The Stationers Guild

A popular definition of “true freedom”  is when the kids leave home and the dogs die.  I’m not sure I agree with this definition because I miss my dogs – actually they were the kid’s dogs that I was obliged to look after.  True freedom or not, my mind turns to blogging to occupy my free time.   I will write about most anything that strikes my fancy, but mostly I write about stationery and the changing landscape of American towns brought about the digital revolution.

As a compulsive blogger, I was therefore pleased to see the launch of Blog Boutique at the National Stationery Show.  Blog Boutique is a blogging resource for time-pressed store owners who want to get their message out about fine stationery and custom imvitations.  Blog Boutique is the idea of the talented Holly Bretschneider, the owner of Salutations in Chapel Hill and Charlotte, NC.

Beginning on June 15th, Blog Boutique will offer some 150 articles complete with beautiful images that subscribers may use as articles on their own blogs.  I understand that Blog Boutique will be adding some 50 articles a month and paid subscribers can search the database for relevant articles to support their own marketing and informational campaigns.  In effect, it works much like a syndicated news service to save store owners the agony and grind of “creating” original content to keep one’s blog relevant.

The basic program permits the subscriber to download up to 4 articles a month for $40 or $10 an article.    This is a reasonable price to pay for original content and if you upgrade to the Plus or Ultimate subscription programs you may download more articles and the price per article becomes even less expensive.

Holly is on to a great concept:  Leading stationers in the United States need to write  frequently and passionately about the industry we love.  For those that already have blogs, Blog Boutique might be a useful resource to share the heavy lifting.    Those that are thinking about establishing a blog should carefully consider their responsibilities.  At minimum, a new blog requires at least 3 articles posted a week to remain relevant.  Unless you are willing to make that commitment, it is better not to start in the first place.

One of the issues that I always consider in publishing the same article on multiple websites is the issue of duplicate content.  Google doesn’t like to “see” the same information published in multiple websites.  Since the purpose of Blog Boutique is not to deceive the search engines, Holly believes that duplicate content is not an issue if articles are used to support good blogging habits. She forwarded an article that addressed the subject of duplicate content as it pertains to syndicated news articles.   In any event, I wouldn’t rely entirely on Blog Boutique for my Blog and would certainly pen a few articles of your own.  Also, I would suggest that you change the title and perhaps modify the first sentence of the article to give it a more personal touch.

Well done Holly!  Fellow stationers, let’s get blogging!

Richard W. May
Thérèse Saint Clair

Just received an announcement that Jamie Ostrow has resurfaced and has set up shop in East Hampton, New York.  While her website in not yet up, Jamie has contacted many of her dealers to encourage them to order her new letterpress invitation album and stationery album.  Her holiday album is also available and we understand that she is also working on a Wedding Invitation Album. 

According to Jamie, she will be manufacturing on premises “so that we can control all phases of productions, from order taking through shipping.  Some of you know that for the last several years, we relied on outside printers, now we’re back on our own presses.”

The biggest change Jamie’s loyal customers will notice is that Jamie Ostrow has now moved to letterpress rather than engraving.  While her sharp design, contemporary font styles and very clever wording remain, letterpress will give her  invitations, stationery and holiday cards a “softer” edge.  Personally, I think her clients will be pleased. 

If you are interested in receiving more information about the Jamie Ostrow line, please email Jamie at jamie@jamieostrow.com

Richard W. May

The news clip below highlights one of the major advantages of shopping online for stationery and custom invitations:  No need to get dressed up for the big occasion.

In fact, if you are shopping online, you can do so in your pajamas, nightgown or – for that matter – buck naked.  Just make sure your have your credit card handy, but perhaps you are using Google Checkout or Paypal to facilitate the sale.

As more shoppers embrace the convenience of shopping online,  even fewer consider the limitations of the online shopping experience.  It is one thing to download a book on Kindle or buy an iPhone, but quite another to buy “fresh” vegetables or “fine” stationery.  In the case of the Kindle or an iPhone, it is a narrowly defined “gadget” or “device” which may be available in several different colors or memory capacity, but all of those characteristics are narrowly determined by the seller.

Buying “fresh” vegetables or “fine” stationery is quite another matter altogether.   You can’t see “fresh” on the Internet; nor can you see or feel ”fine” stationery.  Paper is as much a tactile experience as a visual experience and, frankly, digital limitations of the Internet do not allow one to capture the color and design subtleties of “real” stationery or custom invitations. 

