Author: Henry L.

Birthday Cards Mean Something to Me

When you receive a birthday card at work do you push it to the side, do you toss it next to your TPS reports and let it collect dust? If that describes your yearly birthday ritual maybe it is time to start thinking about this another way. In a world of impersonal hiring and firings, where a lot of workers barely actually set foot in an office…there’s something special about being remembered. There’s something special about not being forgotten. There’s something special about those birthday cards.

Birthday Cards Have Meaning

Business birthday cards signed by your co-workers are a keep-sake. Believe me; I have a whole wall of them. Take some time to look at these old cards. Oh look, there’s when I turned 35. Bill from accounting wrote about how my Yankees aren’t that good. Little did he know they would go on and win the World Series that year! Now let’s gander at the year I turned 32. Nancy from production drew a funny picture of my cat Smitty. Little did I know I would end up getting Smitty cat friend to live with that we now call Ms. Holly. And little did I know I would have to deal with seven kittens then next year. All these birthday cards are reminders of where we’ve been and how we got here. Not to mention it’s nice to know your boss cares a little bit.

Business Birthday Cards Make A Great Dentist Even Better

From early childhood right into adulthood, I used to dread dental office appointments. Having moved around a lot in my adult years, there was a fairly sizable list of dentists whose practice of their art in my mouth caused me trepidation.

Now, I make my next 6-month appointment at the end of each office visit, and actually look forward to it. Why? Business birthday cards!

Birthday Cards from the Dentist

The cards aren’t the only reason, but they are the icing on the cake. Also, parking is easy. The waiting room is attractive and comfortable. Everyone who works there is cheerful, pleasant, and warmly welcoming. My dentist is gentle, sure-handed and an entertaining chatterer. They make me feel like an old friend, or even part of their family, by sharing tales and photos of their families and asking about mine with genuine interest. I always depart with good and positive feelings of my time there.

Every time I leave this dentist’s office, I’m also carrying a “goody bag” of dental products and other useful items (he passes out the greatest pens!) with his name and phone number on them. I guess you could say that I think of him and his staff every day because I’m using the promotional items from that gift bag.

I suppose a number of dentists give out little take-away “favors” but I don’t remember any former dentist of mine who also remembers my birthday every year! What a nice surprise it was when I first received birthday cards. His appointment reminders come on a postcard so it was a bit of a mystery to get an envelope that was obviously not a bill.

Here they are, remembering me on my own specific, special day, not for advertising or appointment reminders or bill sending, but just to wish me a happy birthday! Warm, charming, and first class quality: in the practice of their business and in the way they live. This is my dentist for life!

Create-A-Greeting-Card Scholarship Look Back Series – Card Design Samples

Welcome to our second installment of the Create-A-Greeting-Card Scholarship Look Back Series. Today we are taking you behind the curtain and giving you a look into the test sampling phase for the 2011 Scholarship Winning Design, Gilded Nativity Christmas Card.

Gilded Nativity Christmas Card

Each of our card designs goes through a significant testing phase before a final design is chosen to be added to our card line. These test samples are first provided to our creative team which goes through many different samples consisting of different card stocks, colors, layouts and foil imprints. You can get a taste of some of the samples that were considered below.

Card Samples

Finally, once a sample is chosen for the card and the creative team does not believe any more changes need to be made, the design is passed along to our approval team. This team consists of people from our marketing, production and order departments. Since our order department is our direct link to our customers, we always make it a priority to take any feedback we receive from our customers and inject it into every part of our operation, including the card design process. Once we get the stamp of approval from the team the design becomes a brand new member of our line of cards.

Browse through some of our test samples that were used for the 2011 Scholarship winning design and let us know which version you would have picked in the poll below. Next week we continue our series with an interview of our 6th annual Scholarship Contest winner Whitney Fuertes!

Saving Time And Going Green – Environmentally Friendly Greeting Cards

When choosing my birthday cards this year, I decided to purchase environmentally friendly greeting cards. It’s always nice to play a part in helping the Earth we live on. The cards are still of fabulous quality. There’s nothing lacking, so it just makes sense to do something green. What better way to share my thoughts and wishes to those I care about?

Environmentally Friendly Greeting Cards

Greeting cards always express sincere sentiment. I’ve always enjoyed including a little handwritten note within the cards to add something special. This year, I decided to purchase my cards all at once because I am extremely busy with my job and school activities. It’s difficult to run around to the convenience store on a whim. In order to save myself time and money, I decided to get my own personalized birthday cards. The cards I selected are all recycled paper and show the recipients that I genuinely care about our environment. Inside, I included the family signatures. This is great for us- it’s difficult to get every member of the family to sign cards because we all have very different schedules! Of course I intend on including my little notes within the cards, but the idea of having them pre-signed saves me from scrambling at the last minute!

