Crane Seeks Artists for New Studio Collection

Apologies for this post disappearing for a few hours. Technology's grand......

Crane & Co., Inc., the premier maker of fine stationery since 1801, is seeking artists, illustrators and designers who can create sophisticated, cutting-edge art for our new STUDIO collection. Known as a leader in the stationery category, Crane is an iconic brand that delivers uncompromising quality and classic designs. For the new collection, we’re looking for a fresh, modern aesthetic targeted at consumers who are artistic, design-savvy and stylish.

A partnership with Crane & Co. offers designers:

• Crane’s unequaled brand recognition
• Crane’s uncompromising quality and craftsmanship
• Crane’s state of the art manufacturing and production
• Crane’s powerful distribution capabilities
• Crane's on-line and in-store electronic ordering system
• Crane’s influential marketing and collateral support

Each product category will feature several different designers. Selected designers may have products in one, or several product lines.

Crane’s STUDIO collection will showcase a group of designers, each with their own unique look. Independent creatives and small stationery studios have the opportunity to combine their design talents with the unparalleled strength of the Crane brand.

Crane’s STUDIO will include boxed and custom printed products in the following categories:

• Boxed Stationery
• Personal Correspondence
• Thank You Notes
• Holiday Cards
• Custom Printed Stationery
• Wedding Invitations
• Holiday Cards
• Social Invitations
• Personal Correspondence

Artists, illustrators, and graphic designers interested in being considered for STUDIO are invited to submit examples of their work using the guidelines provided. We are looking for each artist’s style as it applies to stationery. Ideally, we’d like to see three samples of your work for each product category you are interested in. The samples may have the same style, or showcase different design styles. They may be newly created or samples of your previous work.

Feel free to blog/tweet/share this opportunity with your friends and colleagues. We welcome submissions in a wide range of design aesthetics.

Deadline for submissions is August 1.

Click here for more information about Crane's STUDIO and the submission process.

Having a Great Time; Wish You Were Here!

Greetings from Glacier National Park!

30 Days to a Better Man

I'm getting ready to head out for a vacation out west, but wanted to make sure that all you guys who read The Crane Insider take a look at The Art of Manliness .

I follow it religiously for its unique approach to life in the 21st century and for its excellent writing. In June, The Art of Manliness published a series: 30 Days to a Better Man, covering such diverse topics as Write a Love Letter, to Shine Your Shoes to Get a Straight Razor Shave.

Sorry ladies, for being so gender-specific with this post, but this is important stuff!

Filling in the Blanks for the Holidays

A few days ago(scroll down a bit) we discussed the growing trend toward fill-in invitations, especially for the holidays. I found a few more - two with elegant engraved details and one with a whimsical foil treatment. Imagine, engraved invitations at boxed stationery prices. They should be in market soon:

A New Crane Celebrity A-Lister

Some time ago, I introduced you to some of Crane's A-List customers. No, not that list. I'm not going to play that silly "look which celebrity buys my stationery" game.

The quest for American independence is another matter, as well as a source of great pride for Crane. These guys were just regular folks in 18th-century America; customers of Crane's Liberty Paper Mill. Today, they are icons of American history.

One of those customers, who is far from iconic but deserves a much higher historical profile, is Colonel Thomas Conant. Here is one of his accounts with the Liberty Paper Mill:

No surprise, the ledger entry gives us no clue as to his place in history. But the account of "Paul Revere's Ride" by David Hackett Fischer, (Oxford University Press, 1994) certainly does:

Paul Revere recalled:

"I agreed with a Colonel Conant and some other gentlemen, that if the British went out by water, we would shew two lanthorns in the North Church steeple, and if by land, one, as a signal...."

What more can you say?