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Albion Design
presents

Custom business
greeting cards

Click on each image to see the inside of each card and read about the clients. Galleries showing the inside of each card work under most browsers.

Alma College President Jeff Abernathy wanted to showcase new developments on campus in 2013, as well as to honor his children's creative talents. He commissioned Maggie to develop a series of cards for his personal holiday greetings. In this scene , the featured building is the Hogan Center, that features a gymnasium and much more. The sculpture in front of the building was important part of the design and concept.
Inside of 2013 card
The inside of the card shows more of the texture of the paper, and the personal touches we include for our greeting card clients. Front of card 2012
This scene is the beautiful new Remick Heritage Center for performing arts. Each year we also include drawings by the president's children who are budding artists. We had their drawings of the manger scene, and Santa with his reindeer. We used our Photoshop skills to get the right angle of the building, at the right time of day and right time of year, then added the crowd arriving. None of those items were in any of the photos as shown. So we like to work with our clients to make the view that they envision. The inside message of the card also shows the unique deckle edge of the Strathmore cover stock that we sometimes use for our custom cards. It is getting harder to supply during the peak holiday season but is still one of the most distinctive papers that we use. 2011- We like to work with our clients to make their ideas come to life. For the Alma College holiday cards, President Jeff Abernathy had a theme in mind of "budding artists." He wanted to use some art from two very young artists who were special to him, and to incorporate their art into a scene of Alma College. We worked with the Alma team and created this art to show a fanciful Alma scene at the holidays. The work went through several stages to arrive at this point, and the experience of creation was one of the best parts of the project. The card for 2010 had the same team of artists and decision makers working together for another Alma holiday view. It is fun to work with the same group for an encore project, or even a series. We work to create something special every year. Click on the card to close it and see the other special cards on this page.
Alma College Series

Maggie has created custom cards for the Detroit RiverFront Conservancy for five years. Each year, the Conservancy picks a subject of an area of expansion of their mission to increase the beauty and viability of the Detroit Riverfront area. This scene is the Cullen Family Carousel, which was hand crafted and specially built for Detroit with creatures native to the Detroit River, and some mythical creatures too. The carousel opened in 2007, and this same year it was featured on the Riverfront's holiday greetings. Click the arrow to see the inside of this card. Try the expander button to see the card full size.
The message for the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy holiday greetings is simple. Over the years, Maggie's style for the artwork has become recognizably her own. See the resource links at the bottom of this column to see the entire collection. Click the arrow to see the back of this card. The back of the card indicates that this is one of a series of prints to benefit the Detroit Riverfront and to capture its beauty for years to come. Maggie LaNoue is a well known artist with decades of experience designing custom greeting cards and holiday cards for corporations. Maggie's cards are keepsakes and are exclusive to Albion Design. We print this this type of card with the deckle edge on Strathmore Pastelle that is an acid-free stock for longevity. To go back to the gallery of cards, just click on the X or anywhere on the card.
Detroit RiverFront 2007

See the step by step creation of the design below!

In 2008, The Detroit Riverfront Conservancy featured the beloved Gabriel Richard Park and the Belle Isle bridge. The Conservancy enhanced the park in 2008 with a new plaza and pavilion, seen on the right. For this scene, Maggie moved the sign forward, added snow, took the leaves off the trees, and changed the sky.
The inside of the 2008 Detroit Riverfront Conservancy holiday cards. To create art for these memorable cards, Maggie pulls together many photos, adds her own hand drawn touches, and shows proofs of the work in progress. The resulting cards are truly collectors' items. The back of the card is a great place to put a mission statement, history, links to a web site, a story of the scene on the front of the card, and more! Be creative. What would be a good view to capture for your business or organization?
Detroit RiverFront 2008

A.M. Todd, a Michigan Centennial Business, has requested updates on the art we created for them over the years. This 2006 version of their holiday card is printed on Strathmore Pastelle. We started with a black and white view of art for A.M. Todd, and added color, and holiday greens over the years.
A.M. Todd associates send this classic holiday message to their international clients. They appreciate the attention to detail, and feel connected to the sender of the cards.
A.M.Todd, Kalamazoo, MI

We capture what is unique about your business or community.

