unfold uk

cheer up luv - or not!

I just discovered - I'm a bit late to the party, I know - the coolest cartoonist slash designer slash doodler.  Andre Jordan is a depressed Brit with a super dark sense of humor and a powerful pen.  Behold:

stick to fries, BK

Burger King is licensing it's creepy King character for a line of greeting cards - this from Promo Magazine:

Burger King has signed a licensing agreement with Andrew McMell Publishing to develop a line of branded Burger King greeting cards featuring the company’s icon, the King.

The collection will include six different greeting cards featuring the King’s off beat personality.

The cards will be available at select retailers this summer. Recycled Paper Greetings, Inc., will produce and distribute the cards.

The deal was brokered by Burger King Corp.’s licensing agent, Broad Street Licensing Group.

Does anyone know what a fast food mascot and greeting cards have in common?  Do tell, because I cannot for the life of me think of even one thing. But then I'm a McDonald's girl myself.

what am I missing?

Can someone please explain why I keep getting emails from Papyrus about Atonement?  I'm finding it really hard to figure out what they have in common.  Now that the DVD is out, I'm really hoping this wierd promotion is now over.

a little light reading

I'm not big into the mass-market greeting card companies like Hallmark, American Greetings or Clinton Cards.  I'll be the first to admit that they have some really funny ranges [like Shoebox], but who really needs yet another stupid design showing a shooting star with the exclamation 'you're a star!' scrawled on the front?   Yet they serve the mass market well, so who am I to judge [as if that's ever stopped me before...]? 

I read an article in the Sunday Times newspaper about a Ukranian entrepreneur who runs a very successful greeting card publisher here in the UK called Riverside Cards.  They are so 'mass' that I've never even heard of them, but there ya go.  They sell $6 million worth of cards a year, which is small fry next to Hallmark's $4 billion, but his story reflects how the greeting card market is in so many ways still a cottage industry. 

invasion of the sprogs

Kids' toys at Kate's?  What?  I so don't get it.  Yes, I do understand diversification, and I guess this is a further extension of the Kate's at Home, but still.

when you care even a just a little

I have no idea how I missed this one, but miss it I did.  Last month I looked at a couple of e-card sites but only recently discovered what is now my favorite - someecards.com.  It certainly isn't because of the wide range of design styles [there is one style, period], but because it's funny as hell. 

Created by two ad agency guys, someecards.com looks as though it's trying to fly under the radar with its low-key, distinctly unflashy site - but they aren't fooling anyone.  Click on the small 'press' link in the bottom right-hand corner and you'll see it's been featured everywhere, and although there is just the tiniest bit of 'we're too cool for school' about it, I do think it's really, really clever.

The site is easy to use - just enter the text and recipient info [screen shot above].  The message as it appears to the recipient is a bit hard to see  [screen shot below] - and I wish the message was rendered directly on the card, as I've seen on some other sites. I guess I'll just have to settle for hysterically funny desert-dry wit in the meantime.

Here are some of my favorites:

all loved out

I used to love Valentine's Day when I was in school; it was just a fun day.  Then I grew up and realized how phony it all was.  That sounds like such a curmudgeonly thing to say and I'm all for love etc. etc. but the holiday just seems so forced.  Lots of people feel the same way about it, yet we bow to the pressure every year.

However, as I'm never one to shy away from a good greeting card, I thought I'd collect a few that are interesting. My friend Heather Perlman, graphic designer extraordinaire, gets to the heart of it [crap pun, I know]:

And here's a damn funny one from Bald Guy Greetings, which gets right to the point:

But I do like the sentimental ones too; I'm not completely without a sense of romance [this one's from Cartesian Graphics]:

My friend Monica has done something really clever in creating a line of cards called Style Diaries.  Basically, she creates cards out of fabric that holds a sentimental value to someone.  The story behind the card is one that lots of us can relate to, and it makes for a really interesting twist. 

Monica made a Valentine's Card out of a dress that Monica's friend Helene donated: 

... and here's the story behind the dress [plagiarized from Remanents' website]:

The diary entry on the back of this outfit is..."I went on many dates in this dress, too many actually. This was the dress I always pulled out when I wanted to impress. I looked good in this dress, maybe too good. My mom always said you have to kiss alot of toads to find the one. I felt like I went through the entire pond. I thought I would get lucky in this dress...funny how things turn out. I am not really sure why I decided not to wear this one with the last guy I dated. He seemed more of a jeans and t-shirt sort of guy. But maybe that is where it's true luck lies because now he's my husband.."

Each card is numbered and 20% of the online sales will be donated to the Global Fund for Women.

For a really pervy twist, you could use a pair of your underwear that has sentimental value... I'm laughing at the thought of Monica receiving a pair of dirty pants in the mail with a note saying 'can you make a greeting card out of this'?  I think I'm going to do just that...she'll never speak to me again. 

Have fun today, no matter what you do or with whom. 

dig deep

I'm not a big gadget person, so I don't spend hours on Firebox like many males I know.  But I did see this Carve Your Own Message and I think it's really clever.  I would have ordered it if Valentine's Day wasn't... oh, three days away... good thing I have some other good Valentine choices.

guerilla pr

Ronna Nelsen of It's In The Bag, a product placement marketing company that creates gift bags for celeb events, sent me a list of current opportunities - check them out here.

save a stamp

While the concept of an e-card is anathema to paper lovers everywhere, I do confess to finding them [sometimes] useful.  If you can't send an actual, physical, beautiful card, I guess an e-card is the next best thing.  The most important thing is to let someone know you're thinking of them, no matter how you do it.

E-cards are like regular cards in that there are so many cheesy, schmaltzy and over-the-top designs it's unbelievable.  If I see one more Blue Mountain design I'm going to rip my eyeballs out. 

Personally, I like the notion of designer email stationery rather than an e-card you have to retrieve off of a website.  The only place I've seen this is at iomoi - let me know what other designers are out there.

Iomoi

I remember seeing Iomoi's ecards years ago, and I'm glad to see they're still at it.  They offer a range of designs and their interface is simple and easy to use.  You choose the font and type color and they'll even check your spelling.   They also sell original - paper!- stationery products and address labels.

• What's Good:  super simple, good personalization options
• What's Not:    designs can sometimes be on the cutesy side
• Price:             $ 15/year

SpreadingTheLove

Unlike Iomoi, who offer e-stationery, SpreadingTheLove offers e-cards that the recipient has to view on their site [like Hallmark, American Greetings, etc.]. They play the "green" card by positioning emails as environmentally friendlier than paper greetings, and while they probably have a point, I'll never give up pen and ink. 

I can't quite figure out what their deal is.  Their mailing address is Spain, their phone number is from London and their prices are in dollars.  Go figure.  They offer a lot of designs by many different artists, which I like, but their site design is crap.  I get a headache just looking at it, which is a shame because they have some interesting functionality. 

   

I particularly like the option of scheduling the email for up to a year in the future.  I can see someone who is hyper-organized [not me by a long shot] sitting down one afternoon and creating birthday emails for the next three months.  God love 'em.  The site also allows you to store addresses and offers a reminder service for key dates you don't want to forget. 

I couldn't test it though, because I kept trying to send myself a free card - as advertised on the site - and they kept telling me I had to subscribe first.  Um, I thought free meant... free... silly me. 

What's Good:  good range of clever, and different, designs; clever functionality

What's Not:    everything else

Price:             $ 18/year

I'll highlight others as I come across them.