Thursday, July 2, 2009

In the News: Thank You Notes


I read a couple articles on stationery yesterday, so I thought I'd share the links here. Dwell's blog mentioned our thank you cards yesterday as a "handsome, just-this-side-of-fey" alternative to many of the too-cutesy thank you notes out there. Thank you, Dwell. I definitely agree:) And then also out yesterday in the New York Times was an article called Custom Stationery in an Email Age. My favorite takeaway line came from Anna Post, Emily Post’s great-great-granddaughter and the spokeswoman for the Emily Post Institute, who said they don't use the word "rule" anymore when it comes to thank you note etiquette, but rather the simple sentiment, “If you think you should be sending a thank you note instead of an e-mail, then you should.” Again, I agree. I tend to think there's less of a social obligation to write thank you notes - mostly because our means of communication has fundamentally changed. We express ourselves & our feelings in emails & texts & tweets all day long. But I think it's because of this that sending a handwritten note is more genuine - not just an act of duty. We're not robots. As a designer from Dempsey & Carroll put it, sending a note says, "You stopped me in my tracks and this comes from my heart."

2 comments:

Tommy said...

What a fascinating article! I agree that sending a thank you note is always the right thing to do, and I concur that it cheapens the whole experience to outsource to someone else.

Some people comment on my own paper habit that I spend too much money. I disagree. :) Sure. $20 for 10 cards (as an example) may sound extravagant, but I think about those card aisles at Wal-Mart. Guess how much a Hallmark card runs these days. It's like $3-$4, and it's nowhere near as thoughtful as the kind that I buy. And mine are $2 apiece. :)

12fifteen said...

Congrats on the great Dwell feature! I couldn't agree more with them, your cards are original and worth framing! (imho)