Most mail is boring. Flipping though the daily assortment evokes no great thrill: lackluster paper usually with

nondescript letterheads, bland business briefs with little design flair. Business cards, too, blend insignificantly into the

Rolodex. So when PRINTs Regional Design Annual appears and demonstrates that some stationery is evocative of the

sender and that the business cards featured are business with an edge, the reader wants more

Here in Print s Best Letterheads & Business Cards 3, featuring award-winning work from recent editions of the

Regional Annual, the opportunity to reflect on a national collection of the best in stationery systems, letterheads

business cards, and corollary visuals, is inspiring and provocative, especially as the work is presented more opulently in

this generous book format. In the 160 examples shown, flair flourishes

The key to good stationery or a good business card is appropriateness. The design captures in one glance the

essential message of the sender. What the firm does, its esthetic, its .professionalism or its quirkiness, its efficiency

and its personal touch are all projected and made memorable

As usual in this kind of anthology, some images are repeated, the collective unconsciousness perhaps. Fruits and

vegetables appear in abundance: Drop-shadowed apples seem inevitable for Apple Partners; romantic illustrations of

grapes, a pear, and a wine glass capture the spirit of Italia (restaurant, dell, bakery, caterer, wine shop, and art

gallery) ; cabbage and a potato provide an earthy introduction to Culinary Specialists, Inc