The Stationers Guild

While in Vermont for a wedding, I happened to be driving by a Church and noticed the following message posted on a large sign near the entrance:

Honk if you love Jesus!
Text while driving
if you want to meet him!

Regardless of your religious affiliation, the message is quite powerful.  Nevertheless, I am not sure it is a ringing endorsement to attend Church since the message implies that you can get closer to Jesus by texting while you drive than by sitting in a pew.

Now, I am all for clever word play to make your point, but the context or setting must be taken into consideration when crafting your message.   While the message at the Church entrance is certainly a  “public service” and “driver safety” message, many would consider it out of place at a House of Worship.

Similarly, “texting,” “writing” on someone’s Facebook Wall or “tweeting,” is very much different than sending a personal note on fine stationery.  For the most part, digital exchanges on Facebook and Twitter are public manifestations and lack the warmth and intimacy of a personal exchange of correspondence.

While the words or message may be identical in either medium, the handwritten note bestows a level of considered importance that most forms of digital communication simply can’t match.  A well-crafted note written on elegant stationery simply stands out from the seemingly endless clutter that daily piles up in our inbox or the ever-present demands to stay in touch with our social media friends.

One of the truly remarkable features of fine stationery is the craftsmanship and number of times that fine paper is touched by hand to produce the elegant stationery and invitations that grace important social events. Nowhere is this better exemplified than the craft of hand-bordering.

This year at the National Stationery Show, Crane & Co. will be proudly exhibiting this beautiful craft as Deb Larkin and Sally Rice will demonstrate their hand-bordering technique. I know from past experience visiting Crane’s facilities in Dalton, MA that this is a must-see exhibit and will likely be the signature highlight of the Show. This exhibit will run at the Crane booth from Sunday to Tuesday (May 16th through May 18th). Found below is a short video prepared by Crane historian, Peter Hopkins, demonstrating this beautiful art.

I encourage all stationers and buyers to visit the Crane & Co. booth and revel in this beautiful art form that is gradually being displaced by shoddy digital reproduction and full-bleed digital printing. See and feel the difference of real craftsmanship on 100% cotton paper.  It is well worth noting that Crane & Co. has been recycling for over 200 years.

Sheila P. May
Thérèse Saint Clair

After watching the second installment (actually the second hour) of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution on ABC last Friday, I finally reached rock-bottom on the John McEnroe “You can’t be serious scale.”    I had always that “reality” TV shows like The Kardashians and Jersey Shore were populated by third-rate actors that preferred to act stupid in front of a TV camera than serve pancakes in a diner.  After watching Jamie deal school administration officials and cooks in Huntington, West Virginia, I now realize that “being dumb” is no act and we: our parents, our institutions, the media and big-business are making it easier for this new generation of American to become “dumber.”  It is time to wakeup.

It is hard to imagine that while many people are applauding the passage of Heathcare Reform, our kids our eating themselves to death in our schools and homes. Am I missing something here? Shouldn’t we be “fixing” the toxic waste our kids eat day rather than enable a healthcare system to pay for their excesses. Seems pretty straight-forward to me.

Which brings me to stationery and the thank you note.  How can we expect people “write” or “use proper etiquette” when kids in school are only given a spoon to eat until the age of ten!  No wonder “finger-food” is so prevalent, the poor kids don’t even know how to use a knife and fork.   McNuggets are more more recognizable that chicken and our school kids can’t even identify ”real” vegetables.     I guess this is the ultimate triumph of form over substance.

In the Victorian era, calling cards were considered as a sign of social standing, today the calling card has returned for the ease of giving out information to someone you’ve just met or as use as a gift enclosure.  You can select an adorable baby calling card for your baby with designs ranging from modern and cute to abstract, or you can have the traditional engraved card for its timeless beauty.  No matter how you use the personalized calling cards you will be sure to give the “write” impression every time. 

Phyllis Langsdorf
The Write Impression

John Freeman, the editor of Granta magazine, has recently published a book called The Tyranny of E-mail: The Four-Thousand-Year Journey to Your Inbox.   After reading an excerpt from The Tyranny of E-mail, I immediately ordered it.  I suggest you do the same.     Found below is a brief promo video from Simon & Schuster in which Mr. Freeman briefly describes our inability as humans to keep pace with electronic communications and how our daily struggle “to keep up” is threatening to endanger the relationships we hold most sacred:  our spouse, our family, our relatives and our friends.  Boy, is this a wakeup call. 

