or Manufacturing
- Cost components
- Supply Chain, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Book Sales: Physical and digital books including coloring books, woodworking guides, quilting books, and craft instruction manuals sold directly through e-commerce and through retail distribution channels including Amazon and physical bookstores
- Magazine Subscriptions and Single Issues: Subscription and individual issue sales for Woodcarving Illustrated, Scroll Saw Woodworking & Crafts, Pyrography Magazine, and DO Magazine
- Digital Patterns: Digital pattern downloads for scroll saw, woodworking, and craft projects available for immediate download
- Wholesale/B2B: Bulk sales to bookstores, craft specialty stores, art supply stores, department stores, and home stores in North America and worldwide
- Personalized Gifts: Customized coloring books and personalized gift products for adults and children
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Coloring Books - Paperback/Softback |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Deluxe/ Treasury Editions |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Children's Activity Books |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Quick Whittles Book |
| Subscription | Annual | Subscription Magazines |
| One time/ perpetual license | Multi-year contract | Wholesale/B2B |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels5 records
Design Originals product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Design Originals is a craft and hobby publishing imprint that produces and sells coloring books, children's activity books, woodworking guides, and craft periodicals. Its product portfolio spans more than 321 coloring book titles across adult and children's categories, alongside the DO Magazine craft periodical, digital patterns, and personalized/customized coloring books. The imprint sells through its own e-commerce store, Amazon, and wholesale distribution to retail outlets in North America and worldwide.
Product overview
Design Originals is a craft and publishing imprint of Fox Chapel Publishing specializing in coloring books and activity products for all ages. The product portfolio includes adult coloring books (Hello Angel, Chalk-Style, Jim Shore, KC Doodle Art, Color Series), children's coloring and activity books (Notebook Doodles, Sticker Painting, Water Painting, Color Your Own Stickers), manga/animation-themed coloring books, and digital patterns. The company also publishes DO Magazine, a crafting periodical. Design Originals' products span categories including adult coloring, children's activities, zentangle/Florabunda, personalized/custom products, and digital downloadable content. The company operates alongside other Fox Chapel Publishing imprints including Happy Fox (children's books), Landauer (quilting books), and Quiet Fox (journals and notebooks).
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Landauer: An imprint of Fox Chapel Publishing specializing in quilting books and publications
- Happy Fox
- Quiet Fox
- Woodcarving Illustrated
- Scroll Saw Woodworking & Crafts Magazine
Products and services
- Coloring Books
Companies that use Design Originals
Customer profileNamed customers4 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Design Originals technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature3 records
Design Originals partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Four partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.
- Kids Saving the RainforestminorCo-published Great Amazon & Rainforest Coloring Book with Kids Saving the Rainforest to support rainforest conservation efforts. Part of social impact initiative combining coloring book content with environmental advocacy.
- Happy Fox (Imprint of Fox Chapel Publishing)coreHappy Fox is an imprint of Fox Chapel Publishing focused on children's books including coloring and activity books, how-to for kids, and imaginative story books. Design Originals content may be distributed through this imprint.
- Landauer (Imprint of Fox Chapel Publishing)coreLandauer Publishing is an imprint of Fox Chapel Publishing focused on quilting books and needle arts. Managed by people passionate about bringing high-quality inspirational and creative technique and how-to publications to life.
- Quiet Fox (Imprint of Fox Chapel Publishing)coreQuiet Fox is an imprint of Fox Chapel Publishing focused on journals and notebooks featuring designs from artists like Dean Russo, Hello Angel, and Woodstock. Design Originals content may be distributed through this imprint.
Scale indicators2 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Design Originals competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Quarry Books: Quarry Books is an imprint of Quarto Group focused on crafts, hobbies, and maker content including woodworking, paper crafts, and fiber arts. It overlaps directly with Design Originals' woodworking and craft how-to categories and shares a similar niche-publisher positioning.
- C&T Publishing: C&T Publishing specializes in quilting, sewing, and fiber arts books and patterns with strong direct-to-consumer sales and a wholesale footprint in independent quilt shops. It is directly comparable to Design Originals' Landauer quilting imprint in target market and product format.
