I think there is definitly a market out there for a line of Mardi Gras cards, and if you don't live in New Orleans, you probably can't really find them, here is a site from Louisianna:
http://www.louisianagreetings.com/pages/mardigrasindex.html
online I've found mostly just ecards, and for print, just invitations. So we should jump on that! And make invitations as well as greeting cards for the wonderous holiday that is Mardi Gras :)
Oh and maybe we should design invitations for Oscar Parties, alot of people have them. I went to one once in my prom dress!
Happy Mardi Gras!
Cheers!
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Sunday, February 26, 2006
what also inspires us!
Cheese!
Food
I'm hungry...
must eat
oh yeah, back to my listy
cute animals
emergency chuckles
abnormal humor
candy!
anything retro
the macabre
twinkies
:)
Food
I'm hungry...
must eat
oh yeah, back to my listy
cute animals
emergency chuckles
abnormal humor
candy!
anything retro
the macabre
twinkies
:)
Thursday, February 23, 2006
What inspires us
I was thinking about what inspires me and came up with these top categories:
Love
Friendship, which is often part of love
Food
Music
Art
Nature, which I also associate with beauty and peace
I have been exposed to a lot of this lately. I went to the National Botanical Gardens last weekend and spent an hour walking among the orchids. The permanent exhibit is already amazing, but this was just unreal. There were hundreds of specimens, so lushly colored and detailed it shocked me that they were real. I was surprised to see the BG has some cool classes as well. Tomorrow's 'Mind and Mood Altering Beers of the Middle Ages' is unfortunately already full.
Let's make a list of all of our favorite card sites. Doreen, how do you feel about listing them in our links section?
Love
Friendship, which is often part of love
Food
Music
Art
Nature, which I also associate with beauty and peace
I have been exposed to a lot of this lately. I went to the National Botanical Gardens last weekend and spent an hour walking among the orchids. The permanent exhibit is already amazing, but this was just unreal. There were hundreds of specimens, so lushly colored and detailed it shocked me that they were real. I was surprised to see the BG has some cool classes as well. Tomorrow's 'Mind and Mood Altering Beers of the Middle Ages' is unfortunately already full.
Let's make a list of all of our favorite card sites. Doreen, how do you feel about listing them in our links section?
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Advice we can use
If it's good enough for the Hallmark flunkies ... it should be good advice for the creative minds of PEP.
NPR excerpts Ted Kooser's Poetry Home Repair Manual in this piece. The U.S. poet laureate is traveling the nation, talking to professionals and laypeople about the word -- and how words go, and don't go, together. The style reminds me of a book from college called "On Writing Well" which I have as one of the few reference books on my desk (along with my style guide, an old dictionary and thesaurus and my NPC guide book) -- more for highlighted inspiration than anything else.
"Sure, there are plenty of days when nothing good happens, days when every word you write seems silly and shallow, when your revisions seem to be dragging your poems in the wrong direction. But you need to be there writing and waiting, as a hunter might say, for that hour when at last the ducks come flying in. To say it more simply, in the words of a painter friend, you just need to "show up for work.""
That's what I am trying to do every day -- show up and start to make something of these ideas spilling out around me.
NPR excerpts Ted Kooser's Poetry Home Repair Manual in this piece. The U.S. poet laureate is traveling the nation, talking to professionals and laypeople about the word -- and how words go, and don't go, together. The style reminds me of a book from college called "On Writing Well" which I have as one of the few reference books on my desk (along with my style guide, an old dictionary and thesaurus and my NPC guide book) -- more for highlighted inspiration than anything else.
"Sure, there are plenty of days when nothing good happens, days when every word you write seems silly and shallow, when your revisions seem to be dragging your poems in the wrong direction. But you need to be there writing and waiting, as a hunter might say, for that hour when at last the ducks come flying in. To say it more simply, in the words of a painter friend, you just need to "show up for work.""
That's what I am trying to do every day -- show up and start to make something of these ideas spilling out around me.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
mmm
This isn't good....
http://www.thepinkelephantpress.com/index.php
Check it out and we can discuss...
http://www.thepinkelephantpress.com/index.php
Check it out and we can discuss...
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
VTD -- thoughts
So, this is the No. 1 card day of the year. Everyone gives them, everyone gets them. People were lined up in the downtown gift shop I walk by after the gym yesterday, crowding up the counter with stuffed animals, trinkets and cards. But apparently, regardless of where you are, card buyers are the most attracted to one of the sappiest, most boring cards I have ever heard described:
"The card‘s face is a deep red foil, with "For the One I Love" across the top in black script, a large picture of a red rose in the center, and a thick black ribbon cutting through the middle. Inside, it simply states: "Each time I see you, hold you, think of you, here‘s what I do ... I fall deeply, madly, happily in love with you. Happy Valentine‘s Day."
