Firm Comes to the Rescue of Crafters Stuck for a Millennial Sticker
Even though her company printed more than 650 million decorative stickers in hundreds of patterns last year, Andrea Grossman had not planned to produce a millennium design.
“We weren’t going to do anything--I was feeling a little bit ho-hum about the millennium, and it seemed kind of corny,” she said. “Then we realized how many stores were asking for it.” So her staff hustled and came up with several versions of a festive, confetti-strewn “2000” design that was printed earlier this month. “It was a piece of cake--we have a great design team,” said Grossman. A graphic artist who designed a red heart with an adhesive backing in 1979 that was an instant success, she has been saluted in the New York Times as the “patron saint of a niche business.” She now heads the Petaluma-based Mrs. Grossman’s Paper Co., one of the largest designers and manufacturers of stickers in the world. Sticker users have found they can become instant artists by cutting, combining and layering the designs. Most people use them to make cards, said Grossman, but stickers also come in handy as household decorations. “They’re used to decorate lampshades, light switch plates, door hangers and appliances. People put them on unpainted furniture and then shellac it. And there’s a huge market in party favors and invitations. I am always astounded at the inventiveness of consumers.”
She printed 400,000 of the festive 2000 stickers. “It’s not just a New Year’s Eve thing,” she said. “I think it will be used all of next year for yearbooks and scrapbooks and diaries.” Locally, the stickers are available at Flax, Pumpkin Toys and Sticker Planet.
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The Real Thing: While some of us may fall back on stickers to create greetings, the annual holiday tidal wave of cards gives designers a chance to show off their artistry with a personal touch. Of all the holiday cards that have poured in this season from local decorators, designers and craftspeople, we were most impressed by one from furniture designer James Jennings. His elegant pop-up Jewel Collection card not only salutes the holiday, but highlights one of his products, a walnut Manhattan chest with silk-lined drawers.
The New Look: Furniture designer Bil Wilson says he has reinvented himself for the millennium. His FreWil showroom at 601 N. La Brea Ave. in Los Angeles has been remodeled, renamed Area, and is open to the public. Wilson still carries his own furniture collections, but has added vintage accessories, pottery and plans to introduce a retail line of mid-century modern furniture. “I’ve reregistered the trademark of Dunbar furniture, which Edward Wormley designed in the ‘50s and early ‘60s,” he said. “It’s simple, clean-line Modernist furniture in rich woods. I’m introducing a line of reproductions.”
