It is one of the top occupations in the United States* and yet those who practice this profession are too often unnoticed and underappreciated.  They are the unsung heroes of the office: secretaries.

The term “secretary” covers a number of diverse professions: medical secretary, legal assistant, P.A., administrative assistant, social secretary, executive assistant.  Each shares common key characteristics: exceptional organizational and interpersonal skills.  In addition to these human qualities, secretaries often possess specific expertise such as proficiency in multiple languages and knowledge of office and accounting software.

To honor these important employees, we celebrate Secretary’s Day (officially “Administrative Professionals Day”) on April 22nd.  A small gesture of appreciation for the people who take care of everything from travel arrangements, ordering business cards, and tracking expenses to internal communications, organizing company events, and repairing the office coffee machine.  Don’t forget to acknowledge the hard work, patience, and dedication of your secretaries that make your business a success. 

A very special thank you, of course, to the secretaries at ooprint J

* According to the United States Department of Labor Occupational Employment Statistics

Spring has arrived, and with it fresh business card designs!

Modern collection

Large format collection

Photographic collection

Landscapes collection

In preparation for the famous “wedding season” which falls in the months from May to September, we have enriched our collection of wedding announcements.  In order to cater to the diverse expectations of our clients who will be exchanging their vows in the coming months, we have spent a great amount of time studying the trends, traditions, and novelties of weddings and then creating, editing, and recreating new designs.  

Our diligent designers gained inspiration from many different ideas, symbols, and images, both traditional and original, such as lilies, orchids, wedding bands, bride and groom figurines, pearls, and cherry trees to develop new models.  Their hard work has certainly paid off!  Our beautiful collection boasts a great variety of styles . . . classic, modern, romantic, photographic, illustrations, using a palette of colors from bold to pastel.  We are very proud of our collection and are sure that no matter your tastes, you will find your wedding announcement on ooprint.com.

In addition, we offer all the printed products necessary for your dream wedding.  You may select your favorite wedding announcement and also order its matching products!

Invitations    Invitations with map    Menus         Place Cards           Post Cards

As always, your wedding announcement, as well as all ooprint products, are entirely customizable. Compose a love poem, upload a photo of the bride and groom, add your contact information . . . we then print within 24 hours (a plus for couples so in love they can’t wait to wed!)

Saying “I do” ?  Browse our wedding announcements here.

We very recently had the pleasure of meeting the Grand Prize winner of our 2^nd annual Holiday Card Design Competition, Caroline Bugnet!  

To congratulate Caroline on her artistic talents and her beautiful holiday card creation, we joined together and toasted to her success.  Ooprint president Rafik Smati also presented Caroline with her prize, a (rather large) check for 1000 euros.

Caroline, originally a costume and fashion designer, was kind enough to share her creative approach (and design secrets) with us and explain how she achieved her final design.  To embrace the spirit of the holiday season and the New Year, Caroline chose the theme of passing time for her card.  She then elaborated on this idea, using the image of an old timepiece from which numbers fall symbolizing years passing, and fireworks to bring a festive note to the arrival of the New Year.  Caroline admits that she “didn’t believe in online competitions” but decided to participate all the same, and is now delighted to have won!  Bravo, Caroline, you successfully created a magical and celebratory atmosphere with which we can all identify.

For more information about Caroline, you can visit her website.

Anxious to show off your design skills and compete for the Grand Prize?  The next ooprint Holiday Card Competition will be announced soon!

In the meantime, keep an eye on our blog for the latest news about upcoming projects for designers!

Thank you to all the designers who participated in the ooprint Holiday Card Design Competition!  The ooprint team and our customers were extremely impressed by your creations, and want to see more!  So, here is some information about the winners and finalists . . .

Grand Prize

Caroline Bugnet

France

Caroline studied fashion design and modelling at ESMOD in France, where she received the Grand Jury Award and received 3rd place in the ESMOD school-wide competition.  Today, she applies her design skills as a Textile and Graphic Designer for Kenzo and various other brands.  In addition to her passion for fashion and costume design, she has developped an interest in cinematography and film special effects.  She recently fused these interests in her first short film project, Russian Nightmare, which has been selected to participate in several film festivals. 

Jury Prize

Jennifer Da Silva Pimenta

Switzerland

Passionate about the web and multimedia since her adolescence, Jennifer received her diploma as a Multimedia Designer from the School of Applied Arts in Geneva.  She works principally as a freeland designer, mastering numerous design softwares and programming languages.  Her latest plans are the launch of her own wedding & personal stationery company, http://www.pimentas-collection.com, which will be open in February 2009.

You can see more examples of Jennifer's work on her website, http://piment-a.com.

Finalists

First, a big thank you to all the finalists of the 2nd annual ooprint Holiday Card Design Competition.  Our clients were very impressed by your designs!

And now, congratulations to our winners!!

Grand Prize . . . Caroline Bugnet, France

Jury Prize . . . Jennifer Da Silva Pimenta, Switzerland

The Grand Prize was selected by the ooprint customers based on sales, and the Jury Prize was selected by the ooprint artistic team based on design merit.

Thank you to all the participants of the 2009 Holiday Card Design Competition, it was a great success!  See you next year!