MoMA: Design in Elegance and Education

For over 14 years, we have had the privilege of working with and designing product for MoMA (Museum of Modern Art). Not only is the MoMA collection unique, but it also conveys a sense of visual elegance. 

For over 70 years, the Museum of Modern Art of New York has been dedicated to being the world’s foremost museum of modern art. Products developed and distributed by the Museum of Modern Art reflect the Museum’s commitment to modern art and good design. Proceeds from the sale of these products support the Museum’s programs.

WHAT MAKES MoMA SO DIFFERENT?
All products are first reviewed and approved by curators of the Museum’s Architecture & Design Department and assessed against their design filters, a set of 8 criteria that they use to ensure every item is a good fit with their vision of good design. Second, they work toward the goal of making each design accessible to as wide an audience as possible.

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS
Every year, MoMA engages with over one million people through their programming in the Museum as they interact with adults and young adults in all five New York City boroughs and around the world. 

 

IMC welcomes LAMY to our family of brands

Please join us in welcoming our newest retail partner to the IMC Family, Lamy Writing Instruments.

 About the Brand:
Lamy is a globally recognized brand known for their precision German engineering, attention to detail, and superior design. Known for their creativity and ingenuity, Lamy is the proud recipient of several prestigious design awards year after year. Lamy manufacturers on-sight in their corporate headquarters located in Heidelberg, Germany. The Lamy Writing Instruments have truly captured the virtues and ingenuity of German engineering.

Quality:
The Lamy brand stands for quality. A world-recognized writing instrument defined by their timeless design and aesthetic perfection. Their success began in 1930 in Heidelberg, Germany with the Lamy 2000 and nearly 90 years later, the brand continues to remain the leader in high-quality writing instruments. Lamy is a global leader in the use of molded synthetic plastics and their designs are unmistakable. The brand represents quality, functionality, and elegance.

Lasting Impressions:
Lamy’s signature iconic clip, one of the innovative design features of the Safari and the Al-Star, is seamless and sleek and one of the many exquisite details that makes this writing instrument memorable. The Lamy Tipo spares no attention to detail in sleek yet functional design. The clip appears only when the pen is closed to avoid accidental leaks.

How to Choose a Lamy Premium Writing Instrument:
Each individual develops their own unique and personalized style of writing from the time they learn to write. It is as distinctive as a fingerprint, an expression of our personality. A Lamy Writing Instrument is truly an extension of ourselves; each design is as unique as the individual using it.  Every Lamy design has its own refined elegance and silky smooth flow. The moment you hold a Lamy Premium Writing Instrument is the moment you realize you are in the presence of excellence.

Tips:

• Each refined Lamy design has its own unique features and flow, so choose a style that resonates with your personality.
• Let the instrument become an extension of yourself to allow your individual writing expression to develop organically.
• Consider the weight and feel of the instrument and the flow of the tip. The variations of characteristics in each design are technically striking and completely individualized.

What does your pen say about you?

When You Want to be Remembered!

How To Use Promotional Products to Strengthen Your Brand: Recent studies conducted for the promotional gifting industry showed a global branding trend of branded, high-quality, luxury items being used for promotion over disposable goods.  In a recent article featured in, Fast Company Magazine, promotional product distributors were criticized for producing cheap, disposable products, and eluded to the fact that more that 60% ended up in the trash after an event. Consumer Engagement: How effective are promotional products when it comes to creating brand identity and building public awareness?  In the December issue of PPB Magazine, in an article by Paul Bellantone, he stated, “Promotional products are truly the only advertising medium that reaches all five senses, plus a sixth- the sense of ownership for consumers.” Research shows that more than three out of four people can recall the name of the advertiser on a promotional product they received within the past 12 months.  Promotional items are one of the most cost effective forms of advertising.  They have the ability to promote a product and drive incremental sales without discounting. Building Brand Identity: So, you’re at an event among hundreds of your competitors. What makes you stand out? How will they remember you after the event? What is your plan to stay on the radar of a potential client? Businesses have become more strategic when it comes to their marketing budget and tracking their ROI after an event. Research from The Pew Research Center found there are 75.4 million U.S. millennials within this demographic, which makes them one of the most power target audiences in consumer history. Businesses today are strategically positioning their brand with high-end promotional items that are unique, yet purposeful, and are both clever and innovative. They seek to find quality items that speak the language of their target market and products that emotionally connects their brand to their audience. Trending: Another popular trend in the promotional products industry is the demand for brand name retail products used as promotional merchandise. Retail brands are recognizable and hold their value, especially among the millennials. In addition to IMC’s top ten in trend of most popular products and collections, we also partner with over 26 high-valued retail brands so we basically have a product solution for every situation. If your objective is to be remembered, consider a few tips from the experts:  Choose products that are the right market match for your brand.  Consider associating and positioning your brand with something completely “Out-Of-The-Box.” Choose products that are functional, purposeful, or meaningful. IMC products, collections of eclectic promotional ideas, and partnerships are poised to give your brand a voice. Choose products that speak to your market. Focus on products that integrate into everyday life, products that serve a purpose, or are entertaining. Please feel free to contact one of our agents to assist you with any and all of your promotional needs.  Don’t end up in the trash!

