Design Spotlight: Tom Heintjes

Today we’re putting the Design Spotlight on Tom of The Festivus Pole, and he’s going to tell us about Festivus!

_________________________

A few years ago, I started seeing Festivus e-cards going around, and I thought it would be fun to mail paper Festivus cards. I didn’t see any, so I made a couple and put them on GCU so I could buy them for myself. Ideas for cards kept coming to me, so I put more and more cards up, and somewhat to my surprise, people were buying them! So I opened up a Festivus card store on GCU focusing on that single niche holiday.

One of the common misconceptions about Festivus is that the TV show “Seinfeld” created the holiday. The truth is, the holiday predated the TV show by decades—a man named Dan O’Keefe did invent the holiday in the 1960s, and his family celebrated it each year, but its date floated around. The boy in that family, Daniel O’Keefe, grew up to become a writer on “Seinfeld” and described the made-up holiday his family celebrated, and they made a storyline out of Festivus. So while it’s safe to say that “Seinfeld” popularized Festivus, it most assuredly did not invent it. Mr. O’Keefe gets credit for the new holiday!

Over the years, I’ve done a couple of things to keep my Festivus card fresh. One thing is creating Festivus party invitations, since more and more people are throwing Festivus parties around the holidays because they’re nondenominational and have some pop-culture cachet. I also developed a few “naughty” Festivus cards that have done well, but I guess it’s no surprise that naughty sells.

I’ve also created a bunch of cards that take traditional Christmas imagery—Santa Claus, snowmen, wrapped gifts, etc.—and mash it up with Festivus wishes. It combines the heartwarming elements of Christmas with the contemporary, secular notion of Festivus and gives the cards an off-kilter feel that I find appealing. The thing I like about this approach is that I can take vintage and copyright-free images and clip art and create a card that feels fresh and fun.

One of my favorite cards—I purchase and send this one out myself—and one of my most popular was created from vintage clip art. It depicts the basic traditions of Festivus using clip art, and the color scheme I chose mimics the dull green, red and gold that I remember from my parents’ old glass Christmas ornaments. I didn’t quite get the muted gold that I wanted to, but I got kind of close, and the colors give the card a faded, retro feel that suits the vintage look of the clip art and gives it a cohesive feel.

I’ve been creating Festivus cards on GCU for about four years now, and sales improve each year. I also see more Festivus card sellers on there, which is good for all of us—it means Festivus continues to move into the mainstream. Each year, I say to myself that I doubt I’ll be able to come up with any more card designs that I need to add, and every year I end up adding more cards as new ideas come. I guess the bottom line is that I get a kick out of helping people celebrate a relatively new holiday while I get to develop cards that feel fresh and fun at the same time. Partnering with GCU to accomplish this truly is a Festivus miracle!