How a Childhood Hobby Plays Into My Career in Direct Mail

Over the holidays, I was thinking about the rituals that have been a part of my life and how they relate to how I got my start in printing and direct mail marketing.
Pausing to reflect isn’t just about nostalgia but bringing order to chaos.
I was sitting in my dad’s apartment at our old family dining room table, writing out his cards to send out in the mail. He was reading off people’s names from a green leatherette gold embossed address book that my mom must have bought back in the '90s. She passed almost three years ago, but he still knows her handwriting better than his own.
Neighbors, relatives, friends, co-workers … so many familiar names, some crossed out entirely, others with multiple addresses reflecting the ebbs and flows of their lives. Checking that book was a tradition mom and I had for many years.
Dad reached for a glassine envelope with all of his holiday stamps, more than a few of them holdovers from the many years before “Forever” postage. All of them are a mix of religious and secular subjects with a heavy lean towards classic art.
What prompted this post were the memories that were triggered when dad handed the envelope to me and asked if I remembered when I collected stamps when I was in grade school. Of course I did — it sharpened my knowledge of history, geography, and so many other subjects.
Even more than that, collecting postage stamps sparked my interest in the wide world of mail: first-class, business, airmail, you name it. My dad and I would go to our hometown post office in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, to mail letters or cards for mom, and look at the new commemoratives that the postmaster had put aside for us.
I was as curious then, as I am today, so I asked questions. Lots of them, actually, about the postal system, where all that mail came from, and how it moved around before it was delivered to homes or shipped out. And when I asked about how stamps were printed, I was referred to the owner of the local stamp and coin shop across the street.
From him, I had an introduction to many of the print production methods used not only in the United States, but around the world. Terms like intaglio, gravure, litho, offset, halftone screens, etc., became as familiar as semipostal or plate block.
A lot has changed over the years: the old post office and stamp shop are gone and stamps now cost 73 cents; and that collection now sits in big red albums on my shelves, even though I honestly haven’t looked at it much, or added to it, since I started high school.
But the value of postal communications is more important than ever. As part of an omnichannel strategy, mail plays a vital role in reaching and engaging today’s audiences. The digital printing and marketing technologies that have been developed in the past 20 years help brands and their messages stand out and deliver connected, relevant, and tangible experiences that no channel can on its own.
As I’m starting off this blog, I want to give you a sense of where I’m coming from. For 25 years, I’ve been helping printers, marketers and non-profits use mail better, see all of its possibilities, and SELL MORE.
Print works. And yes, Direct Mail Matters.