Best of 2010 Xmas/New Year pieces

Thanks to all those people who very kindly sent me Christmas cards and some exceptionally fine and humorous Xmas and New Year promo pieces.

Here are two of the best:

BOB Design http://www.bobdesign.co.uk/

A beatifully packaged and well presented pair of Red and White Christmas socks. They were mailed in a bespoke envelope shaped wallet (made using Colorset, Bright Red 270gsm) and held together with a 'seal' shaped sticker. The pair of socks with the 'warm wishes from Bob' tag is hot foiled blocked (on Matrisse 200gsm) and held on by red ribbon and a lovely little gold coloured safety pin. The attention to detail is fantastic.  

Mytton Williams http://www.myttonwilliams.co.uk/

Again, this is a piece which is produced with fantastic attention to detail (and it's not even produced using our paper!). Simply (but very nicely) wrapped in brown paper, there is a well produced white box inside which when opened reveals the number of the limited edition snowball and the message "catch you in the new year". Inside is a lovely snowball (fake, but very realsistic) and some loose snow! Really excellent production:  

...and what about the rest?

The above pieces are just two that I thought were worth highlighting because of their exceptionally high production values but I also received some other excellent cards, calendars, bookmarks and novelties. HOWEVER, I also received some items which those design companies should simply be ashamed of - especially if these were the same items as were sent to clients or potential clients. Here are three examples (names witheld!):

• An item where the wrong postage amount had been put on it so it arrived with a postage to be paid sticker (if mine was wrong, so were all the rest).
• A fairly well produced notebook, the effect of which was ruined by it being put into a 'jiffy' bag together with a compliment slip which had a greeting laser printed onto it.
• Beautifully silkscreened tea towel and lovely tag, badly let down by being sent out in a wrongly sized, bog standard C5 "Office Depot" business envelope!

The point to be made here is to only send something out into the market that represents what you can do best. If an item is let down by incorrect postage or a badly thought out envelope or content, it won't impress a new client and might even make an existing client think again. If you aren't going to see it through and produce something of the same quality and production values that you would be happy to produce for a client - my advice is, don't do it!

Posted by Justin Hobson 31.12.2010