The Stationers Guild

iPresentee plans to revolutionize the  stationery industry with its “exciting” new apps (read applications) for Apple.  iPresentee, with headquarters in Vilnius, Lithuania,  is now designing “stationery” templates that are compatible with Apple Mail.  While there several free templates, the basic app can be downloaded for $25.  iPresentee was founded in 2007 by a group of professional and enthusiastic IT designers “to create high quality, easy to use and fun add-ons for Apple’s iWork and iLife applications.”

For those of you who fancy receiving an email with an Easter Bunny motif or Santa coming down the chimney, this email application might work for you.   They say that a picture is worth a thousand words and with online literacy capped at a 140 characters by Twitter, this application just might have a decent future.

I know that it seems old-fashioned, but there is something more tangible and – dare I say it – meaningful about receiving hand-written correspondence.   Pre-packaged templates often reflect the passion of the designer rather than the passion of the writer.   As with pre-scripted greeting cards conveying some mushy or humorous sentiment, just signing  “Luv Rick” doesn’t take a great deal of effort or imagination.  And now, we don’t even have to go to the store to buy a card, or put a stamp on it:  how convenient – how irrelevant!   When life is reduced to a series of “going-through-the-motions” every day more efficiently, it is time to consider getting off the Merry-Go-Round.

When our lives are automated to the extent that interpersonal communication is reduced to a digital  template and “reaching out” refers to the “send” button of your email program, something human has been lost.   The Chinese have a saying that “evil travels in a straight line.”    I do not know if that is true, but certainly John Freeman’s, The Tyranny of E-mail: The Four-Thousand-Year Journey to Your Inbox
is a clear wake-up call of the perils facing a more-efficient society.

At this year’s International Gift Show at the Javits Center, Sheila and I were thrilled to find Forgetful Gentleman stationery. Nate and Brett, the two young owners of Forgetful Gentleman, are graduates of the University of Virginia who decided to take what started out to be a college business project (i.e. start a new business) to the next level.  Nate, who lives in New York City, explained that they wanted to create an elegant line of assorted stationery for “forgetful” gentlemen to pen a short note for both important and casual occasions. 

The idea was to provide time-challenged men with the necessary tools (i.e. fine stationery) to connect with others by way of a hand-written note.  In a world gone digitally overboard, this is an ambitious task.  In fact, it was Nate who suggested that I take a look at John Freeman’s The Tyranny of E-Mail, since he refused to have his life chained to the immediacy of a Blackberry.   Is this maturity beyond their years or simply a sign that the digital assault on our senses and sensibilities is drawing to a close?   I certainly don’t have the answer, but it is quite refreshing that these two young gentleman have embarked on this ambitious quest. 

Brett, who lives in San Francisco, explained that Forgetful Gentleman sells an assortment of notes printed in letterpress or flat-printed on quality paper.  Their “Elephant Line” consists of 12 note cards:  3 Thank You notes, 3 Birthday notes , 2 Thinking of You, 2 blank correspondence cards, 1 Congratulations and 1 “I love You.”  They even have included four stamped envelopes for those who have difficultly finding a Post Office.  We opted for the luxury suite in letterpress, which comes with a beautiful wooden box resembling a cigar box.  For those gentlemen who suffer from writer’s cramp, the box comes with a primer on articulate letter writing.

We wish Nate and Brett much success and do hope that they can make the National Stationery Show in May.

Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair

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