Tag: Business Christmas Cards

A Business Christmas Cards Reminiscence

As the corporate greeting cards Creative Director for The Gallery Collection, I ‘m privileged to have been involved with our business Christmas cards designs for the last 20 years and I have watched, in amazement, our growth in technology, creativity, and talent.

When our Creative Team gets together to review ideas and designs, they will groan when I start reminiscing about “back in the day” when my only design tools were a pair of scissors and some rubber cement and there was only one computer on the entire floor, reserved for management only…no artist-types allowed! Groaning aside, those old-fashioned ideals that I was fortunate enough to have been taught then – of making quality and imaginative corporate Christmas cards, with quality materials supported by top-notch customer service – were lessons well-learned and principles that have remained strong in this fast-paced, electronic world we live in now.

Today, the Creative Team works away on state-of-the-art Macs with the most up-to-date programs, utilizing all the newest technologies available. Although, in maintaining traditions, we still pull out the scissors and some glitter pens from time to time and still manage to go home with glue in our hair!

Using Christmas Cards to Think Outside the Box

Christmas cards are sometimes more than meets the eye. Yes, I did just use a line from Transformers but not the movie…the only place real Transformers exist in my mind – the cartoon!

Take any of those business Christmas cards you received this holiday season for instance. They may look like just mere Christmas cards to you, but there are other things you can do with these works of art. How about converting them into your own masterpiece? Cut the front off of these beautiful designs; make a collage; and hang them on your wall. Maybe put them in your cubicle, and keep that holiday spirit all year long.

If you want to be really advanced, try and make a customized gift box out of them. These Christmas greeting cards can help make any gift look good. Take a plain gift box, spruce it up with a bunch of cut outs from Christmas cards from years past. Now look at that plain gift box…not so plain anymore, now is it?!?

I kept last year’s Christmas cards and strung them altogether, hung them off the top of the ceiling, and look at that…I had a festive banner. So don’t think all you have to do with your Christmas cards is open them, hang them on your mantle, and then throw them out. There’s infinite ways to use these little pieces of art. Just be creative and think outside the box.

An Ironic Business Christmas Cards Keepsake

When I got divorced from my ex-husband in 1989, it was a very stressful eight months of going back and forth between lawyers and negotiating over every possible detail involving the custody of our children. During the middle of all the negotiations, Christmas arrived with all the usual mail full of holiday cards. But this year, one particular card stood out amongst all the other business Christmas cards I had received. It was from my lawyer and it was the most beautiful and peaceful card I had ever seen. It was a slate blue winter scene with silver snowflakes and a silver full moon. It was the same color blue as my kitchen, so when Christmas was over, I threw all the others cards I received away except for the one from my lawyer. I put it in a Ziploc bag and said I would get a frame for it and hang it in my kitchen.

Several years passed and I got a job working for a company that sells Christmas cards. After my two week training period, I was on the phone selling cards and looking through the catalog, and there was the beautiful card that my lawyer had sent me. I was now working for that company! The card still sat in my kitchen drawer, unframed. Was it fate or irony? The beautiful card that cost me over $5,000 in lawyer’s fees was made by the company I now worked for. The card originally represented peace in the midst of a very stressful period. It now represented my new life at a wonderful greeting cards company!

Twelve years later the beautiful card still remains in the Ziploc baggie, the white paper just starting to turn yellow around the edges. I don’t want to frame it since my kitchen is no longer a slate blue; but I cannot throw it out either. I guess I will put it back in my kitchen drawer and perhaps when I need some peace in the future I will take it out and look at it again.

Season’s Greetings Cards with Holly Berries and Holiday Starbursts

Design #067CX, Holly Berry Greeting Card, is a combination of lithography and foil on buff Mohawk FSC certified paper. Its simplicity makes it very attractive for businesses to send as business Christmas cards. The design features a handful of holly wrapped in a plaid bow accompanied by simple yet elegant touches of gold foil scattered on the leaves and bow. The sentiment of “Season’s Greetings” is printed in matte gold foil.

Design #067CX Holly Berry Greeting Card
Design #067CX Holly Berry Greeting Card

Great attention to detail is one of the top reasons The Gallery Collection’s business Christmas cards are so popular. With close inspection one can see the embossing exactly where it should be and the accents of foil bring the line drawing to life. This Season’s Greetings card is sure to remain in the line of business Christmas cards for years to come.

