The Stationers Guild

As readers of the Stationers Guild News are aware, the stationery world was rocked earlier this year when Sweet Pea Designs and Printswell decided to part ways after many years of collaboration.  I am pleased to report that both companies were exhibiting at the National Stationery Show and geared up for what we all hope will be an exciting year. 

I had a long chat with Ralph Dewberry, the CEO of Printswell, regarding the “new” configuration of the company.  Printswell debuted at the Stationery Show with three active lines and an additional four that will be coming on line by September:

• Stacy Claire Boyd
• KimPrints Paper & Gifts
• Rosanne Beck Collections (formerly Cross-My-Heart)
• Starfish Art
• Putnam House
• Prints Charming Papers
• PicMe Prints

Printswell provides the printing and fulfillment services for these seven product lines.  Using a state-of-the-art Indigo printer, Mr. Dewberry seemed confident that he would be able to meet the expected demand of a vibrant holiday season.   With a network of over 2,000 dealers, Printswell is now in a position to begin fulfilling orders (both Internet and through the Albums) that had been disrupted when Printswell was no longer authorized to use Sweet Pea’s designs.  Dealers were encouraged to order albums at the Printswell booth and, in fact, this offer has been extended until June 30th for those who were not able to take advantage of this offer in May.

Many stationers have used the Printswell affiliate program website to leverage their online sales.  Certainly, the revamped website looks poised to help reanimate sales.  Those with questions on Printswell’s affiliate program should contact Rick Peyton, the Fullfillment Coordinator.

One would have thought that the New York Times would have had the good sense to say something positive about the National Stationery Show, but clearly it looks like they are short-staffed and had to assign a rookie reporter from the crime beat to cover the show.  In a bizarre and senseless piece of “reporting” that seems to have been crafted in an Irish pub, NYT reporter Corey Kilgannon  focused on the case of the purloined letter and the scatological humor of one award recipient as the defining moments of his Javits Center experience. 

Perhaps Kilgannon is trying his hand (I assume Corey is a male) at blogging rather than journalism since his days at the New York Times are probably numbered if this is the best he can do.    It is no wonder that NYT’s readership is declining with Kilgannon missing everything that it is relevant to focus on sensationalist tidbits that may appeal to his small base of followers on Twitter.  If this is all the news the New York Times sees “fit to print” then the editor has obviously had a bad hair day.  Pitiful and sad.

Richard W. May
Thérèse Saint Clair

This week at the National Stationery Show (“NSS”) a colleague of mine told me that the Editor of Get Married, an online wedding website, was going to visit a bricks-and-mortar stationery store and find out what actually goes on when someone seeks advice on wedding invitations.  I was intrigued:  gosh, will a “real world” experience get in the way of shamelessly promoting the same monotonous and tedious designs from online resellers?  Sceptical, but willing to give Get Married the benefit of the doubt, I trekked over to their booth at the back of Javits Center to see if they had made any relevant  improvements to their website.

I came across an enthusiastic young woman explaining the benefits of advertising on Get Married to two stationers.  As they were wrapping up, I jumped in and asked:  Will I be able to find a “real” stationery store on your website?    Using Connecticut as an example (my home state), I asked to see if they had any stores listed under invitations?

As I suspected, the only “local” stores you can find are “national” online resellers.    I think most people are savvy enough to know the difference between a business that sells “nationally” online and a local store, why can’t Get Married see the difference?    Despite the fact that wedding sites like The Knot, Martha Stewart Wedding and Get Married like to hype the local shopping experience, local relevance is determined solely by how much advertising dollars you are prepared to spend to “buy” local space. 

I explained to the young salesperson, that I considered this to be a deceptive promotion and it was causing people searching for local resources to move away from wedding portals.  She promised to bring this to the attention of her superiors.   Fortunately, I believe that mobile search will eventually kill these relics of self-promotion and deceptive claims whose primary interests are selling advertising and generating affiliate income.  Information from these websites is little more than promtional hype.  Let the buyer beware.

If you are an independent stationer thinking you will benefit from these websites, think again.  The money you spend on online marketing is far better spent promoting your own website and engaging in local search optimization. 

