OrlandoSentinel.com: Business

Although Shelly Wasserman's home office is festooned with holiday decorations, there isn't a Christmas tree or menorah in sight.

Instead a bouquet of artificial flowers and four pictures of mothers sit atop his desk. What happened to Christmas 2003?

Wasserman, 70, celebrated that 18 months ago. That's when his holiday card portfolio was due at Recycled Paper Greetings LLC, the Chicago-based privately held greeting-card publisher. Now he's hard at work on Mother's Day 2005, due in early January.

Wasserman of Glenview, Ill., is one of Recycled Paper's 250 freelance card designers nationwide, says Mike Keiser, who founded the company in 1971 with fellow Amherst College English major Phil Friedmann. Two of the designers -- including a Kissimmee artist -- live in Florida.

According to Marianne McDermott, senior adviser at the Greeting Card Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade association, greeting card revenues nationwide are $7.5 billion annually. "About 40 percent is holiday cards," she said.

Recycled Paper is "one of a handful of companies in contention for third place behind Hallmark and American Greetings," she added. McDermott can't be more specific because the contenders are "private companies and don't release revenues or earnings."

Numbers may be tough to come by, but defining what makes a successful holiday card isn't.

"I'm looking for warm and witty," said Keiser, who accepts card submissions from anyone. "I try to avoid formulas, but it's got to have heart. There's got to be a strong visual and a great punch line."

Getting inspiration for a punch line is the hard part, designers say. And it can come from anywhere.

"My mind is on call 24 hours a day," said Wasserman, a retired ad agency creative director. "An idea can pop while I'm driving or walking at the shopping mall. I've got a tape recorder on my nightstand. If I wake up in the middle of the night with an idea, I can whisper it into the recorder."

Melinda Gordon, 57, Recycled Paper's creative director, who has designed cards since 1980, is "constantly reading," she said. "I read to keep up with what's hot. I also overhear funny things on the street that eventually morph into cards."

"I don't know how to explain it," said Dawn Munson-Detloff, 48, a Southfield, Mich.-based card designer. "It's a knack -- like inheriting a joy gene. I was labeled a daydreamer when I was in school, someone who didn't pay attention. When you are creating, you have to daydream. You have to let yourself go."

Munson-Detloff, who devises punch lines and paints illustrations for her cards, spends 20 minutes to 20 hours on each. She submits about 50 cards to Recycled Paper at a time.

"Sometimes, they pick three or four," she said. "That's considered good. Sometimes they'll pick eight. That's great. I send way more in than they need. They like variety."

Other artists send in only a handful.

"Years ago, I used to send 10 or 12, and it was really overkill, because they weren't as perfect as they should have been," said Cynthia Bainton, a freelancer who lives in Kissimmee.

So rather than spend time on artwork she knows will probably be rejected, Bainton, who began freelancing for Recycled Paper 13 years ago, likes to spend a lot of time on just a few ideas, polishing them until she thinks they shine.

She recently completed designs for Mother's Day 2005, "and I'm very happy with the three I did," she said. "It may sound odd, but if out of three designs they take one, I'd be very happy."

Unlike some artists, who submit simple sketches to avoid wasting time on ideas that don't sell, she produces finished artwork and makes photocopies on paper that is exactly the size of a greeting card.

She doesn't mind if most of her work doesn't sell. "It's not a waste," she said. "I believe the work feeds on itself to develop other ideas."

Days after finishing her card designs for Mother's Day 2005, "I'm already thinking of something for Valentine's 2006."

It isn't unusual for artists to work so far in advance.

By last June 30, the deadline for Holiday 2004, the firm had received about 2,500 holiday card submissions, Keiser estimated. Recycled Paper's 10-person selection team accepted about 4 percent, or 100 cards. They were printed in August and September and are in limited distribution tests now.

Test cards that sell well (the top 20 percent) will be distributed in all of the firm's markets -- the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom -- during holiday season 2004.

When a card is accepted, Recycled Paper's designers receive 5 percent of net sales. Over 15 years, Wasserman's royalties have fluctuated between $20,000 and $50,000 annually. "A good card is like an annuity," he said. "It can keep producing for you for a long time."

Card designing is challenging, the designers say, but holiday card designing is even more so.

"You have to use icons like Santa and Christmas trees, but the challenge is how can you be original and different," said Minneapolis-based designer Gibson Carothers. "You've got to use something safe and at the same time be very creative."

Four years ago Wasserman designed "The Ultimate Christmas Card That Says It All." That's all that's on the cover. There are no words inside, just a picture of Jesus giving a thumbs-up sign.

"It's risque to use Jesus in that manner," said Wasserman, who estimates 10 percent to 15 percent of his submissions are accepted. "It's taking it to the edge, but not going over the edge. It's become a consistent best seller."

This article by Ann Therese Palmer first appeared in the Chicago Tribune, a Tribune publishing newspaper. Todd Pack of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report.