I’ll Drink to That

Donn James

Well, winter is over around here and we’re back to driving poorly with no excuse because the roads are dry and aside from a few potholes the size of the well Timmy kept falling into that Lassie told us about, everything is back to abnormal and we can have one more drink before we drive home.
I realized I have a lot of friends and acquaintances who drink and some probably drink to excess although some don’t drink enough to make them interesting to me so that might even things out. After all these years I have learned you can’t tell how alcohol is going to impact someone. Some people get morose, some get happy and what seems to be an ever-increasing number of you get ornery. We’ve all been in a room or outside a bar when an inebriated person of either gender has asked these fateful words, “Wasn’t I wearing pants when I got here?” I know of a female acquaintance whose family and friends will no longer let her drink vodka because they say she gets too mean so now she just drinks tequila and cries. Everyone who has been around drinkers has seen the changes some people go through as the alcohol courses through their systems. Many people have bought drinks for others when the last thing those persons needed was another drink but the person who bought the round was probably drunk so they’re likely not the best person to make that decision and since bars are not typically concerned with over-serving their paying customers until they’re driving away, I have to keep my funeral suit cleaned and pressed. We have warning labels for everything else now so maybe it’s time to update the warning labels on alcohol. Do Not Drink if Pregnant or if it Makes you Mean or if You’re Driving a Tractor. A simple statement like that could save lives. Speaking of friends…if you say things that upset your friends it might not be your fault. You probably just need different friends.
As winter winds down I want to report my grandson is growing, making sounds only a parent understands and reaching and grasping things which is a huge leap from eating, sleeping and crapping but I’m told that is the natural progression. When it happened to me I was too young to remember it. I think he’s cute but all grandparents usually think that about their bloodline but I have to tell you that while some of us are right about that, some of you are just wrong because I see a lot of babies who look like Don Rickles or Dobby the elf. I don’t want to alarm you because most of them seem to grow out of it but let’s not kid ourselves; some babies are not that good looking. I’ve seen some babies where I just want to say, “Can you cover your baby? He’s scaring my Rottweiler.” Most of the time I don’t say that out loud because I’ve found that when you say something like that, that’s when you need a new group of friends.