Richard W. May
Thérèse Saint Clair

National Stationery Show (“NSS”) organizers deserve a hardy pat on the back for arranging the fascinating seminar:  Navigating the Journey from the 2D to 3D World.  The Saturday (May 15th) seminar provided considerable analysis and discussion of the rapidly changing patterns in social communication and its impact on the stationery industry.   It is the first time that I can recall that the “Elephant in the Room” (i.e. online communications) has ever been discussed in a public forum at the NSS.  It was a most timely and useful wake-up call for the stationery industry.

The seminar was organized into three distinct segments.  The first was  by Keynote speaker Paco Underhill of Envirosell who gave a charming and insightful presentation on emerging trends in consumer behavior and how savvy retailers should position their businesses to prosper.   Mr. Underhill provided many useful suggestions on how store-owners might want to creatively engage their clients through better communication and improved store design.  I intend to post a more detailed summary of Mr. Underhill’s comments at a later time. 

The more controversial and unsettling discussions took place later.  The first panel was hosted by Adam Glassman, Creative Director of O. The Oprah Magazine to discuss “Today – The Issues, Solutions and the Next 5 Years.”   Dan Rubinstein, Editor-in-Chief of Surface Magazine, hosted the second panel focusing on “Connecting with tomorrow’s customer and the one 10 years from now.”    While the first panel sought to address some of the unsettling issues facing bricks-and-mortar stationers as their suppliers turn to the Internet to deliver stationery products to the end-user, the second panel sought to project current behavior patterns of children 7 to 12 years old and teenagers into future purchasing patterns.  At one time, I felt that I just might have to turn my stationery store into an App Store for the iPhone (App is short for Application which is down-loadable software).

Judging from the number of faces in people’s hands at the end of the presentation, you would have thought that Armageddon had arrived.  Both discussion moderators deserve praise since they were serving up hard-ball questions to the panelists.  I suspect that most everyone who attended the discussion had a slightly different interpretation or spin on the information they were receiving.  Some vendors mentioned to me that it was “quite frightening” while others argued that it was “much ado about nothing.”   I suspect this was false bravado for, most certainly, there is cause for concern.

One of the panelists argued persuasively that it was great to to use the new technology  to schedule birthdays, anniversaries and other milestone events online and have “personalized” greeting cards sent out either digitally or by snail mail.  I suspect that many people feel that this is perfectly rational behavior.   When people regard communication as little more than an online scheduling exercise, the battle is largely lost.   For this panelist, the interpersonal relationships with people he should care most for has now simply been reduced to a programming event.  Frankly, this is a world where personal correspondence has little perceived value other than the satisfaction one gets from “mission completed.”

Violet Brandwein, Senior Buyer Kate’s Paperie, commented that “as online and traditional distribution channels become blurred, bricks-and-mortar dealers need to forge a new relationship with their vendors to coexist and prosper.”  There is no question that distribution channels have turned into what Paco Underhill refers to as a “bar fight” where bricks-and-mortar dealers, online resellers and suppliers of fine papers are elbowing each other to reach the consumer with the “best package.”  Continued friction among distribution channels within the industry will necessarily lead to consequences that are not good for the industry as a whole.

As I have stated on many occasions, unless leaders in the industry step up and take action which may now seem counter-intuitive, the battle is lost.  For instance (as one example), I was pleased to learn that Jane Boatman Geller pulled her designs from Shutterfly (not SnapFish as previously reported) since she felt it was not fair to her dealers and distorted the way she wished her line to be represented.  This is a courageous decision with the economy being what it is.  Companies that continue to overexpose their lines through multiple distribution channels will diminish the value of their brands. 

Dealers are remiss in expecting the digital revolution to turn on itself.  Here again, all bricks-and-mortar stores who hope to stay in business, must now take decisive action to engage the digital consumer in their own medium.  Most consumers want to shop locally:  let’s make sure that they can find your store.

Once again, congratulations to the organizers of the National Stationery Show for putting together this great series of informative discussion groups. 

Richard W. May
Founding Member Stationers Guild

Vanessa Redgrave is my favorite actress and I have had a crush on her since the mid-60s when I saw her perform opposite David Warner in Morgan.    I make it a point of seeing every film she is in and when asked to see a sneak preview of Letters to Juliet (the Juliet of Romeo and Juliet fame) on Mother’s Day, how could I resist?

