Comic Book Christmas cards now on sale! (and the ratings have begun!)

Here we go again...

Some of you observant ones might have noticed that we uploaded the Christmas cards to the server last night, to give you guys a sneak peek at what's on offer (and to designers, who your competition is).

Well, enough with the teasing. Ratings are now open at www.foldees.com/designrating.aspx from now until November 20th!

The Ratings

As mentioned before, we've kept the pool smaller this time... so you have 60 cards to rate in all. For those of you new to the site, we have a random ratings engine which randomly brings up cards for you to review (you need to be logged in though).

Once you've rated all the cards, you'll get a Coupon Code that you can use to redeem a FREE CUSTOMISED CARD! Before you ask, no you don't have to make a purchase to redeem your card. Heck, if you're not buying anything else, you don't even need a credit card. See how we love you guys?

The Incentive

The highest rated cards after the ratings period (which ends 20th November 2008) will determine who gets first dibs into Santa's Bag'o'Gadgets, with over US$2500 worth of goodies and cash to be won. Once again, please vote fairly. We pruned a sizeable number of votes from our last contest due to what we deemed to be unsportsman-like behaviour, and we'll do it again to ensure that this is a greeting card contest, not a popularity one.

Improvements

For you card shoppers, we've just included a category system that'll make it way easier for you guys to search for cards. We're currently working on a version that'll let you scroll through more categories within the same page so watch out for that. Meanwhile, if you have any suggestions of things you'd like to see at our site, do send them to ideas@foldees.com

Speaking of ideas, many of you have requested individual card pages so that you can forward them to your friends. We're working on this right now, and it should be up by the time the ratings period is over :)

 

In other news, to our Malaysian friends, we're also going to be in The Star Section Two, with a super cheesy picture of myself and my (business) partner, Alvin, so go pickup a copy to see what we look like up close n personal like.

Till then, happy ratings and don't take any milk-based candy from strangers tonight (Halloween cards next year fer sure).

That's a wrap once again!

And submissions for the second Foldees contest have now been closed! Happy DIWALI everyone!

Thank you to everyone for once again taking the time and sweaty palms to submit some really quality work to our site.

This time around, we've taken a slightly different stance in terms of the entries we received. Quite a few of you were asked to re-submit your work with a rejigging of ideas (no, it wasn't just you).

This is because we've decided to take a consultative role in your greeting cards. We've found that while many of you have some awesome ideas and abso-fricking-lutely wicked designs, you also had your fair share of issues with phrasing, and copywriting.

While we won't profess to be greeting card experts, our team does have a strong editorial background in copywriting and publishing. As such, we want to work with you guys to get the best out of your cards!

Of course, this level of consultation also takes its toll on our time and resources. As such, not all of your cards will make it into the final cut. Despite receiving slightly more submissions this time around (around 200+ on last count), we've narrowed this round to a final cut of 60 cards (our earlier contest, "We Are All Geeks" had 70 finalists).

Remember, on 1st November, we open to site to our now (in)famous Random Rating Engine, which will scroll through all the cards randomly asking each for a rating. Put in about 15 minutes of your time to review all the cards, and you'll net yourself a FREE CUSTOMISED CARD sent to anywhere on the planet... no strings attached! So don't forget to blog, shout, use a sandwich board and walk the streets or post on your favourite forums to your friends asking them to come down and give us a hand in choosing a winner.

One of the things that really took off were the amount of international entries to the site this time around. For that, we mostly have to thank Francesco from www.graphiccompetitions.com, who not only posted about our contest, but even extended the date when we did. Aside from that, we also did our random posting on blogs and forums, which has resulted in a good 30-40% of our entries this time from beyond our shores.

As some of you guys might know, we're just a small Malaysian company, that is aiming for the big leagues and wants to bring everyone with us! And I have to say this again, I am once again in awe of the talent on show here. It's really a testament to what we believe we can achieve in the greeting card market, with so many talented designers out there in the market.

Also, with the names removed, you'd never guess which countries these entries come from. Except for BadAdam's one design: -

5 essential ingredients in a Foldees card (and a sneak peek at our Comicbook Christmas collection)

1. One fresh punchline - The greeting card is one of the only mediums on the planet that lets you have a punchline (i.e. you can hide the punchline until the recipient opens to greeting card). Don't waste this opportunity! Find a way to leave something that would either elicit a wink or a smile from someone.

2. A light splash of vectors - This is something that is a personal preference for me. I love uncluttered designs with simple, solid lines. This is also part of the reason why we chose to disallow gradients from our designs. I believe that one of the main things that makes Foldees designs stand out on a rack (which we are getting soon ;)) are the clean uncluttered designs on many of our cards.

 

3. Two tablespoons of CrAzY - I always believe that a little bit of craziness never hurt anyone. We love cards that get that "What the heck!?" response, and we've been getting our fair share of those from our first contest.

4. A pinch of purpose - While the cards are primarily made for the contest, we do need to sell them at the end of the day. This means that the cards have to be created with a specific purpose in mind, and not just as a design showcase. Another blog post will be created on this soon, but the main thing is that as long as you can imagine yourself giving the card to someone (who isn't a paper recycler), you're good to go :)

5. Bake in current time - One of the advantages of you guys submitting in designs is that we can use them almost immediately, with a very quick approval process. This makes it possible for cards to come out that relate to current events, for instance, the current economic crisis, or a new movie.