Design #820CX, Holiday Starburst Card, features a foil star tree on black stock. Wow! Black stock for your business Christmas cards! Who would have thought it would look so festive? Well I guess it was the designers for The Gallery Collection’s business Christmas cards collection. This all-foil design mixes silver and gold with touches of blue starbursts to form a tree. The sentiment, “Season’s Greetings,” pops on the black stock making this a very memorable and popular Season’s Greetings card.

Design #820CX Holiday Starburst Card
Design #820CX Holiday Starburst Card

Business Christmas Cards and the Appreciation Factor

Last year, a little before Christmas, I was in my friend’s office (she is a doctor) and found a Gallery Collection business Christmas card hanging on her door. Even though I had worked for The Gallery Collection for over a year, this was the first time I had seen one of our Christmas cards in a place other than at work. A few days later, I was visiting my dentist, and what did I find? Another business Christmas card by The Gallery Collection!  “How exciting,” I thought. And then right before Christmas I was in my church’s office helping to get ready for the children’s pageant, and what did I see? A table full of business Christmas cards by The Gallery Collection!

Before that happened, I never really had thought much about business Christmas cards. I knew that people sent them (obviously…since I work for a company that makes them), but they never really were something that I had taken the time to recognize. But it got me to thinking about why people send business Christmas cards. Generally speaking, they are sent to show people that you appreciate them and are thinking of them. But this notion as it relates to business never really occurred to me before! While I do think of and appreciate the friends and family members to whom I normally send cards, it never occurred to me how much the people we work with and help us throughout the business day would appreciate these cards as well….and appreciate knowing that THEY are appreciated!

Christmas Cards or Holiday Cards? Decisions! Decisions!

A well-meaning office faces a quandary: send clients best wishes for the holidays and appreciation for their business all year with good old-fashioned Christmas cards. Or expand the warmth and gratitude in greeting cards that say “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings” instead, to show respect for the culture of each of its customers.

It’s tempting either way. Christmas evokes tradition, comfort, and the times when we lived so similarly to our neighbors and the folks at the office.  The Christian faith, the feasts, the gift-giving, and the colorful decorations – these make Christmas a special and irreplaceable time of year for everyone who celebrates it.  Christmas cards have been part and parcel of the season for over 150 years. Can you imagine a year where you saw not a single Christmas card all December?  Christmas cards for the Christmas holiday…of course!

When all or most of your clients celebrate Christmas, the choice to send business Christmas cards is easy.  However, a growing percentage of today’s workforce and clientele observe something other than Christmas in the fall and winter:  Diwali, Hanukkah, the New Year, Ramadan, Kwanzaa, and Eid al-Fitr, to name but a few.  The globalization of our world can be reflected in holiday cards.  While it would be difficult to identify every holiday in a single greeting card, it’s easy and thoughtful to leave the holiday open with a seasonal, non-religious sentiment inside of your greeting cards that lets your recipients know you wish them well, regardless of their religious or non-religious affiliations.

Holiday cards that refer to the “Holidays” or the “Season” give you greater latitude when winter greetings are appropriate and the holidays being celebrated by your recipients vary.  Nevertheless, whether you send Merry Christmas cards or greeting cards that wish Peace on Earth, Happy Holidays or Season’s Greetings, any holiday cards you send will surely be appreciated.

The Gallery Collection Featured during the New Jersey State Opera’s “Destination: Opera!”

A business Christmas cards advertisement for The Gallery Collection was recently featured in the souvenir program and guide for Destination: Opera!, a three day celebration which took place from September 12th to the 14th in Ocean Grove at the Jersey Shore. Our company President is an opera enthusiast and serves as Chairman for the New Jersey State Opera. His daughter-in-law is a distinguished soprano who also serves as the Managing Director for the NJSOpera.

Here is our ad that was featured in the souvenir program and guide:

NJSOpera Advertisement

The three day Destination: Opera! celebration included a presentation of “A Century of Opera at the Jersey Shore,” which was held at the Bishop Janes Tabernacle; a walking tour of Ocean Grove’s renowned historic streets; and the Grand Opera by the Shore concert, which took place at the famous 6,500 seat Great Auditorium built in 1894. The concert showcased several international operatic luminaries with the New Jersey State Opera Orchestra and Chorus, all led by Maestro Jason Tramm.