Now some might argue that Letters to Juliet  is a chick-flick, but any film set in Verona, Siena and the beautiful landscape of Tuscany can’t be all that bad.   With the exception of the dewey-eyed Vanessa and a cameo appearance by Franco Nero, most of the performances were Hollywood-lite but who cares as long as there is a happy ending.  I certainly didn’t.

The plot – if you can call it that – revolves around a young American girl on a pre-honeymoon trip with her boarish fiance.  While touring Verona, she notices many young women posting letters on the wall underneath Juliet’s balcony.   In much the same way people write to Ann Landers, women of all ages  seek advice from Juliet on “matters of the heart” and appear daily to blanket the wall with their letters.  While some may find this behavior somewhat bizarre since Juliet  has been dead for over 500 years and was only 13 years old when she stabbed herself with Romeo’s dagger, I find the ritual charming.

Each day at dusk the self-appointed secretaries of Juliet take down the letters and retire to a nearby palazzo to answer these letters on behalf of Juliet.  These lovely ladies give hope to these heart-stricken women by sending a hand-written note, no doubt written on Juliet’s engraved stationery.  In fact, the young American woman finds a letter hidden behind a stone written 50 years earlier by Vanessa who asks for Juliet’s advice on whether to settle for a conventional English marriage or run off with a young Italian man with whom she was passionately in love.  I won’t spill any further details.

Now imagine if this lovely ritual could occur in today’s digital society.  I suppose one could Tweet Juliet or become a Facebook Fan if Juliet has a “Fan” or “Like” Page, but it hardly seems the same compared to penning a letter in a small courtyard under the most famous balcony in the world.  I guess today’s techies could leave behind a RW CD or, perhaps, a USB port under the balcony in the hope that some “New Age” secretary would would care enough to send an e-mail.  Alas, I think not.  But imagine how rich our lives would be if a perfect stranger - in the interests of “love” – would simply pen a note and let you know they hear you and wish you well. 

Oh, it’s only a film.  We have little time for romance and passion in today’s world.  How sad.

Richard May
Thérèse Saint Clair

I was drawn to a recent article in Stationery Trends Magazine by editor Sarah Schwartz soliciting ideas from magazine subscribers on ideas to keep stationery relevant.   This is a topic that has preoccupied me for several years and I have written about it extensively on the Stationers Guild Blog.   While many fine suggestions and ideas surfaced in the article, I consider most of the suggestions to be wishful thinking with little coherent basis for taking collective action to save the stationery industry.  This may seem a bit harsh, but stationery will continue to fade into oblivion until we honestly face the enemy and take action. 

The enemy is apathy, indifference, getting mad rather than taking action, and the widespread belief that somehow people will eventually see the benefit of written correspondence.   I am reminded by that bumper sticker, “Don’t get mad, get even!”  To do so, each and everyone of us who has a stake in the stationery industry should step up to the plate and take action (sorry for the baseball analogy).  The time for wringing our hands is over.  The time for celebrating bad taste and shoddy designs is over.  The time for tolerating bad etiquette is over.   It’s in our hands to change the industry if we act responsibly and take decisive action.  Waiting for someone else to take the lead is simply wishful thinking.

When I say that the enemy is apathy, what do I mean?  Apathy is a storefront owner  who does not have a website, a Facebook and a Twitter account and does not post blog articles at least three times a week.  Apathy is a storefront owner who still advertises in the Yellow Pages.  Apathy is a storefront owner who has not claimed their business on Google, Yahoo and Bing.  Apathy is a storefront owner with a website who has not asked for advice on how to optimize their site for local search.  Apathy is a storefront owner who does not insist that all vendors whose lines they represent should have an affiliate program.   I could go on, but unless store owners are willing to quickly engage in Internet marketing, the battle is largely lost. 

