Do You Believe in Magic?

Ideas That Work MAGIC

While thinking about designing some new self-promo materials, I dug out an early self marketing piece from way-back-when. This is probably the 1st 'mailer' I ever did for myself. It was from 1990 & it was a small folded postcard that opened to reveal the magic of Wizard Graphics-- my first company.

The cover stars the WG Wizard! State-of-the-art, art! My wizard dude was an early computer illustration chunkily mouse-drawn in Adobe Illustrator 88 by building simple shapes over scanned clip art (borrowed from a Clipart book-- hey, I told you it was 1990!). I added some shading (available in percentages of 10), shrunk-down star art on a black background and a very magical font exclaimed: Ideas That Work Magic. Bam! Impressive, eh? These were printed at the copy shop on glossy card stock, roughly hand-scored (as you can see below), folded and scotch tape sealed.

Looking back in time, the other side seems like rather bold & brash filler. The plain back was meant to look like a real postcard and includes a decorative script that read:

Having a great time, wish you were here! Business has boomed and we are quite successful. Call us and find out how we can help you and your business get a new, sharp look for the '90s. See you soon...!

Oh baby...!

The inside is all black like the cover and has a clipart top hat showering money (!!!) and a sharp-dressed 70's clipart dude. These pieces of stock art were both once used in a cut-and-paste sales flyer I had created at my first graphics job at Appliance Parts Distributors, late 80s (see back when here).

The fancy WG business card pops out since it has that expensive purple gradient on it (again, see old post about the history of my own personal biz cards including the original wizard, of Wizard Graphics). The sharply written, prince-esque marketing hoopla reads "Wizard Graphics Can Create Magic 4 U," "Design & Layout - Appearance & Appeal," "Creativity is the Key To Make It Happen," and the hit-'em-while-you-got-'em, call to action "Call Today."

My first design business supplied the following graphic design services (we have come so far):
promotional pieces
advertisements
business cards
business forms
newsletters
letterheads
invitations
brochures
envelopes
posters
menus
slides
fliers
logos
signs
and
much
more!

1990- there were no websites as of yet and the 'slides' mentioned were for event presentation (because Power Point was in it's infancy). I was starting to use computers back then and Pagemaker made laying out 'business forms' a snap. I once did an order form for Kreher's Egg farm -- my roommate was an Egg Farmer for a bit in the early '90s.

I sent these out in the US mail, maybe 50-60 pieces, to business addresses I looked up in the telephone book. I don't remember how I gathered this hand-made, targeted list of potential companies deserving of 'magic design'... but I sent them out and waited. A good portion of the list were bars and nightclubs in the Elmwood Village and Allentown, as well as a few existing clients. I think I had officially had a part-time job as a freelancer for about 4-5 years at this point.

Was the first self-mailer a success? Well for 1990 standards, not bad really: marketing-wise there is a loose concept, it delivers the list of services, it displays the fancy biz card and the call to action. I remember, I did get some work from an existing client, so it did win me a design project... You know, it was first stab at self-promo and I am still doing this 20 years later.

FOOTNOTE: This is not the earliest example of graphics I have dug out, did this poster from 1987-- the pre-computer days of Buff State....