The Stationers Guild

This is the last week for Crane’s summer stationery sale where you can receive 25 FREE personalized stationery notes or sheets if you order 75 or more.  This great summer promotion makes you want to get off the beach and visit a Crane dealer in your neighborhood.   This great promotional offer is available at Crane dealers across the United States or at Crane online.

We’ve always had a love for cotton paper and striking designs and styles. I still think of how delighted I was by the engraved seal of a European royal family that appeared to float just above their menu card. My enthusiasm hasn’t diminished over these many years and I am fortunate enough to have a stationery store and can indulge my obsession.

There is certainly something special and personal about finding the time to send a hand-written note to a relative or good friend. I prefer to use a half-note with my engraved monogram while my spouse prefers the correspondence card with his name engraved near the top edge. We each enjoy the advantage of switching our stationery every few years whenever we get tired with the colors or a particular envelope lining. As such, we were fired up to receive a new Personal Stationery Album from Crane.

For over two hundred years Crane & Co. has set the standard for custom-made stationery and personalized announcements. In June, Crane released its brand new Personal Stationery album that contains everything a consumer needs to have for communicating in style: half-notes, correspondence cards, calling cards, pocket jotter cards and note pads. Crane has rejuvenated many of its vintage stationery choices along with including a number of completely new contemporary designs that are without doubt very likely to appeal to stationery lovers.

Crane’s Personal Stationery album contains a new page layout featuring a comprehensive stationery wardrobe for both business and social stationery. Its easy product presentation shows quite a few color and paper-size alternatives as well as attributes call-outs highlighting premium capabilities, artistry, etiquette and design suggestions.

The latest stationery album also is designed with a useful summary of Crane’s premium papers, double hand-bordered cards, engraving and monograms. There are some 80 envelope liner alternatives to pick from in addition to Crane’s proprietary fonts and motifs. Simply speaking, it is a virtuoso showcase of Crane’s rich traditions for making sophisticated stationery.

Sheila P. May
Therese Saint Clair

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

I recently received an email from trendy stationery designer Boatman Geller indicating that they were now a proud supporter of the nationwide 3/50 Project.   The Stationers Guild was one of the early supporters of Cinda Baxter’s 3/50 Project and, as Guild members, we are very much encouraged that leading stationery companies are now getting behind this important initiative.

As readers of this Blog may recall, the objective of the 3/50 project is to save “the brick & mortars our nation is built on” by encouraging residents to support local businesses.  Spending patterns suggest that roughly two-thirds of the money spent at local stores remains in the community. The benefits to the community through taxes and employment of online sales are virtually negligible.   With small business employment continuing to plummet, town and community infrastructures across the United States will be radically changed.  The 3/50 project is simply a call-to-arms to help protect local businesses and the fabric of our communities.

Boatman Geller will be sending a printable manufacturer’s coupon that can be redeemed at any retail store that carries Boatman Geller’s Personalized Collections.  This is very encouraging news and will hopefully be emulated by other fine stationery companies to protect their bricks and mortar dealer network.

Nevertheless, a far more positive step would be sell Boatman Geller’s personalized collections exclusively through retail stores.  My own opinion is that “fine” stationery sold through internet distribution channels will eventually  become little more than “paper” to consumers that are deprived of the tactile and visual experience of selecting their stationery in person.  Perhaps, Boat Geller might want to reconsider whether the “value” or “uniqueness” of their brand is really enhanced by selling through 24 online resellers.

As a stationer, I am frequently asked whether engraved stationery is worth the extra money.  Certainly, there are less expensive alternatives and Guild stationers are sensitive to the budget constraints of their clients.   The politically correct answer is that one should evaluate the cost/benefit relationship to reach the proper decision for each person’s circumstances.  With the elections thankfully over, I think we can dispense with “political correctness” and, perhaps, ruffle a few feathers.

There is no question engraved stationery is significantly more distinguished than comparable stationery printed in thermographic inks or flat-printed (lithography).  One needs only to glance at a color palette at your local stationer to see the significant differences in the end result of using the same color ink on the same paper but employing a different printing process.  Engraved ink colors are opaque and the color  “true” when compared to alternative printing processes.

I realize that you can get 250 or more business cards printed at your local print shop or online for around $25.  While the paper stock may be a bit flimsy, the colors not as sharp, the font styles limited and the alignment questionable, the price seems right to many business people.  Most will argue that the objective is “to get my contact information out there:  It is what I do and who I represent that is important.  If the business card is cheap so much the better.”

While one can hardly argue with the need to keep business costs down, is this a false sense of economy?  I certainly think so.  Business cards, like good manners and proper dress say a lot about people.  If you a 30 second window to make an impression, you would like to so in style.   A well-designed business card on heavy stock paper will certainly give you a leg-up over 90% of your potential competition to make that positive first impression.  I find it surprising that small and medium size businesses spend thousands of dollars on attractive websites, logos and advertising yet skimp on business correspondence.

To stand out in today’s marketplace, we recommend selecting business stationery that is at least one step above that of your peers.  The objective is to call attention to yourself and your business.  For instance, real estate brokers seem to all have highly-colored business cards with a photograph.  If you want to stand out from the pack, I would suggest dropping the photograph and getting a business card with a distinctive motif, perhaps engraved in a metallic ink such as gold or copper. Sure, that engraved business card may set you back a $1.00 a card, but it could your ticket to an important business relationship.  With first class postage at $0.42, it seems like a steal.

Whether you need engraved letterhead is a question that is best analyzed with the help of your neighborhood stationer.  If you use more than one color in your logo or business correspondence, engraved stationery becomes prohibitively expensive.  Before commissioning a logo, meet with your stationer to consider how colors and designs will impact on your stationery costs.  By seeking wise counsel early and taking advantage of promotional offers, engraved stationery need not be a cost barrier to creating distinctive business stationery.

Richard May
Founding Member