Mr. Freeman comments that “In the past two decades, we have witnessed one of the greatest breakdowns of the barrier between our work and per­sonal lives since the notion of leisure time emerged in Victorian Britain as a result of the Industrial Age. It has put us under great physical and mental strain, altering our brain chemistry and daily needs. It has isolated us from the people with whom we live, siphoning us away from real-world places where we gather. It has encouraged flotillas of unnecessary jabbering, making it difficult to tell signal from noise. It has made it more difficult to read slowly and enjoy it, hastening the already declining rates of literacy. It has made it harder to listen and mean it, to be idle and not fidget.”  He goes on to state that “this is not a sustainable way to live. This lifestyle of being constantly on (online or on call) causes emotional and physical burnout, work­place meltdowns, and unhappiness.”

Mr. Freeman and others are now beginning to voice their reservations at what I have previously referred to as “fast-food” communication.    Indeed, we all need to reflect on the effects that these mostly beneficial advances in technology have on our society.   Mr. Freeman argues that “slow communications” will help “preserve our sanity, our families, our relationships and our ability to find happiness in a world where, in spite of the Internet, saying what we mean is as hard as it ever was. It starts with a simple instruction: Don’t send.”

As stationers, we are torch-bearers for the slow communications movement.   It is time for leaders in the industry to seize the initiative and speak out to protect this vitally important yet fragile industry which threatens to succumb to the mindless and incessant stream of chatter signifying nothing.  Organizers of the National Stationery Show, please reflect!

Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair

I was saddened to learn that the last bookstore in Laredo, Texas – a city with the population of 250,000 – closed its doors shortly before Christmas.  Timothy Egan, from the New York Times Opinionator, reports that this sad event coincides with the fact that on Christmas day, Amazon.com sold more digital book downloads than physical books.  Granted, most people don’t shop on Christmas day, but one can only speculate what this means for our society.  Timothy Egan argues that it “raises two issues: what the loss of bookstores does to communities and what the brave new publishing world will mean to authors and readers.”   I believe that Mr. Egan would concur with Thomas Jefferson who in 1815 wrote to John Adams that  “I cannot live in a world without books.”

If this is the fate that lies ahead for bookstores, what does it foretell for independent stationers whose business is already under assault by dot.com companies masquerading as stationery companies; suppliers who now sell directly to consumers online; and event organizers for the National Stationery Show who now see social networking as their savior for declining attendance?  I wish  the “true” leaders of the stationery industry step up and say “In the best interests of the consumer, the craftspeople and designers we are proud to sponsor, and the many fine stationers who merchandize our products professionally, we do not intend to compromise our standards of excellence.”  Unfortunately, I suspect this will not happen anytime too soon.

The sad reality is that the true craftsmanship that goes into making fine papers and the labor of love that goes into creating exquiste designs and new font styles has been usurped by digital mercenaries flogging vastly inferior products to an unsuspecting public that assume Google search results will point them in the direction of fine stationery.  Indeed, there are many printing companies now selling their wares to the public who can’t even print in a straight line.  In fact, I recently came across a vendor introducing a new line of letterpress stationery when she couldn’t even spell stationary correctly.  She seemed angry when I suggested that it might help her sales if she could spell the product properly. 

I know it may seem silly to suggest it, but wouldn’t it be nice if “quality” rather than “quantity” were the mantra of the National Stationery Show.    Or perhaps, “correspondence” rather than “tweeting” or “communication” rather than “promotion.”  It might be a far smaller show, but dealers and vendors would rejoice and, the consumer, would most certainly begin to realize that paper is not stationery.

Richard W. May
Founding Member Stationers Guild

I came across an interesting article in today’s New York Times by Sam Roberts with the intriguing title that “More Men Marrying Better Educated, Wealthier Wives.”   The gist of the article suggests that men who have sought marriage “from the standpoint of physical and mental well being”  now realize that a better-educated partner can also contribute to their “economic well-being.”   While this might be seen as a major evolutionary break-through in male maturity and self-realization,  the “alpha female” (The Knot’s characterization of the upwardly mobile female) is unlikely to compromise her rigorous approval standards.  One anonymous textile executive quoted in the article reportedly queries bar slugs and first dates with “Do you have a passport and a library card?”  Gosh, that will certainly weed out the field of eligible males rather quickly and so much for “Love at first sight!”