Where extensive customization is involved it is best to get dressed up and visit your local stationer to see what “real” paper looks like.  Many online dealers spend thousands of dollars in promotional online advertising to con you into thinking you are getting a “beautiful”  wedding invitation or “stunning” stationery.   If it sounds to good to be true, it probably isn’t.  Trust your senses: all five of them!  A dose of common sense also has been known to help.

The Internet is great for purchasing products with defined characteristics.  Once you begin to introduce customization into the purchasing decision or are faced with choices that require a value judgment or cause the forgotten senses (smell and feel) to be engaged, it is wise to consider shopping the old-fashioned way.

Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair

The following message was received from Kim Kreis of Sweet Pea Designs:

“Please go to www.sweetpeadesigns.com to download a dealer application form.  Email  to info@sweetpeadesigns.com or fax to 1.205.991.9246.  Applications must be filled out completely and all requested information received to be considered as a future dealer.”

Richard May
Founding Member Stationers Guild

Writing regularly about stationery and invitations trends in the US has necessarily led me into different venues of “Americana.”  Sadly, the decline of good taste, etiquette and meaningful interpersonal relationships has coincided with an explosion in new technologies which many have argued would usher in some ill-defined “golden era.”   While I am not one to wax nostalgic about the “good old days,” I am deeply troubled by what I see on the horizon and the apparent disconnect from simply befriending one’s neighbor to rushing head-long to embrace social media avatars or the latest fad.

This sense of concern received another jolt this week when I watched the introduction to Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.  Jamie, an accomplished British chef, decides to change eating habits in the United States.  In a TV series that begins to air on Friday, March 26th on ABC, Jamie descends on Huntington, West Virginia recently labelled as the “unhealthiest city in America” to change the eating habits of this town of 50,000.  If you can stomach it, I strongly suggest that you watch this program (see video clip below) to see how we are systematically killing our kids with fast-food.  

While Jamie’s corageous attempt to teach us colonials a few things about eating wisely is certainly disturbing on an emotional level, you can’t help but be shaken by the apathy, silly institutional barriers and general self-satisfied smugness which threatens the well-being of a new generation of Americans.

It is tough to draw meaningful parallels between “tweets” signifying nothing and school menus, but as our attention span grows shorter in pursuit of instant gratification, we lose sight of a far more meaningful and productive way of living. It is difficult to believe that Jamie Oliver has more sense of responsibility for the fate of these young kids than most of the parents, school administrators and talk-show pundits in Huntington. If you are not moved by this program, I join Jamie in saying “Shame on you!”

Like other stationery dealers, Sheila and I have been somewhat perplexed and not a little put-out that Printswell will no longer distribute the Sweet Pea line of stationery, invitations and announcements.  Shortly after we received this information, we contacted Printswell and were informed that Sweet Pea Designs had ended their contractual arrangements with Printswell and that Sweet Pea Designs (album and online designs) could no longer be sold after March 19, 2010.  We sought additional clarification from Printswell owners, but received no further information other than the email announcement.

Today, we received an email from Anne Johnson and Kim Kreis, the founders and designers of Sweet Pea Designs, indicating that they intend to relaunch the company under their own name within the next “month or so” and that they were putting the “finishing touches” on their new website and that “new” catalogs were being designed.   Sheila and I took the opportunity to call Sweet Pea and had a most pleasant conversation with Anne Johnson, one of the founders.  Found below are brief highlights of the conversation that we feel may be relevant to fellow dealers and clients who admire Sweet Peas designs:

• Sweet Pea Designs (“SPD”), a 22-year old company, and Printswell have always been separate legal companies even though Printswell changed its name to Sweet Pea name for a short period of time for convenience in distributing the Sweet Pea line.
• Under the terms of their contractual arrangement, SPD gave 60 days notice in January that they planned to terminate the distributions and printing arrangement with Printswell.  According to Anne, the co-founders decided that they wished to assume greater control of the design process and the marketing and production of their stationery line.
• The existing Sweet Pea albums are “obsolete.”  SPD will shortly be issuing two new “somewhat larger” albums for Baby & Children and another for “Adult Themes.”    A third album for Christmas and holiday themes will be issued later in the year.
• These new albums will be shipped within the next few weeks (probably within 60 days) to dealers who complete a Sweet Pea Designs Application form.  Email SPD at info@sweet-peadesigns.net to obtain your Application Form.   SPD does not have a list of authorized Sweet Pea dealers and is trying to piece together a list from third-party sources.
• According to Anne, the new albums will be shipped free-of-charge to dealers who have met some pre-determined volume of sales.  Pricing for the new albums is still under consideration, but should not be more than $100 per album with coupons offered to help offset the cost of the albums.
• The new designs will be printed on heavier paper stock (110 lb paper).
• The new Sweet Pea website will also incorporate an “affiliate program” similar to programs offered by Printswell and others in the industry.   The nature of the affiliate commission structure was not discussed.
• Anne suggested that they would be more selective on how their product was represented geographically, but admitted that some home-dealers would be “grandfathered.”   She anticipated that SPD would have firm policies to avoid discounting.
• SPD will be represented at the National Stationery Show in booths 3306-3308 and Anne and Kim encouraged Guild members to drop by.