Under the direction of Alfredo Silipigni, the Opera Theater of Westfield was established in 1964 and renamed the New Jersey State Opera ten years later. The NJSOpera had several decades of success followed by many years of debt. Silipigni died in 2006 and the company entered a temporary period of reorganization. Mentored by Silipigni, Jason Tramm was named his successor as Music Director earlier this year. The Grand Opera by the Shore concert was the first performance by the New Jersey State Opera since Silipigni’s death two years ago.

Hats off to the NJSOpera’s effective reformation. We wish them many years of success under the direction and musical genius of Maestro Tramm.

The Benefits of Sending Corporate Christmas Cards

Working for a business Christmas cards company has made me more aware of the importance of corporate Holiday cards for businesses. Customers will frequently say how well their gesture of goodwill has been received by their clients and vendors.

New clients are impressed when they receive quality greeting cards thanking them for their past year’s business. Vendors appreciate receiving a thank you for a job well done.  Old clients are reminded of the services that were performed for them in the past. Many customers who send business greeting cards to those who have inquired about services reap the benefit of orders in the following year.

Decorating with Christmas cards has become an integral part of holiday season. They are displayed on doors, walls, desks, and mantles. When quality Christmas cards are selected, people’s eyes are drawn to each card, and they will open it to see who had the good taste to send it. Corporate Holiday cards are the perfect way to keep a business’ name in view throughout the holiday season.

All businesses would benefit by sending corporate Holiday cards from GalleryCollection.com to those who have made their progress possible.

Fond Memories of a Business Christmas Cards Contest

Are you thinking about your business Christmas cards? I know…it’s September and the holidays seem far away. Here at the Gallery Collection we think about corporate Christmas cards all year long and are ready to fill your order right now.

One of my memories of business Christmas cards goes back to a job I had at a software company. We really got to know our customers because of the lengthy sales cycle, which could run up to six months and sometimes longer. Being friendly with our counterparts on the customer side often led to an exchange of business Christmas cards through the years.

Our central office always ordered attractive corporate Christmas cards imprinted with the company name inside to send to our customers. We would add a personal note to the people we saw almost on a daily basis. A highlight of the season was receiving personalized holiday cards back from these customers. In our branch office, we displayed the cards on our office doors for instant festive holiday decorations.

And what was the Business Christmas Cards Contest? Not surprising for a sales branch, there was a prize for the employee who received the most Christmas cards from customers. But there was another prize for the best looking display of the cards. One year I won with a winter scene that included a ski slope, all made of cards from my customers. It still makes me laugh when I think about how intently we all worked on our doors (it was the slow time of year).

Now I work with customers who select their business Christmas cards with care. I really understand the importance of just the right message in a beautifully made Christmas card.

Greeting Cards and Great Decisions Lead to Success in Business

There is a book out by John McCain along with Mark Salter entitled “Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them,” which relates inspirational stories about people in different walks of life who made tough decisions in order to achieve success. One of the more interesting chapters is about businessman Marshall Field who developed innovative ideas and, through hard work as well, established his own department store, which to this day is still in business.

Working for a long-established and most successful greeting cards company, The Gallery Collection, I found quite a few similarities between Field’s business practices and the one’s used by our longtime owner, Arnold S. For instance, the book talks about how Field gave wide responsibilities to his customer service employees to make decisions normally made by supervisors or top executives. In our company, our employees also have the freedom to decide on account credits or whether a customer deserves a new order of greeting cards free of charge.

Field also felt that practicing conservative techniques – taking the time before deciding if an idea will be successful before discounting it – was sound for business. The Gallery Collection, having already established a successful line of all occasion cards decades before, spent quite a few years deciding whether to enter the business Christmas cards arena. Ultimately, the Christmas cards sales have exceeded all expectations and have become a major part of the company’s success story.

To promote employee loyalty, Field made it his credo to treat his employees with courtesy and respect at all times. Our owner and CEO, Mr. S, has done the same, which is one reason why so many employees are still with the company after 20 and 30 years of employment.

This particular chapter in McCain’s book illustrates only some of the attributes Marshall Field used to become the successful owner of the “largest department store in the world,” and which other businesspeople can subscribe to in order to become successful as well.