As I have no skin in the game (married to a far smarter woman and breadwinner -a fact which she reminds me of each day), I am free to offer this advice to men whose emotional IQ is higher than their testosterone level:  Buy engraved stationery and seek out a woman with an expensive pen.   I might add that Crane & Co. and William Arthur have sensational personalized stationery promotions going on right now, so you can buy in cheap and score big with a personalized note to the woman of your dreams who is currently involved in an unhealthy relationship with her Blackberry.   Can you imagine her reaction when she receives your hand-written note on engraved stationery?   Her Facebook “friends” and “Twits” on Twitter will simply fade into oblivion proving decisively that the pen is mightier than texting. 

If you need help selecting your stationery, please enter your Zip code or City and State in the Search Bar in the right hand corner to locate a qualified stationery store in your neighborhood.   If, however, you are looking for a woman with the “right”  fountain pen, might I suggest a limited edition Omas Château Lafite Rothschild fountain pen with a sterling silver nib which retails for $1,750.  I ordered the Chateau Lafitite pen for a woman as a birthday gift to the man of her dream’s whose passions were limited edition pens and French wine.  Apparently, his passions didn’t extend to the woman in question and I still have the Omas pen.  If your bride-to-be is looking for a pen to ink the relationship, tell her I have a great deal for her at Thérèse Saint Clair.

Chateau Lafite Fountain Pen

Richard May
Therese Saint Clair

I don’t like to quote myself since it appears – and is – self-serving, but I recently published an article called “It’s not worth the paper it’s printed on – The lost art of fine stationery.”   The tongue-in-cheek article seeks to apply a monetary value to correspondence using engraved stationery to determine if it is any more relevant than the new forms of social correspondence such as Twitter and text-messaging.

Clearly, the conscious act of  visiting a stationery store to design your own personal stationery demonstrates a level of commitment to a  meaningful form of communication.  I think it is fair to say that words exchanged in writing tend to leave more of a lasting impression than a phone conversation.   While both may accomplish the same objective, the simple act of taking the time to write a brief note resonates on a more personal level.

I recently learned that an industry research study (I did not actually read the report) had concluded that 86% of people interviewed still considered “paper” correspondence to be a more effective form of communication.  More than that, the trend is holding steady suggesting that text messaging and social media sites may not be making as much headway as once suspected.

Certainly, today’s New York Times article “Buying, Selling and Twittering All the Way“  suggests that the Twitter model has been seriously compromised by Big Business.  Twitter’s tag line of “What are you doing?” now seems to have been overtaken by paid mercenaries building “brand awareness” for their employer.  According to the article, Greg Ahearn of Toys “R” Us stated that Twitter is “a way people can stay connected with the brand in a way they’ve never been able to before.”   Now, I can’t really understand why people would want to stay connected to a brand (even Toys “R” Us), but I am absolutely convinced that the Big Business footprint in Twitter will drive their audience to greener pastures.  Big Business simply doesn’t get it:  Twitter is about people, Twitter is not a medium for aggressively selling or creating brand awareness!

I am reassured that people still value the exchange of social correspondence:  It is a habit and art form well worth preserving.

Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair

Sean Bradley, the passionate store manager of Tabula Rasa Social Stationers, has some very good advice on the proper way to respond to an “e-vite.”  In an open letter which clearly articulates the differences between custom invitations and fast-food e-vites, Sean recommends that you “Click on delete and report as Spam.”  I’m not sure Sean goes far enough.

In a quick impromptu survey of other Guild members, most concurred with Sean’s recommendation but some went a step further.  Here is a just a short list of some of their comments:

1. How about a $25 gift certificate to attend an Emily Post webinar on etiquette?
2. How about an e-RSVP which is cc’d to all of your Twitter followers inviting them to crash the party?
3. Post the e-vite  on eBay and see if you can get someone silly enough to bid for it.  (P.S.,why didn’t I think of that one?)
4. Send an e-apology saying that you would gladly participate vicariously if the party was recorded and posted on YouTube.
5. Block the sender.
6. Forward the e-vite to David Letterman to see if makes his Top 10 List of Tacky e-vites.
7. Change the Google map place listing for the party.
8. Take a deep breath and send your “friend” a polite note on personalized stationery declining the e-vite.  (P.S. If you want to push the envelope, include a $25 gift certificate for personalized stationery).
9. Kindly decline the invitation but offer to pipe-in music from your  iPod  through a PodCast.
10. Offer to make a cameo appearance by video  posted on YouTube.

I guess there is a time and a place for everything, but quite frankly I have never found the time for an e-vite nor do I expect to anytime soon.  Once we strip the formality and personal touch from the way we communicate with each other the importance of the occasion begins to lose its relevance and interest.  Thank you, Sean, for sharing your letter with us.