Tis the season for giving thanks (and gifts) to those we love and appreciate.
But how do you make your corporate greeting or gift stand out and make a lasting impression on your clients, customers, partners and vendors?
At Hagopian Ink, we pour our hearts into creating memorable, meaningful and unique gifts that celebrate the season, reflect our brand essence, and most of all—say THANK YOU in a genuine way.
Here are four of our most beloved corporate gift projects— (along with a few gory details)—to help inspire your brand to say, “We appreciate your business” in a beautiful, remarkable way.
1. Thanksgiving Thank You Cards
The time-honored tradition of sending hand-written thank you cards has endured despite the advancement of technology. Our mailboxes are stuffed (especially this time of year) with catalogues, coupons, and yes, BILLS—so we decided to flip the script on the usual holiday mailing and show our thanks by sending clients a box of beautiful, blank thank you cards that they could use to send to others.
We selected a thick, luxurious, cotton paper stock to really make the colors pop off of the page Crane’s Lettra Fluorescent White.</a href> Inspired by Italian marble paper, we chose images that reflected the “Ink” in Hagopian Ink—and four universal “thank you” messages that were sincere—yet elegant and elective of our design style.
We boxed them in packages of 8 cards, with four different messages aimed at spreading the love and acknowledging that the world needs more gratitude.
And the love we got in return for sending these little love bundles? Worth every penny!
Here’s just one example of the many love notes we received:
Hey Christina,
I’ve been meaning to shoot you a message and thank you
for those thank you cards! They are absolutely beautiful!
I’ve spent (probably) hours looking for thank you cards that
were beautiful but cool and not cheesy and then one day
I looked in my mailbox and there they were!
Happy New Year! -Michael T.
2. New Year’s Champagne & Noisemakers
What says “Happy New Year!” more than a little bubbly and some festive noisemakers?
Celebration was the sentiment and the inspiration for our 2011 client gift project, which featured custom noisemakers and miniature bottles of sparkling Cava branded with out logo and brand colors. Each gift bag/card had its own personal message inside with custom confetti—all of which conveyed the idea that we’re not only celebrating the year that’s ending, but looking forward to the year ahead.
3. Summer & Winter Solstice
For a fresh take on holiday greetings, the Hagopian Ink team chose the Summer and Winter Solstice as the “holiday” to spread some love, give thanks, and celebrate the year with our clients and colleagues.
This one was a special challenge with its 100% perfectly symmetrical die-cuts (to the tune of needing to rerun the whole print job after the first batch didn’t align properly!) — but it was all worth the effort.
Each light-capturing dingle-dangle was designed to highlight the colors and shapes of each season—while also capturing the seasonal light just so.
Our friends and colleagues sent us photos of their light catchers in their homes and shared them on social media.
We were very pleased to spread the cheer and to see our designs come to life.
4. New Year’s Candle + Greeting
Last year, we decided to go with a festive “illumination package” to celebrate the new year. We created a radiating pattern to reflect the shimmering light of a candle, and brought it to life through various applications – a custom candle design, foil stamped matchbooks, and a textured card.
As for where we got our inspiration… well, believe it or not, it all started with the matches! We saw some beautiful matches and they literally “sparked” the idea for us.
And the best part (as always)? The thank you notes we received from happy, loyal clients, vendors and partners, like this one:
Christina,
Thank you so much for the candle!
I am super impressed with your clever branding.
I love it! —Gretchen A.
The art of wowing your clients is not for the faint of heart, but for us, there simply is no other way. Every project, every year is a challenge—but we LOVE creating these simple, beautiful gifts that stand out and bring smiles to our clients’ faces!
And… it’s a delightfully refreshing change from all the digital work we do for our clients on a daily basis.
Have you received a remarkable holiday gift from a vendor, partner or client? If so, we’d love to hear about it.
Share in the comments—or ask us a question about the projects shared above.
We’re all for spreading the love!
