Corporate Holiday Card: Executives and Slot Cars

For the last five or so years I have illustrated fun holiday greeting cards for the crowd at Safe-Guard Products, an international company specializing in vehicle insurance. I am usually asked to draw the eight company directors in some holiday activity, and this year brought the surprising request that they be racing slot cars, a hobby that many of them enjoy.  I have photos of all of them from previous years, so I started with a rough pencil sketch –

They asked for a few changes, and gave me very specific car models to match to their drivers – I had to google them all because I’m not really a sportscar buff! I tightened up the sketch –

and painted it in for the finish.

 

Completed Illustration for Company Holiday Card

My previous two posts showed my preliminary work for an illustrated holiday greeting card for Safe-Guard Products International in Atlanta. Below is the finished front of the card.

With a company as large as Safe-Guard, it is an important marketing contribution for their affiliates and clients to get to know and match a face to the directors they email or speak with on the phone. Safe-Guard feels that a personalized greeting card improves their relationship with colleagues, and that my illustration especially helps this association with the real people who manage their company.

Customized Holiday Cards set Businesses Apart, says WSJ

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal by Alexandra Berzon explains that, while ‘simple holiday cards from financial firms are pretty much the norm at this time of year . . . there are exceptions.’

The writer cites Kingsford Capital Management, a low-profile financial firm in California, that has won a reputation for giving unusual cards and gifts to their clients, ranging in genre from political cartoons to advent calendars to quilts, all customized to comment on the financial industry. “The novelty holiday gifts . . . could end up holding some value, art world insiders say, given that they are limited-edition items,’ often illustrated by artists the firm’s owner admires.

I’m happy to have a number of clients who also see unique holiday greeting cards as a sincere and creative way to engage with their customers and colleagues.  Below are the cards I created for this holiday season, Thanksgiving through New Year’s. My clients were Woodcock Washburn LLP, Lifetime Asset Management, Automotive Financial Services, Furia Rubel Communications, Inc., Hoffman Design Group, Safe-Guard Products International, LLC, Obermayer, Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel, LLP, Lennon’s Small Jobs and Pro-Active Performance, Inc.