 

Resources:

 

About the Artist
Maggie Maggie LaNoue
signature

Maggie has been a full time professional artist creating portraits of businesses and homes since 1980. Her work began with hand drawn pen and ink, oil paintings, and English watercolor. Read more
Albion College Office of Admission chose a new type of card we call "silk." Silk cards need to be touched to be fully appreciated. We have our business cards printed on silk stock, and often, when we give them out, people comment on the soft smooth touch of the stock. Click on the arrow at the bottom of the art to see the inside of this card.
This is the inside message for the Albion College greeting cards. These cards are used to send to prospective students. Silk stock prints beautifully and is cost effective for the smaller quantities of cards. We can print four color on both sides of silk cards at no additional cost. The back of the silk card can also have four color printing, an address, web site or any additional information. We like to call this part of the card "the legend." Click anywhere on the card to close it out and go to the next card.
Albion College Admission

Southern Michigan Bank and Trust of Coldwater Michigan wanted to feature their home office with a festive holiday theme. We took a basic photo, took out an atm machine, added snow and all the trimmings. This type of scene was fun to create, and we were able to meet a tight deadline because the basic concept was fairly simple.
You may have a holiday message in mind when you plan your cards for this season, or you can ask us to provide you with a few messages to select from. Contact us at the link below to get a quote on your cards. Ask us to send you a pdf flier with basic pricing for custom holiday cards. For this type of card we need to work with quantities of 1,000 or more. Prices vary according to the details of your cards. We can send you samples of the types of cards that we offer. You can request to see a sample card of one of these designs, or we will just send you some we pick. What a great place to post your business logo. Use your creativity to put more information here if you like, or keep it really simple for the Google Home Page effect. It works for them.
Southern Michigan Bank & Trust

Chalgian and Tripp Elder Law Offices use their custom cards to make their clients feel at home when they come for a consultation. They have both a summer and a winter view. We also offer our clients large prints suitable for framing of their custom art for holiday cards. Older clients especially appreciate the attention to detail, and the hand drawn touches that make custom cards by Albion Design special. What makes your business unique? Do your clients know your building, and might they share their experience with their friends if they had a chance? Consider having custom cards this year. They are like a gift to your clients, and might even take the place of gifts this year.
Remember we can print your signature inside of your custom note cards. This type of paper is called Finch Fine, or sometimes we use "House Cover." It is not a gloss stock, nor does it have the heavy texture of the Strathmore Pastelle. It is a quality stock though that prints well for color or black and white. We have used this stock longer than any other. For higher quantities of cards where costs are a concern - these cards are a great way to go. Having your contact information on the back of your holiday greeting is a good way to help your business grow. Most generic cards just do not offer these little touches. We offer you the option to get a print of your art, suitable for framing, after our holiday rush. It's the conversations, over the art, on your cards, and on your wall, that will bring in new clients, and keep the old. Happy Holidays! Be sure to write and ask us for our flier of card prices! We'd love to look at your photos and give you some ideas on your special holiday cards for this year!
Chalgian & Tripp Elder Law Offices



Maggie brings the same skills to her new art work and web design created in her Macintosh computer. Maggie shows her clients proofs of work in progress over the web so they can be a part of the creative process. Browse this site to see examples of Maggie's work. Stop by again as we add more samples of actual photographs of cards we have created over the years. Contact us at the link below for pricing for your custom holiday cards, and samples of cards we have created for others.

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Tim Haahs Multi Purpose Parking Structure Atlantic City New Jersey TimHaahs is a multi-disciplined engineering and architectural design firm, that choose Albion Design to create their custom cards in 2016, 2015 and 2014. Their building designs are lively and fun. Tim wanted their cards to show the excitement of the buildings in their look and purpose. Click the arrow above to see the card we designed for TimHaahs in 2015.

To create the TimHaahs Architect Firm's cards, we started with an architect's rendering from a similar angle. We used Google Earth to see more of the surrounding roads, and we added festive holiday touches, snow, a new sky, people and cars to liven it up a bit. We show our work to our client over the web, then provide printed cards and envelopes with the final design as part of a holiday card package. See the next slide Click the arrow above to see the card we designed for TimHaahs in 2014.
The building shown is a multi-purpose building - that includes parking, in Atlantic City New Jersey. It is located next door to Trump Plaza. Architect Tim Haahs has offices in five major U.S. cities. Haahs is admired for his hard work, despite being a survivor of two heart transplant surgeries. We were honored to be chosen to do this project. See the next slide Click here to see the inside of Tim Haahs 2014 holiday card. Inside of the TimHaahs card is a cheerful greeting, with the theme of the "wave" running through the card (see top of this card image.) See the next slide to see the back of Tim Haahs 2014 holiday card. The back of the TimHaahs card shows their logo, the wave, and a credit to the card designer. Click on the card to close it and see the other special cards on this page.
Tim Haahs & Associates Architects of Philadelphia had us create their holiday cards in 2016 (also 2015 and 2014!) See them all here.
Click on art to read the story.
Custom Corporate Holiday Cards