- Leisure Arts: Leisure Arts publishes how-to books across knitting, crochet, quilting, papercrafts, and other needle arts, and sells direct-to-consumer online. It overlaps with Design Originals' Landauer quilting imprint and shares the wholesale-to-craft-store distribution model for instructional craft books.
- Dover Publications: Dover Publications is a major independent publisher of activity, coloring, craft, and how-to books at value price points, with a similarly vast backlist across adult coloring, children's activities, and craft instruction. It is one of the closest direct competitors to Design Originals in the affordable coloring and activity book space, sharing wholesale distribution to mass retailers.
- Stackpole Books: Stackpole Books publishes how-to titles on woodworking, woodcarving, outdoors, and craft hobbies from its Pennsylvania headquarters, and is a direct competitor in the woodworking and woodcarving book categories where Design Originals has deep content.
- Walter Foster Publishing: Walter Foster Publishing, part of the Quarto Group, is a long-established how-to art and craft book publisher producing instructional titles in drawing, painting, crafts, and creative hobbies. It directly competes with Design Originals' how-to craft and coloring book lines, with comparable price points and retail channels.
Broad incumbents
- Skyhorse Publishing: Skyhorse Publishing is a larger independent publisher with extensive how-to, hobby, woodworking, and outdoor title lists. It competes broadly with Design Originals' craft and woodworking categories and shares the wholesale distribution model to bookstores and specialty retailers.
- Quarto Group: Quarto Group is a global illustrated book publisher whose imprints (Walter Foster, Quarry, Cool Springs Press, Creative Homeowner) cover crafts, hobbies, and how-to at much larger scale than Design Originals. It is a broad incumbent competing across overlapping categories with greater resources and international reach.
- Workman Publishing: Workman Publishing is an established independent publisher with strong how-to, lifestyle, and activity book lines including adult coloring and children's activity titles. It is a larger, broad incumbent with comparable craft/hobby and coloring book offerings distributed through the same national retail channels.
Emerging players
- Clever Publishing: Clever Publishing is an emerging publisher of children's activity books, journals, and novelty formats including sticker books, coloring, and interactive titles. It targets the same children's activity segment as Design Originals' Happy Fox imprint and represents a newer, trend-driven competitor in mass-market retail.
Market position
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Design Originals social profiles
Digital presenceDesign Originals financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Design Originals leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Design Originals subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries3 records
Design Originals funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Design Originals M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Design Originals
What does Design Originals do?
Design Originals is a craft and hobby publishing imprint that produces and sells coloring books, children's activity books, woodworking guides, and craft periodicals. Its product portfolio spans more than 321 coloring book titles across adult and children's categories, alongside the DO Magazine craft periodical, digital patterns, and personalized/customized coloring books. The imprint sells through its own e-commerce store, Amazon, and wholesale distribution to retail outlets in North America and worldwide.
Is Design Originals a public or private company?
Design Originals is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Design Originals founded?
Design Originals was founded in -1. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Design Originals based?
Design Originals is headquartered in Mount Joy, United States, in the North America region.
How does Design Originals make money?
Five revenue lines are on record. Book Sales are the primary driver. The others are magazine Subscriptions and Single Issues, digital Patterns, wholesale/B2B and personalized Gifts.
Who are Design Originals's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Quarry Books, C&T Publishing, Leisure Arts, Dover Publications, Stackpole Books and Walter Foster Publishing. Broad incumbents are Skyhorse Publishing, Quarto Group and Workman Publishing. Clever Publishing is listed as an emerging player.
Does Design Originals have an API?
No public API is recorded for Design Originals.
What industry is Design Originals in?
Design Originals's product category is Craft and Hobby Book Publishing. Its primary akta.pro industry code is MPAJAFAG, Children’s Activity & Workbook Publishing, with a secondary code of EDAAAGAJ, Design & Maker Skills (Graphic Design, Calligraphy, Lettering). Its NAICS code is 54143 and its SIC code is 2731.