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Recently we saw a new use for one of our custom crossword prints, a use that we haven't seen before. It's such a good idea that we thought we'd share it here.
We've designed a fair few custom crosswords - a crossword was the very first elevencorners print we put up on Not On The High Street when we joined them in 2017. We've offered crosswords to customers on Etsy since 2016.
Since then we've added several variations on the traditional crossword theme, including the one we're talking about here: a traditional crossword puzzle with clues and answers, just like the ones you see in newspapers.
The crossword was ordered as a gift by a customer for a work colleague. It was a crossword puzzle print, crossword at the top, clues underneath (like the picture at the bottom of this blog post).
Our customer's crossword answers were all names of work collegues and the clues were all nicknames, brief descriptions or ways of identifying the people. It wasn't a work document like a traditional lifeless, soulless, meaningless organisation chart. It was instead a document that had evidently been made with joy.
We guess that there were one or two in-jokes among the crossword clues, and more than one or two of the clues might raise a smile or a chuckle to the gift recipient. We often do crosswords with family names, but it was the clues that made this one different.
We don't know if the gift was for a retirement or to mark some sort of long service but we loved it. It's such a simple idea and it was so well executed - short, succinct, pithy clues (pithy is always good, isn't it?) that worked really well on the final print.
The clues probably took a some time to think up, but it was time well-spent. In general, shorter crossword clues usually work better than longer clues because it means that the clues can be printed at a larger size.
The finished crossword is a bit of a treasure - a great reminder for someone about the people they work (or worked) with, something that can hang on their wall for years to come. It's a crossword full of thought, love and appreciation for a work colleague. It's a gift that's unique and very personal to them. We hope they liked it as much as we did!
Here's our traditional crossword (with clues) print. You send us the clues and the answers. We design the crossword from the answers and work out where all the numbers should go in the grid and we send you the finished print.
