Limited Editions For All

I'm old enough to remeber numbered, limited edition vinyl EPs and boxed-sets of singles. These things had a huge value in a niche way, because the were exactly that: limited editions. They were usually lavishly packaged compared to the regular edition, included extra tracks often unreleased anywhere else and other items such as postcards.

Things are changing as internet technology and online personalisation reaches out into the consumer products market. For a long time now, you've been able to purchase your iPod direct from Apple and have a message laser etched into the back of the case. More recently Timberland have added a feature to their website where you can customise your boots as you order them, including an embroidered monogram. Moon Pig are now offering to custom print greetings cards with the message of your choice. Bob Books will print and bind a hardback book of your choice from images you upload via their website.

It strikes me that this is then end of the limited edition as we know it - or possibly a proliferation of the range of limited editions.

Either the mass accessibility of personalisation with consumer products will reduce the interest in 'designed' limited editions *OR* the easy access to the new design tools for this new generation of personalised products will lead to an increase in the number of amateur designers using these new tools to produce their own limited runs of pre-personalised products. I'm watching closely to for which way it goes, but I hope the latter, not the former.