Clearly, Sweet Pea is a very popular line for many dealers.  It is unfortunate that this rough transition has left many dealers in the dark and unable to fulfill customer requests.  Nevertheless, it is good to see Sweet Pea upgrading their line when many other companies are tracking in the opposite direction.

I would like to thank Anne for sharing this information with readers of the Stationers Guild News and we wish Anne and Kim much success in flying solo.
Sheila and Richard May
Therese Saint Clair

Another online invitation and announcement company surfaced today:   Chickadee Prints.    In the tag line of its online Press Release, Chickadee claims to be “a company that aspires to create unique designs for stationary . . .”  Well that stopped me in my tracks.  How can a company aspire to create “unique” designs for a market that they can’t even spell properly?  

A disturbing but not unanticipated trend is the rather hasty disappearance of the often maligned stationery and invitation sales representative.  For the most part,  knowledgeable sales representatives are being displaced by cheap catalogues and the dreaded phrase that is a certain harbinger of doom:  “You can see our products online.”

Since my husband and I acquired Therese Saint Clair seven years ago, I estimate that representative sales calls have fallen by more than two-thirds.  No longer do I have the benefit of seeing and touching paper stock samples and viewing designs in their natural state  – rather than making decisions based on hastily photographed reproductions that tend to populate most “stationery” and “invitation” websites.  Furthermore,  I was dealing with an experienced sales representative who understands my business and is in touch with current trends in stationery and invitations.  More than that, I got to know my sales representatives as human beings and my day was often enriched by their visit.

It would be amusing – if it were not so pathetic – to see how many companies attribute their lack of success in today’s competitive market to the “competency” of their sales representatives.  Instead of looking inward to their insipid Photoshop designs, cheap papers and poor merchandising, they tend to blame their over-worked and unappreciated sales representatives.  The overriding corporate logic seems to be that “our retailers will find it easier to shop online” and we no longer have need of our representative sales force.

Perhaps I am in a minority, but I tend to allocate a disproportionate amount of my business to companies that have sales representatives.   It is reassuring to have an extra set of experienced eyes helping me make my selections.  Furthermore, there is a sense of personal accountability and responsibility rather than the vague hope that “they will sort things out at the corporate level.”  Most importantly, there is a choice.  Most sales representatives handle a variety of lines and one uses these varied styles and designs to make informed cost/value decisions.   Unfortunately, sales catalogues and websites are one-dimensional, offering the retailer and, indeed, the consumer, little basis for comparison shopping other than price.

While I recognize the need for efficiency, I am hopeful that Sales Representatives will not become dinosaurs.  Our industry will sorely miss them.

Sheila P. May
Therese Saint Clair

In a letter to their dealers dated July 10, The Chatsworth Collection announced that it had been acquired by American Stationery Retail.  American Stationery Retail is located in Peru, Indiana and has been making fine stationery since 1919. 

Chatsworth, known for their eclectic and trendy stationery and invitation collections of Robin McGuire, Frederick Beck,  Gene Bliley and Blue Mug will now be consolidated into American Stationery Retail’s family of companies which includes Rytex and Inkwell, the personalized division of Inviting Company.

While it is difficult to imagine California’s Robin McGuire going entirely Hoosier, it is clearly a sign of the times that leading stationery design firms are having to seek the comfort of mass-merchandisers to survive.  According to the communique, several of the personalized albums will be consolidated.  As a dealer, we are hopeful that the integrity of Chatsworth’s great designs will survive the acquisition.

Checkerboard, a leading designer of custom invitations, is offering 25 free invitations with any custom invitation order of 25 or more paid invitations selected from their four party albums:  Soiree, Social Butterfly, Paper Palette or Checkerboarders.  This offer expires on August 2, 2009.