Vendors too are running scared and, indeed, the stakes couldn’t be higher.  The Stationers Guild has long argued that once the “experienced” storefront stationer disappears there will be no one left to explain their products and the ultimate battle for brand awareness will be determined by price.  Brand awareness on the Internet is determined by advertising – not the slick ad in Martha Stewart Weddings, but by thousands of independent bloggers, social media experts and affiliate websites that have been created solely for the purpose of earning “click revenue”  for directing uninformed consumers to an online website.  How ironic is it that Wedding Paper Divas is “Numero Uno” for “wedding invitations” and they don’t even print a scrap of paper.  Not only that, many of our own vendors sell to Wedding Paper Divas and FineStationery.com simply out of fear that they may be missing market share.   There is one sure economic fact:  Unlimited supply of product distributed through unlimited distribution channels will certainly destroy the industry.

Unless leaders in the industry take clear and compelling action on how they intend to distribute their product, the battle is lost.  This is one case where you can’t “have your cake and eat it too.”  Similarly, storefront dealers must engage the Internet and develop an alternative voice to the insipid sales pitches from online retailers and their parasitic mouth-pieces.  All is not lost, but it soon will be unless we decide to make this battle personal. 

Richard W. May
Founding Member Stationers Guild

Last night we attended a concert in Bedford, NY entitled “Music and the Court of France from Louis XIV to Napoleon.”  This lovely concert was held in The Fellowship Hall of St. Matthew’s Church and featured various arrangements by French and Italian composers of the period and an unusual version of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (The Eroica).  Beethoven had originally called this the Bonaparte symphony, but later changed it to “The Eroica” when Napoleon appointed himself Emperor. 

What was unusual, was that Beethoven’s 3rd was performed by a quartet based on arrangement written by one of Beethoven’s students, Ferdinand Ries in 1810.  This remarkable arrangement was discovered in Finland by cellist James Wilson, who played in the quartet.   Anthony Newman, pianist and Music Director, suggested that it just might be the first time this arrangement was played in the United States.   If so, we were privileged to hear it.

I suppose you are wondering what The Eroica and wedding invitations have in common.  Frankly, not a lot.  Nevertheless, every time I see a well-crafted wedding invitation it seems like I am hearing or better yet seeing a new variation of a Symphony.   In the eight years of working with bridal couples designing wedding invitations for their special day, I cannot recall two being  identical.  Font styles will change, ink colors are different and there are many other variations which make each individual invitation unlike any other.    Designers are pushing the edge in create beautiful new designs on hand-made papers where ink colors resonate using letterpress and engraved printing.

Do yourself a favor and drop into a stationery store in your neighborhood and see and feel the exciting new designs in wedding invitations and stationery.  “Feeling is believing,” is the motto of a new generation of consumers who eschew the Internet and are rediscovering the beauty of personal correspondence.

Sheila P. May
Thérèse Saint Clair

One of my special treats at the National Stationery Show is to visit the Saturn Press booth and see their old-fashioned designs on letterpress greeting cards.  It is a welcome relief to see something done in good taste with a printing process that brings back memories of a time when craft and tradition were still appreciated.  The Stationery Show has changed a lot in recent years, but Saturn Press confidently sticks to their traditions.  I am most happy that they have chosen to do so!  Sadly, Saturn Press will not be exhibiting this year and I for one will miss them.

Saturn Press was established in 1986 by designer Jane Goodrich and her printer James van Pernis.  Based in Swan’s Island, Maine near Bar Harbor, Jane had set about acquiring “letterpress stuff” from typesetters and printing companies that were “modernizing.”   With the simple premise that quality should never be compromised for expediency, Jane and James used their heavy presses to create a tactile impression that modern printing cannot duplicate.   Their client “saw something authentic, they saw something real.”

Now some 25 years pioneering a resurgence in letterpress printing, Jane and James (humorously referring to themselves as the “Grandpa and Grandma of Letterpress”) note that “we had no idea we’d be the link between the retiring generation of printers who rarely printed beyond black ink, to the new generation of designer-printers, who cherish the beauty only letterpress can create.  Let the craftsmanship continue!”

Saturn Press does not have a website or even an email address.  Honestly, who would want one after experiencing the beautiful scenery and light of the Maine coast.   In their most recent catalogue which contains beautiful samples of their greeting cards, bookplates and calling cards, they remark “Shopping the Internet is like standing beneath Niagara Falls with a teaspoon in order to get a sip of water.”  How true!