 

Yup, some awesome Christmas Cards comin' your way. And one heckuva promotion for all your friends living far, far away!

Stay tuned!

Don't use plastic bags!

One of my personal pet peeves is plastic bags.

I absolutely detest them, and here at Foldees, we keep our use of plastic to the absolute minimum. We use a small plastic sheet to keep your blank cards dry as they reach you, and that's it.

Unfortunately, especially here in Malaysia where we're based, plastic bags are used with abandon. Even among my own group of friends, people still have the mentality that since plastic bags are free, they should just take them.

One example was when I went with a bunch of friends to 7-11 for a coupla beers. My friend got the Heineken can in a plastic bag. As soon as we walked outside the door, he opens the beer and chucks the bag into the wastepaper basket. I asked him in shock, "Dude, why did you even bother taken the bag!?"

"He gave it to me."

"Can't you just say no?"

"Ok, Ok captain planet."

Unfortunately, this sort of thinking is common. The problem is, plastic bags are non-bio-degradable. This means that they won't just rot away (unlike paper) when thrown. Your plastic bag will find it's way somewhere, and here's a good idea of what will happen to it.

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080506/MULTIMEDIA02/80505016

So what can you do about it?

Well, stop using plastic bags with abandon. If you've only got one or two items, stuff em in your pockets, or just carry them by hand to the car. If you need to use a plastic bag, then at least make sure you use it well. Wrap your trash with it.

Several supermarkets have started offering recyclable shopping bags. You can usually see em at the checkout counter for under US$1. And the advantages in using these isn't only environmental. They also don't cut into your fingers the way a plastic bag (with a bag full of rice in it) will, and they look alot cooler too! You'll also be amazed at just how much of your groceries you can fit into one of these babies.

Foldees places a huge amount of importance on being as environmentally conscious as possible. Our paper, as mentioned on our site, is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. This means that the paper is sourced from well-managed forests, and even has procedures in place to make sure that human rights are respected in its harvesting (which is why the paper is so bloody expensive). Unfortunately, we can't use their logo since we can't (yet) afford their vigorous certification audit. However, as soon as we can afford to, we will.

Even our envelopes are made from Hemp paper, which is made from paper-waste products (although we'd like to switch to post-consumer waste once costs allow).

We believe that our greeting cards are meant to convey all sortsa of wonderful feelings.

And guilt shouldn't be one of em :)

imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

While I was doing my PR rounds and trying to get into a few international forums, i stumbled upon something astounding.

www.foldsy.com

The resemblance is uncanny. Did they get word of us? Cos I can assure you, this is news to me. I'm dumbfounded!

And sorta flattered :)

Besides, the designs comin from you guys are wayyyyyyy cooler!

A few entries already, and the aftermath of Prize-giving (and pics for both!)

All things considered, it's been a quiet week for us for once. Our staff (all three of us) had a really good break over Raya, and now we're back, pumped and ready to kick some booty!

And what a surprise we had while we were on our little break as well. Two days after we launched the competition, we started receiving entries! And they're pretty darn good, so the rest of you better get your keisters in gear.

Here's one entry from ud33n. I love this one.

It's one of those more subtle type jokes that I love. Besides, who wouldn't crack up at the site of Darth Vader in a Santa suit? I mean honestly....

Speaking of Santa suits, check these babies out...

L-R: Bem, Jayhan, Me, Chapit's friend, Chapit, Vapour, Roong and (sorry i forgot your name!)

Our first prize-giving ceremony was a nice, casual affair, which really let us get to know you guys better (and for you guys to get to know each other better!). At the event, we launched the 2nd contest, of which you know the theme by now (thus the reindeer horns). Here are a few more pictures from the event.

Preparation for the event. The girl in white is jean, our DB for the night.

 

The early comers, including Michael from The Star, his photographer, Darren, JayHan, Justin and Kevin.

The really late-comers, KarmaKloth83 (aka Matthew) and his girlfriend. they arrived just in time to finish the leftovers (Thanks guys! We hate wasting food!). Matt showing off his new bangs :)

  

Wernshen, the writer from LowYat.net with me, and PheiPhei with Hwe Chin holding up the foldees button badge.

Our DB doesn't like guys with facial hair. Apparently it tickles. St. Justin does his best impersonation of Home Alone.

My friend Calvin doing a bizarre impersonation of Zummi's an Urge To Poke.

4th place winner, Chapit, receiving his Bamboo Fun Tablet! He's quite a sleepy guy. Hope he wakes up to participate in this round of competition since his entries were some of my favourites.

2nd place winner, Bem69, getting both the Intuous3 4x6 (which he will be carrying around as his mobile design kit), and a cheque for RM1000! Bem came with his lovely fiance, Soulie (you can see her on the right holding another camera).

The final picture of the night, Guess who this car belongs to?

And five days later...

Emila Yusof receives her extremely big cheque (not in size, but in amount), with her winning card, and her MASSIVE Intuos3 A4. Our slightly height-challenged photographer accidentally cut my forehead off.

Unfortunately, Emmanuel Martinez (noelevz) hails from the Phillipines so he couldn't make it. CheeChingy is still at large. Anyone who has any clue as to her whereabouts, please contact us immediately*. In the meantime, to our Muslim buddies, HAPPY HARI RAYA, and Foldees.com would like to hope that you've stuffed yourselves silly after all that fasting!

 

* Just kidding, we're passing her gift to her tomorrow :)