Sanford and Newell/Rubbermaid News
Personnel: Prismacolor welcomes Danielle Bujan to the Brand Team. Danielle will serve as the Prismacolor Brand Manager. Danielle worked on the Sharpie Brand Team for the past three years and will be a great addition to the Fine Art community.
Ben Gadbois is now President, Markers, Highlighters, Art & Office Organization GBU and North America Region Writing Instruments and Office Organization for the Newell Rubbermaid North American Office Products Group. Ben most recently served as President of the Home Products GBU, which includes Rubbermaid Home Products.
Mo Wolthuis is appointed Vice President, Sales/Channel Marketing and Vice President/General Manager, N. America Region Core Office Products. Mo has been with Newell Rubbermaid since 2001 and has served in numerous roles with increasing responsibility. Most recently she was Vice President Sales/Channel Marketing for Rubbermaid Home Products and General Manager of Closet/Organization.
Company News: Newell Rubbermaid recently announced a realignment of facilities in the state of Tennessee. Manchester will become the global center of excellence for ink manufacturing. Construction began in October of 2008 on this state-of-the-art facility. Shelbyville has been chosen as the site for a new packaging center of excellence, to be co-located with the existing distribution center there. Pencil production will be moved to Mexico. Maryville, TN will become a center of excellence for manufacturing markers, highlighters and dry erase products at the end of 2009.
Strathmore & Pacon News: The Great Holiday Swap for Artist Trading Cards, hosted by Strathmore Artist Papers, generated a “huge” amount of enthusiasm from both retailers and artists!
Retailers who enrolled in the Holiday Swap promotion received merchandising materials to help in promoting, as well as a chance to win free product. Congratulations to Lyon Supply of Long Beach, CA for winning our promotional incentive – $2,000 retail of free Strathmore Product.
The Swap and Strathmore’s Artist Trading Cards were also featured in an ad published in The Artist’s Magazine, which helped generate in-store traffic for retailers.
Artists who participated in the Swap submitted their holiday or winter-themed original artist trading cards and in exchange, they received an original piece of art from another artist. Return swap cards were mailed on December 15, just in time for the holidays.
“We received over 1,000 entries,” says Jeanette Gile, Strathmore’s swap organizer. “The talent and creativity of the participating artists was amazing! We even had entries from store employees who couldn’t help but get caught up in the excitement.”
Following are a few of the comments Strathmore received:
“Thanks for a fun inspirational promotion!” – Collette Pitcher
“Thanks for the opportunity; it was a fun size to paint.” – Catherine Bottelman
“I have been using your art papers since I got my first sketch pad at 10 for Christmas. I was so excited about this project – my friends at work wanted to play too! Aren’t they (ATCs) wonderful!!” – Deborah
“I’ve been involved with making ATCs for about 5 years now and I think it’s great that you’re offering a holiday swap. I hope it is successful!” – Leela
In case you haven’t heard, artist trading cards are miniature pieces of art that are traded around the world. Artists create trade and collect art at organized swap events, either in person, online or by mail. The only official rule is that the trading card measures 2.5” x 3.5.” Strathmore makes it easy with its line of Artist Trading Cards – downsized versions of the same Strathmore papers that artists use for their full-sized art, conveniently cut to the official trading size.
In other contest news, Prismacolor has announced the category winners from the inaugural 2008 Artist Competition. To view the winning entries and read more about the artists who created them, visit www.prismacolor.com. Artists interested in entering the 2009 Prismacolor Art Contest can also visit www.prismacolor.com and click on Competitions for complete contest details.
• In the Art Marker category, David Alpert of Mechanicsville, Virginia, won with his work titled “Bodie Lighthouse – Outer Banks, North Carolina”
• In the Pastel category, Robert Carsten of Springfield, Vermont took the top prize with his “Concept and Composition”
• The Graphite category winner was Jason Krause of Philadelphia for his work “Maura, II”
• The Pen & Ink category winner, Rebecca Barmby, won for “Aftermath of the Party”
• Jonathon Jackson of Richmond Heights, Ohio won in Mixed Media with his work “Drawings from the Studio and Mexico”