Here at Albion Design, we have created many holiday cards for different corporations, and for municipalities as well. Our main artist, Maggie LaNoue begins with photos. As she learns what you would like to see in your card, she adds some personal touches. The card you end up with is unique. It becomes a keepsake. Each one of these cards has a special message, and many have a story on the back of the card as well. It's not too early to think about special cards for your corporate holiday greetings. In addition to holiday cards, we create custom thank you cards, invitations, gifts, greeting cards and announcements. Get more information about custom holiday cards.

Read about Revitalization Dreams and how
much your mailings can mean to your clients.
This view of the Campbell Memorial on Dequindre Cut was chosen by the Detroit RiverFront Conservancy for their 2016 holiday cards. Since we were close by, we were able to get some aerial photos with our drone as a basis for our art. We add snow, mist and other holiday touches to the view. We removed the leaves from the trees, added some holiday touches and geese flying overhead. This spot is a favorite place for local musicians to perform, either for official concerts or for impromptu music events and photo shoots. The performance stage was created by adapting the remnants of an old overpass, and the surrounding graffiti on the walls adds to the ambiance. There is good lighting and security phones all around. This is a favorite spot for walkers and bicyclists as well. You can see eight different years of cards we created for the RiverFront here on this site. Click the arrow at the bottom of this art to see the art from 2015.
The 2015 holiday cards we created for the Detroit RiverFront Conservancy have a more subdued look that shows the chilly wonder of the River Walk on a cold winter day. In this scene we captured some of the beauty of Mt. Elliott Park that has water features that are lots of fun in the summer. Across the water is Belle Isle. There are previous years designs of the Detroit RiverFront on the left sidebar. But for now... Click the arrow at the bottom of the card to see the holiday cards we created for Falco Construction of New York. This view of Central Park New York was chosen by our client Falco Construction Corporation for a fanciful holiday 2010 holiday card featuring their workers and piledriving equipment. Many of the same theme elements were in the card designs we created for them over the years. This view overlooking the New York skyline was created for Falco Construction to commemorate their 50th anniversary. The owner wanted a scene that would be a keepsake, to honor her parents who founded the company. The inside of the Falco anniversary card was specially designed to echo the sky on the front of the card. Every part of your custom card from Albion Design can be fine tuned and you can see proofs over the web. This type of card is very affordable in runs of 1,500 or more. The back of the card is a great place for special messages about your corporation or city. This is an actual photo of the back of this unique holiday card. Click anywhere on the card to return to the web site. The cards we created for Falco Construction in 2001 took on a patriotic note because of the events in New York and America that year.
We customized the back of the card (shown at right) to explain why their logo of the skyline of New York would not change, even though the skyline itself did. The year 2000 shows a simpler time than just one year later in New York. For the Falco cards, a recurring theme has been the holiday decorations and the building of a snowman.

To see yet an earlier holiday card project for Falco Construction click here.

Falco's 1999 Holiday Card

To see yet an earlier holiday card project for Falco Construction click here.

Falco's 1998 Holiday Card, our first for their company. In later years we would build their website, a website for a daughter starting a cake business, and other projects.

Click the navigation X or in the image above to close this screen. If you would like to contact us about custom holiday cards, click here.

Detroit RiverFront Conservancy holiday card design for 2016 and 2015.
Prior years designs are on the left sidebar.

Picture your business on a special note card

What story does your organization have to tell? Think about a concept for your business holiday cards, invitations, or thank you cards for clients. You can collect some photos that we can incorporate into your design. Due to your requests we now show you actual photos of our cards. If you click on the images in the galleries you can see the texture of the paper, the image of the inside of each card and the back of each card.

As you click through the galleries, think about the story of your organization or city. We show you proofs and concepts online so you can be a part of the creative process. When people receive your special cards designed by Albion Design, they will look at them closely, feel them, and keep them. These cards are more like a gift than a card. Collect your photos, ask us for sample cards, take a count of how many cards you might like to send, and dream a little about sending something special this year.

 

Custom art for colleges We work to be sure your art looks good at any size.