Christmas cards signatures

One of the things that is just a fact of life in a small architecture firm, is that you have to do just about everything yourself – rarely do we simply pull out the company wallet and pay for something to get done. We tend to take advantage of the manpower we have on hand and no time is this more true than the holidays.

Like most firms, we would like to let people know that we appreciate their patronage and support throughout this year and in years past. Of course, this gratitude is reflected by the practice of sending out holiday greeting cards.

We don’t get too crazy with the cards we send out – short, sweet and to the point … this is our modern architecture version of greeting cards. I think we sent out around 500 of these cards this year and in an effort to make them a bit more personalized, we had everyone take some time to add their signature to each card … and if you are part of a small architectural firm, you probably did the same thing.

Question: Do you know how long it takes to sign your name 500 times?

There’s no need to actually do the math – let’s just say that it’s times like this that I’m glad my name only has three letters in it. Something else you might notice when you sign your name that many times, back to back to back to back (continue 496 more times) is that it starts to look a little weird. Despite my efforts to keep my three-letter signature legible, there were times when even I had to stop and ask myself “What in the heck is that?”

This was literally the very first card that I signed. As you can see, you can easily read the letters in my name B – o – b.

Easy.

This card was about 60 or 70 signatures in … I don’t know what that first letter is but at least the “o” and the “b” at the end are still looking good.

Struggling. Maybe I’m at card two-hundred at this point and things are turning sour. I started thinking that maybe I should blame the tool and switch to a more legible pen because after seeing what I just wrote – along with the confidence that I know that I know how to spell my name … these don’t even look like letters!! What exactly did I write here?!?

Yes!! Now this is more like it – I knew it was the pen’s fault. It’s still not as good as when I began but I’m 350 cards in and I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Crap. That was short lived.

This was the last card that I signed and I’m questioning that I actually do know how to sign my name anymore. I was actually trying to maintain my signature here and this is what came out.

Total crap – if you get a card and my signature looks like this, please accept my apologies and know that I really meant well.

We set up an assembly line of sorts for people to sign their names on each card. It was typically just a handful of us at a time (someone has to answer the phone when it rings). There was also the stuffing, labeling, and stamping of the envelopes, and all done by licensed architects or people in the process of getting their architectural license.

Small firm – many hats.

Here is the final product – a true heartfelt token of appreciation to everyone we had the privilege of working with over the past year.

I don’t know about you but come December, I am starting to feel more than a little burned out and I am ready for some down time. December is one of those awesome – yet excruciating – months where there is simply too much going on … but almost all of it is awesome stuff. As a result, I tend to coast a little on the blog posts I prepare during this homestretch. That doesn’t mean they aren’t any good, I just mean to say that I don’t take myself as seriously (as if). You can go back and skim through some of my previous December posts to see what I’m talking about. In the past I have prepared such classics as :

I have a few more posts planned for the end of the year – something that should be fun for all of us. This is the time of the year when a bit of levity and a break to recharge your creative batteries can really come in handy as you prepare for an amazing 2016.