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The Design Center / Creative Networking / July "Patriotic" / August "Education" /   Sept/Oct: "Font Festival"

Have you entered yet? Enter this month's door prize drawing... there's always a new promotion next month! We invite your comments

November: Designing Holidays

...about unique, creative greeting cards

During October we invited readers of the Design Cafe list and DTG to write in and relate a comment or suggestion relating to creative designs for the holidays. More specifically:

3 Dimensional Folding Projects

Bill writes:
      "Architectural origami is a paper art which brings delightful response to the recipient of a holiday card. Unexpectedly the 2 dimensional paper form becomes 3 dimensional when the recipient opens the card. I have done many cards using architectural origami for christmas and birthdays. I always enjoy cutting the folds and seeing the flat art become transformed after a little folding."
[END QUOTE] Bill is a design professional from Huntsville, AL Yahama Papercrafts

DTG Comments: Bill is the entry that clued us in to the Yamaha Motor Co. papercraft web site that we feature in this month's "Fantastic Folds" article.

Greetings that Greet Thrice

Andrea writes:
      "The most clever holiday card I ever made and sent out was a set of 3 cards with simple illustrations on them. The illustrations were created in Adobe Illustrator and then photocopied them onto textured recycled card stock. I ordered matching envelopes for the cards and then sent the 3 cards with envelopes out to clients and potential clients in a bigger matching envelope.
      Inside, the little package of cards and envelopes was secured with a thin band of paper and on the paper was printed "Share the Joy of the Season". Clients then used my cards as holiday cards of their own.
      I had my name and telephone number printed on the back of the cards and it was a very successful marketing campaign! Not only did I receive great feedback from my clients (some of them asked to purchase more cards for themselves) but I also received calls from new clients wanting me to come and meet with them. A truly joyful seasonal idea!
      The best holiday promotion I ever received was many years ago. It was a candy cane coat hanger (real size!). It came in a rectangular shaped box and was, in fact, an invitation to come to a party at a design firm. You had the option of bringing your own hanger or eating it along the way.
* Andrea uses a Macintosh, teaching typography at a community college. Her current favourite software is illustrator, flash and dreamweaver -- favourite subject is anything type related.
[END QUOTE] Andrea is a design professional from Ottawa, Ontario

Editor's note: This is the very same promotion we held for Showker Graphic Arts & Design back in the early 1980's -- except ours was all screen printed in silver metallic inks on 12-point Warren Chrome-Kote cover stock. There were four designs, one designed by each of the designers at SGA&D -- including Lance Foster's now-famous "Sandy Claws" with a crab dressed like Santa. Two cards of each design were included along with envelopes; packaged in a cross-folding ("T") gift box, also screen printed in silver, which the designers hand die-cut for mailing. As Andrea says, it was a superb promotion because of the "pass-along" benefits of encouraging clients to send cards with our promo printed on the backs!

Holiday-themed games make Donations

Angela writes:
      "The most memorable holiday promotion was one which directed recipients to a Web site to play a holiday-themed game. Every time you played the game, the company responsible for the promotion made a donation to a local non-profit of the player's choice. Those with the top ten highest scores also received a prize. I use a Macintosh with Adobe InDesign"
[END QUOTE] Angela is a business professional from Marietta, GA

Love Letters... in a bottle

Lauren writes:
      "The best card that I ever recieved was a bottle from my friend - with a letter written from his heart. It had scented petals in it - with little tiles that had words of love on each one. It also had little heart tiles inbetween the petals of flowers. It is timeless and it was made with love. I use Windows XP Professional and Adobe Photoshop CS Suite"
[END QUOTE] Lauren is a graphic Illustrator from Toms River, NJ

Best time to make an impression

As we've said each and every November since 1989, the best time to get out there and launch creative promotions is during the holidays. Nothing beats spreading good cheers and kind words while people are in the mood. There are thousands of good ideas for promotions -- send us yours throughout the year.

We invite your comment.

Now, back to Creative Networking, or The Design Center Lobby

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