In the old days, a letter was sealed by a wax seal. This seal served a dual purpose of providing a tamper-evident closure for the envelope and identifying the sender. These days, we have envelopes that close with lick able glue or self-sticking glue. The sender identification is provided by return address labels that are stuck in the upper-left corner of the envelope. These address labels can be generic in appearance, or you can purchase custom-printed labels. Custom-printed labels provide a small decoration for your envelopes, and any small decoration is an advantage.
Most people look forward to the arrival of the daily postal delivery. Even though the mailbox usually contains nothing more exciting than junk mail or bills, it often contains the treat of a catalog. Occasionally, however, our sense of anticipation and suspense is rewarded with something personal, such as a greeting card or a travel postcard. We look forward to receiving such a token from a friend or loved one. These tokens of love and remembrance brighten our day more than any email message or phone call could ever do.
The old saying, “To have a friend, be a friend,” can be morphed into a new saying that says, “To receive mail, send mail.” But beyond just a message that can be filed away for future perusal, a message can be made more memorable by making it beautiful as well as meaningful. Start with the message inside. The simplest presentation is a thoughtful hand-written note on plain but nice stationery. The next step up is stationery with some decoration or small illustration that expresses the personality of the sender. If the paper is colored, most likely the envelope will be colored, too. The colored envelope stands out from the bills and junk mail as an early indicator of a fun time to come. Even more fun is a greeting card. Even if it’s just a simple birthday card, always, always add a short note to the person. Of course, we all know that many greeting cards come with an envelope that is more brightly colored than any stationery envelope. These occupy a truly festive spot in the mailbox. Getting back to address labels, now that you have a distinctive envelope for your distinctive personal message, decorate it further with a custom-printed address label.
Before we close the topic of personal mail, let’s consider the address on the front of the envelope. The United States Postal Service has published guidelines for the mailing address on the envelope. The Service requests that the address be typed in all capital letters without any punctuation. The last line of the address should contain the city, state, and ZIP code. The line above this should contain the street address. If there is a suite or apartment number, these should be on the same line as the street address and not on a line below. Since it is difficult to read all capital letters in a typeface with serifs, it is better to use a sans-serif typeface such as Ariel rather than one with serifs, such as Times New Roman.
This article encourages people to send personal notes through the mail to friends and relatives. These notes can be letters or greeting cards. The envelope can be decorated with color and a custom-printed address label.