The Lost Business Birthday Cards

Do you still send out business birthday cards even with the economy not quite where we’d like it to be? If not, you might want to reconsider. Although not quite as bad as a couple of years ago, we still have a ways to go before we all feel truly comfortable with spending our hard earned money. When and if things ever turn the corner (more than they have thus far), we want to make sure that our customers will spend some of it with us.

Business Birthday Cards

Speaking for myself, I like to know that I’m thought of even when I’m not spending my money. I went to a local nail salon awhile back and they asked me to jot down when my birthday was. I’d forgotten all about it as I hadn’t been back in a long time. It had been several months actually. Imagine my surprise when I received a happy birthday card. They had also included a discount for a future service. How clever! I had received birthday cards from other businesses that I frequent, but I expected that. I did not expect to receive it from a place that I hardly ever go. You can be sure though, that I took my business back there.

You know the old saying – “out of sight, out of mind”! No business wants to be that! In this day and age, it is the little things that can make all the difference. For a couple of dollars spent on a business birthday card, you have the potential to make many more! Don’t become one of the forgotten!

Create-A-Greeting-Card Scholarship Look Back Series – Contest Team Interview

We are very excited to launch a brand new weekly feature titled the $10,000 Create-A-Greeting-Card-Scholarship Look Back Series. This series will look back on all of our previous annual Scholarship contests with each month focusing on one contest with weekly posts full of behind the scenes information, past winner interviews, card transformation and much much more.

With our first official entry we want everyone to get a little more familiar with the Scholarship team that is responsible for going through the entries, selecting the finalists and eventually the winner. Read the interview below to get an inside look into who makes up the team, what they look for and more!


Interview with the Scholarship Contest Team


 

How many members are on the Scholarship team that judges the entries?
We have a total of 6 members on our panel. We have people on the team from different departments in our company such as Production, Creative and even an artist from our Art Department in order to provide a different viewpoint for each aspect of turning an entry into a card.

 

How often does the scholarship team meet to go over the entries?
We start meeting a month after each contest begins and go on to meet once a month moving forward until the contest ends. We like to meet once a month in order to avoid having the entries get backed up to such a large number that would be difficult for us to view. During the 2011 scholarship contest, we received over 13,000 entries so saving them all for the end wouldn’t have allowed us the ability go through each entry as thoroughly as we would have liked.

 

What typically goes on in these monthly meetings?
In each meeting we like to go through the entries that we have received since the last and set aside any potential finalists that we feel could be turned into cards. The first thing that we look for is Creativity and Originality. We want to see an effort was put into the entry and then we go through the remaining criteria. Many times an entry can be very good art but unfortunately does not meet 5, 6 or 7 from the below judging criteria.

JUDGING CRITERIA

  1. Overall aesthetic appeal
  2. Quality of execution
  3. Creativity and Originality
  4. Successful incorporation of design elements
  5. Appropriateness for use as a greeting card
  6. Attractiveness to The Gallery Collection’s corporate and consumer customers
  7. Suitability as a design in Prudent’s Gallery Collection greeting card line

 

When do you officially choose the finalists for the contest?
Once we start getting close to the end of the contest, we begin to look through the potential finalists that we set aside in our monthly meetings to narrow them down to around 200 entries. Then once the contest officially ends, we go through the remaining entries that we have received and choose any others that we feel meet the judging criteria and could be turned into beautiful cards. We then like to post them up on our website to let everyone see just how amazing the pool of finalists really is.

 

How do you eventually settle on the winning design?
Once we have the 200 finalists chosen, we begin our voting rounds which we use to narrow down the number to around 5-10 “Super Finalists”. At this point we put together affidavits which are sent to each entrant to ensure that their artwork and identity is confirmed. Once we receive the affidavits back we then go through the final voting phase which also involves some of our executive team at the company to pick our final winner.

 

What is your favorite part about being on the Scholarship Team?
I think each of us can easily say the absolute best feeling in the world is when we finally contact the winner to let them know they have won. A call like that is something amazing to be a part of because it makes all of the work and time that we have put into this contest worth it. Knowing that the $10,000 Create-A-Greeting-Card-Scholarship is going to help a student further their education means the world to us. We all look forward to this each year.

 

That brings us to the end of our inside look into our hard working Scholarship Team. We hope this interview gave you a little insight into the amount of work and thought that goes into each years contest. Without this team this scholarship contest would not be possible!

