I’ve always loved receiving mail. As a child it was birthday cards from my grandparents. Today my mailbox is a plethora of surprises with my favorite being the retail catalog. Most people look at a catalog for the sale items – I look at it for concept, design, print and paper quality and then – just maybe – the sale items. That’s just the way I’m wired after years of working in direct mail design. Plus, I really do get excited when I see exceptional work from other designers. I file these catalogs in my file cabinet under “creative inspiration” and all the others go in my “circular file.”

December is retail’s big month, not only for in-store sales but for the amount of Christmas catalogs that they print and mail. Major retailers start designing their Christmas catalogs in the late spring/early summer. By the time the catalogs are printed and sent to the mailing house, most designers and art directors feel as if they have delivered a baby.

As a rule, Monday is said to be the heaviest day for mail delivery because of the weekend. Experts say that for a mailpiece to be noticed it should arrive on Tuesday, since Tuesday is the lightest mail day. My question is, will catalog retailers follow this rule and cause Tuesday to become the new Monday? To answer this question, I will be conducting my own unofficial, non-scientific poll and will keep you posted as the results roll in.

The photo above is of my mailbox and it was taken yesterday which was Monday. It contained a business letter, a postcard advertisement from Hallmark, a 12-page Bed Bath & Beyond catalog (wahoo, now I can buy the Pajama Jean) and a crumbled, overcrowded sale flyer that I tossed in my “circular file.” Not the amount of mail I would expect for a “heavy” Monday going into the Christmas shopping season.

Please answer one of the following questions for me before you go:

1. Do you think that Tuesday will go from being the lightest day for mail delivery to being the heaviest during the month of December?
2. Which day do YOU receive the most mail – have you ever given it much thought?
3. Should I ask my husband for a new mailbox for Christmas or should I buy one for him?

The Spring bird migration has started here in Chippewa Lake, Ohio! For two weeks I’ve been hearing the calls of the ducks, geese and swans as they fly over Komjati Design. It’s wonderful being a wild bird enthusiast who lives AND works sandwiched between Chippewa Lake and a wetland area that stretches nearly three miles north. It does have it’s drawbacks though. There are times during the day when I want to grab my binoculars and race down to the lake because something caught my ear or eye. I certainly can’t do that when I’m in the middle of designing a clients new corporate identity program or sending their catalog off to the printer. My birding excursions are limited to lunchtime, breaks and the weekends – except in May.

Saturday, May 14 is coming and I can’t wait. That’s International Migratory Bird Day (IMBD) and a major event here at Komjati Design – I’ll be taking a whole week off! IMBD was created in 1993 by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. It celebrates the yearly northern bird migration and is also a peak time for spotting warblers. These tiny, brightly colored birds  will be arriving here in waves then, with many other Neotropical birds, from as far away as southernmost South America.

Want to learn more about wild birds and their migration? Check out the Shreve Migration Sensation on March 26th in Wayne County, Ohio. Here’s a great post about the event,  Ohio Birds and Biodiversity, by Ohio wildlife author and speaker, Jim McCormac.

And, if you want  to learn more about what I do here at Komjati Design, call me at 330.769.0344.