They continue with their letter of introduction to their new catalogue:  “So enjoy the catalog, comfortably knowing the only teaspoon you will require is the one needed to stir your tea or coffee, and the pages will graciously accommodate any spills.  In perusing our offerings you may find that your cup runneth over, but we guarantee you won’t leave feeling all wet.”  How gracious and reassuring.

We have been buying Saturn Press cards for years and will continue to do so.  My husband compares it to an “out-of-body experience” or “time-warp” when you run across their lovely greeting cards.  To appease my husband, we always buy six boxes of his “favorite” holiday greeting card (#0565 Juncos) which has two birds sitting on a leafless branch with the following quote by Rainer Maria Rilke, “And now let us welcome the new year, full of things that have never been.”

I had planned to include a few images in this Blog post, but realize that digital impressions do not do justice to the beautiful creations of Saturn Press.  Thank you Jane and Jim for preserving the craftsmanship and beauty of fine paper and printing.

Sheila P. May
Thérèse Saint Clair

Wells & Drew offers some clear and useful advice on the importance of business stationery.   In this fast-moving world of digital communications, companies invest hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote their brand in cyberspace.  In many cases, it is wasted expense dollars chasing wasted expense dollars as companies engage Twitter and Facebook, promotional news releases, email marketing campaigns, link-building and SEO (search engine optimization) strategies to outspend their competitors to drive people to their website.    Commonly referred to as ”keeping up with the Joneses,” many companies are now finding that a relic from times past often has more of an impact on brand awareness than keyword campaigns:  business stationery.

Often neglected in this process to gain digital supremacy is the company’s own business stationery.   As we have written on numerous occasions, a company’s business card and letterhead stationery often says more about a company than its Google page placement.   Well-crafted designs, printed on high-quality paper convey an impression of substance and respectability that no amount of digital spin can ever aspire to replicate.

As a company that will soon be celebrating their 155th anniversary, we applaud Wells & Drew for continuing to make fine stationery the “right” way.  For those interested in learning the marketing secrets of top legal firms, please request Wells & Drew informative brochure.    For those interested in learning more about business stationery, please consult the Stationers Guild FAQ on business stationery, or drop into a qualified stationery store in your neighborhood.

I had known it was coming, but didn’t know it was already here:  Twitterature: The World’s Greatest Books in Twenty Tweets or Less.  Twitterature “\’twi-ta-ra-chúr\ n: amalgamation of ‘twitter’ and ‘literature’; humorous reworkings of literary classics for the twenty-first-century intellect, in digestible portions of 20 tweets or fewer.”

Written by two University of Chicago students (Alexander Aciman and Emmett Rensin),  Twitterature: The World’s Greatest Books in Twenty Tweets or Less humorously twitterize just under 100 great works of literature into 20 or less tweets.    Twitterature  is published by Penguin Press and I do hope this great publisher won’t go the way of the Dodo with Kindle rearing its ugly head.

According to the authors, they distilled the Great Books “into the voice of Twitter – the social networking tool that with its limit of 140 characters a post (including spaces) has refined to its purest form the instant-publishing, short-attention-span, all-digital-all-the-time, self-important age of info-deluge.”

Clearly, this is no small feat, particularly when college kids seem to spend most of their free-time binge-drinking rather than contributing to our understanding of Great Literature.  Clearly these aspiring writers were out having a little literary fun, but it is surprising that Penguin would publish it.   Nevertheless, why should I be surprised anymore when The Library of Congress (yes, our Library of Congress!) has seen fit to archive every Tweet since 2006!  Have we gone mad?  I read in the New York Times that future historians are salivating at the thought of having uncensored and instantaneous reactions to daily events.  Isn’t that what reality TV is for?

Now there are a few who will see the humor in Twitterature and, perhaps, thumb through the book at the library or bookstore, but I suspect that many “Twits” will use it in much the same way that my generation used Cliff Notes.   One in four adults in the United States does not even read one book in a year and the average is only four!  Really, who can compete with Lady Gaga, Jersey Shore and the Kardashians for enlightened commentary on today’s pressing moral issues?  A further question:  Will digital media improve literacy?  I suspect not, and Jaron Lanier, who wrote You are not a Gadget, would most likely agree.

Richard W. May
Founding Member Stationers Guild