We want to let everyone know to keep a look out for next weeks post in our weekly series which will be a behind the scenes look into the transformation of our 2011 Scholarship Contest Winner, Whitney Fuertes’ entry into a card!

Celebrate Your Shining Stars with Employee Birthday Cards

I was looking at the stars, enjoying the beauty of the night sky. I saw a bright star and wondered what it was called. Then I remembered the star that guided the wise men and I wondered if it was still in the sky, or had it gone as mysteriously as it had appeared? Then I thought do we all have a star appointed to us at birth? There’s so many, maybe we do have our own. At Christmas time people the world over celebrate a birthday, to some, the most important one ever. I feel it’s important to celebrate our own and others uniqueness. Each of us is a beautiful, one of a kind, never to be repeated star! Let your employee’s know you appreciate them with employee birthday cards.

Employee Birthday Cards

I’m sure you will agree each of your employee’s and clients bring something unique to your business. Whether it’s a sunny disposition, fantastic memory, a great sense of humor, they all shine like stars in your sky. Letting them know with company birthday cards is just good business. We all shine and get a twinkle in our eyes when we receive positive recognition. It makes us happy and productive, energizes us and spurs us on to bigger and better accomplishments. And joy is contagious. Maybe that’s what our economy needs a dose of joy, to stimulate it and get it going. So get those cards and let’s turn this thing around. Get your shine on people!

Sharing Memories With Business Greeting Cards

When my long time college friends and I decided to throw one of our good friends Erin the biggest surprise party of her life, we knew we had to come up with an amazing idea that would make a lasting impression on Erin and the friends and family that we invited. With all the planning and preparations between us going on for months, we wanted to get a special message out to Erin how much she is loved and appreciate by all who will be attending her special party. To do something a little different, we set up a photo booth for everyone to take a few pictures of themselves to leave for Erin. My friends and I came up with an idea to leave a basket of greeting cards next to the booth so Erin’s guests along with the picture they took can write a short note for her to look at for years to come. After searching many internet sites for the nicest greeting cards at a reasonable price, I came upon The Gallery Collection website, which believe it or not had the most beautiful assortment of business greeting cards to choose from.

Surprise Party Greeting Cards

At this point, I needed to have on hand a few different designs of greeting cards to have next to the booth. I was able to order an assortment box of greeting cards which was the perfect touch for the message we were trying to get across to Erin. After each of the guests took a picture in the booth, they got to pick a greeting card out of the basket which fit them best. Besides leaving the picture they just took inside the card, they can write a special personalized message, maybe a special memory they shared with Erin, or they can simply write a thank you to Erin for her friendship over the years.

After speaking with Erin a few days later after her party, Erin was very touched by the idea we had with the photo booth along with the greeting cards. She loves the idea that she now has a picture to go along with a special message from each of her guests to keep from years to come.

Birthday Cards Put A Smile On My Face

So, today is my birthday. It’s always fun waking up, and knowing that today is your special day. I’m not one to like being the center of attention, but it’s always an exception on your birthday. I like the gathering of all my friends and family to celebrate the day I was born, in an epic fashion. Usually we go out into the city and decide on a fun looking bar. Other years, we’ll opt for the club scene. And some years, I even feel like being low key and just want everyone to gather at my favorite restaurant. The gathering of everyone dear to me is one of my favorite things about my birthday… aside from the presents of course! Do you know what another of my favorite things about my birthday is? Birthday Cards! Birthday cards are something that I enjoy receiving so much because I can go back at the end of the day and look at each of my “Happy Birthday” greetings one by one, after a fun day of partying. Some are hysterically funny, some are sincerely touching. People can say it directly, but it’s always nice to be able to look back and see what special things everyone had to say about you.

Birthday Cards

So today when I walked into work, I made my way through the office and finally got to my desk. My face lit up with a smile bigger than ever as I walked closer and closer to my chair, already seeing a bunch of envelopes with my name on them sitting on top of my keyboard. I was ecstatic to open each and every one of them! I had some from my co-workers, some from my boss, some from my supervisor. I thought it was so sweet that they got me cards. The outpouring of love filled my heart and made my birthday start off in the best way. After settling down, I put all my cards around my desk, displayed nicely for everyone to see. My mother had commented to me about how she loves the place I work at because they appreciate me and are kind enough to give me a birthday card. I thought to myself “Why don’t all places have business birthday cards?”. For what it’s worth, if everyone gave business birthday cards like my job does, I’m sure their employees would be just as thrilled and touched as I was. It’s just a nice gesture and it’s smart motivation. Even the restaurant that we ended up gathering at gave me a birthday card right before they brought my cake out! That also put a smile on my face… all in all, it was an excellent day!