Judith Gorgone, owner of Judith Gorgone Designs, creates art for holiday cards produced by the Museum of Modern Art, among other groups.
(Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff)
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It may sound like a cliché, but for holiday greeting card designer Judith Gorgone, every day is Christmas.
No matter the season - spring, fall, winter, or summer - the Newton artist is thinking ahead and creating her colorful, whimsical art for holiday cards produced by the Museum of Modern Art, UNICEF, and other distributors. She works a year ahead of time, drawing doves, trees, bells, ornaments, Santas, and other images of the upcoming holidays.
Gorgone isn't the only person caught up in the craze: If it seems as if a blizzard of greetings hits your home and office every winter, it's because Americans exchange about 2 billion holiday cards annually, with the majority mailed during the first two weeks of December.
The greeting card market will be about $10 billion during the holidays this year. And the Greeting Card Association, an industry trade group, estimates there are 3,000 US greeting card publishers, ranging from family-run companies to corporations, with cards ranging from 50 cents to $10 or more.
"Consumers are turning toward specialty retailers who offer better designs, higher quality, and more specialized card choices," says Pam Danzgier, president of Unity Marketing, a Pennsylvania-based marketing consulting firm.
But people aren't just buying cards. They're making them, too.
Buying generic greeting cards is quickly becoming a tradition of Christmas past as computers and online shopping make it easy to create personalized or do-it-yourself greetings.
With the ease of digital photography, even die-hard stationery lovers such as Lauren Niegos are sending out photo cards.
Niegos, owner of Watermark Paper Co. in North Easton, says she's known for sending out classy, gorgeous engraved holiday cards, but last year, for the first time, she sent out a photo card of her daughters.
"I got more response than I ever have," says Niegos. "People like to see your family during the holidays."
Although online ordering and processing add convenience to holiday card shopping, Niegos, who is also a certified etiquette consultant, says that the holidays are definitely not the time for animated e-cards.
"E-mail is for instant messages, not a thoughtful card," she says, "and you can't put them on the mantle."
For those who want online help sending their holiday cards, some companies offer to directly mail cards. You can import addresses from Outlook or your Palm Pilot, and the cards are addressed, stamped, and mailed to each recipient.
But Sharon Dotson of Bayou City Public Relations says she always hand-addresses her company's holiday cards, which this year feature an illustration of the illuminated Houston skyline, and adds a handwritten note.
"It's a lot of trouble, but it is not personal otherwise," Dotson says.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