What does this mean? Is the U.S. card buying public that homogeneous and non-creative? This doesn't bode well for two crazy designer-types who want to make people laugh with pictures of stick figures and jokes about the walk of shame. Or does it? This is what a start-up is all about: Turning buyers' minds inside out, one foil-ladybug-and-black-ribbon-free card at a time. Maybe we can even change the ways they express their love.
"The card‘s face is a deep red foil, with "For the One I Love" across the top in black script, a large picture of a red rose in the center, and a thick black ribbon cutting through the middle. Inside, it simply states: "Each time I see you, hold you, think of you, here‘s what I do ... I fall deeply, madly, happily in love with you. Happy Valentine‘s Day."
What does this mean? Is the U.S. card buying public that homogeneous and non-creative? This doesn't bode well for two crazy designer-types who want to make people laugh with pictures of stick figures and jokes about the walk of shame. Or does it? This is what a start-up is all about: Turning buyers' minds inside out, one foil-ladybug-and-black-ribbon-free card at a time. Maybe we can even change the ways they express their love.
Monday, February 13, 2006
How do I make my posts come up as me??
Right now it looks like Doreen has a split personality!
add: ... and, of course, after I posted this -- I see it now shows my name as the poster. Not so with my two previous posts but that's cool. I'll let the world think that DQ has angst about VTD.
add: ... and, of course, after I posted this -- I see it now shows my name as the poster. Not so with my two previous posts but that's cool. I'll let the world think that DQ has angst about VTD.
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Slogan
I like:
Saucy greeting cards, soused creatives
or soused creators?
So excited we are starting this!!
Saucy greeting cards, soused creatives
or soused creators?
So excited we are starting this!!
Snow forces me out of work ...
...and into thinking about getting a job where I dont have to worry about getting my driveway plowed to be able to get out onto the trecherous streets at 6am on Sunday in order to get to it.
It also makes me think about this: The anti-VTD card. This may also apply to other contrived holidays that force coupling to the forefront of the world -- ahead of world news and the weather). I think it's a good thing to explore. If I see one more jewelry store ad, I am going to scream. That's a lie, it has already driven me to scream. And then I am either run into a retaining wall in my car or knock over my TV. I am turning into those women on the ads who furrow their brows and whisper among themselves when they don't get a bauble like their co-workers ... or candy ... or a giant stuffed animal ... or anything except another day marked on the calendar closer to the next federal holiday when they can get off from work and eat all of the chocolate they want and have to be affronted by millions of smiling non-singles to do it -- and they can buy that candy/bauble/puppy/lavish fur themselves. We need to be able to go into the drug store and not feel like VTD has thrown up on us. And pink puke is as ugly as regular puke, it can't be fancied up.
I know this isn't just about being single. There are pleny of married women that feel frustrated by this day as well and wish it would go away or could be replaced by something else. The audience is huge.
Can we represent anger and humor at the same time without seeming jaded or desperate? Most certainly.
It also makes me think about this: The anti-VTD card. This may also apply to other contrived holidays that force coupling to the forefront of the world -- ahead of world news and the weather). I think it's a good thing to explore. If I see one more jewelry store ad, I am going to scream. That's a lie, it has already driven me to scream. And then I am either run into a retaining wall in my car or knock over my TV. I am turning into those women on the ads who furrow their brows and whisper among themselves when they don't get a bauble like their co-workers ... or candy ... or a giant stuffed animal ... or anything except another day marked on the calendar closer to the next federal holiday when they can get off from work and eat all of the chocolate they want and have to be affronted by millions of smiling non-singles to do it -- and they can buy that candy/bauble/puppy/lavish fur themselves. We need to be able to go into the drug store and not feel like VTD has thrown up on us. And pink puke is as ugly as regular puke, it can't be fancied up.
I know this isn't just about being single. There are pleny of married women that feel frustrated by this day as well and wish it would go away or could be replaced by something else. The audience is huge.
Can we represent anger and humor at the same time without seeming jaded or desperate? Most certainly.
Friday, February 10, 2006
Slogan ideas
Ladies on the loose with martinis
Yes, we can fly
Saucy greeting cards, soused creatives
Yes, we can fly
Saucy greeting cards, soused creatives
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Our company is now starting!
With this blog, we are now on the road to our official greeting card company!
-Doreen
-Doreen
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