IMC has in excess of 2,200 promotional products that will help you serve your client and we are adding new brand partners and products from our collections and our established retail brand partners. We believe IMC products speak for themselves and we can also show you ways to use and market them to your clients. Our products with decoration will have your customer coming back time and time again. Since introducing Waterford® Writing Instruments and MoMA years ago, IMC has presented more than 60 retail brands from global suppliers to enhance the selections you can offer your clients. We invite you to browse any of our 2,200+ products on the BRAND NEW IMC website to see items suitable for any occasion or event and pieces you can use to personalize your relationship with your clients. You can register as a distributor, track orders, upload art for virtual samples and even create your own flyers and catalogs of our products. The 2019 IMC catalog is available by request from the IMC website and is posted on the online services. The 2019 catalog is in and includes new retail product and brands as well as additions to our IMC Collections. We’ll continue to treat our clients professionally and get your orders to you…on time and on budget. You can also request our 2019 catalog using the catalog page of our website or download the PDF or see it virtually on our website, Zoom and SAGE. We have products for every event and if your client has invented a holiday or celebration, we can also custom-make almost anything you can dream to make your client’s event all it can be. Take a look at our YouTube channel to see some videos showcasing popular products for some ideas on how to use them. We take our business relationship seriously and we want you to enjoy, give and receive our products and be able to use them every day. We look forward to working with you and we always have ideas to make our products work for your clients. The 2019 IMC catalog remains live and available virtually at Zoomcatalog.com and on our website if you’re tired of fighting paper catalogs and it can be viewed nicely with your laptop, iPad, tablet or phone. IMC is the recognized leader in the introduction of new retail brands to the promotional product industry and has multiple design awards from both ASI and PPAI. We have promotional products for every event, show, convention, corporate store and company program that will keep your client looking to you for new ideas. What do you say…how’s the vodka?

 

Baby, It’s Cold Outside

Donn James

As we welcome February in I have to tell you I’m more than a little tired of all the whining. It rained yesterday and Californians were driving through it like they were trying to escape Armageddon while half the country can’t even find their cars with a snow blower and flame thrower. This shower is winter for us but it’s painfully embarrassing to hear us complain about a little rain when other parts of the country have to light a fire just to thaw out their underwear…and that’s while they’re wearing them. I’m aware of the rationale of what’s bad for one is not necessarily bad for another but all I’m asking for is a little foray into perspective which may be difficult for Californians because we tend toward selfishness. It’s just getting a little hard to take when they find some guy in Wisconsin frozen to his mailbox because he couldn’t wait to find out if he won the Publisher’s Clearing House Sweepstakes while we went positively apoplectic yesterday when we saw a puddle. East of here they’ll still be finding people, pets and wildlife when the snows melt in April but out here newscasters are giving me tips on driving when it’s cloudy. In Kansas they’re seeing live birds turn into scarecrows in the snow right before their eyes but I’m happy because the shower means I can turn off my sprinklers for a week to save water. Perspective, people. We can fly in the rain out of LAX but if the snow is so bad we can’t land anywhere north of Mexico City, I believe I’ll postpone that trip. If you’re homeless in Minnesota you’re probably already an ice sculpture but homeless in Santa Monica just means your refrigerator box turned into a bathtub…bonus!
I’m certain now that the weather divide really is noticeable when you need a tip to get something done. In the Northeast there are countless tips on how to melt the sheet of ice that forms on your windshield every night before hypothermia kicks in but out here we have tips on how to remove seagull crap before it damages the paint. In the Midwest they have hacks on how to make a snow tunnel so you can get to your garage alive while out here we’re trying to figure out how far we’ll have to walk if we don’t want to pay for valet parking. Another winter hack for snow country is to have rock salt, snow shovels, heating fuel and blankets in your car to keep your body warm while out here if we have a blanket in the car, we’re probably trying to dispose of a body.
It’s hard for us to imagine temperatures so low that people have to eat with plastic because metal spoons get stuck to your tongue while we complain when our flip-flops break so we should be thankful our winters are relatively mild. We complain when we get sand in our shoes but in Michigan that thing rattling around in your shoe is your toe.
So stop complaining about the rain and show some compassion for your fellow beings stuck in a winter that is pale, boring and frozen while you search for a tip to get mud out of your tires. It’s called a carwash and they’re open all year around here…but don’t go today because I saw a cloud in the sky so winter might not be over.

IMC has in excess of 2,200 promotional products that will help you serve your client and we are adding new brand partners and products from our collections and our established retail brand partners. We believe IMC products speak for themselves and we can also show you ways to use and market them to your clients. Our products with decoration will have your customer coming back time and time again. Since introducing Waterford® Writing Instruments and MoMA years ago, IMC has presented more than 60 retail brands from global suppliers to enhance the selections you can offer your clients. We invite you to browse any of our 2,200+ products on the BRAND NEW IMC website to see items suitable for any occasion or event and pieces you can use to personalize your relationship with your clients. You can register as a distributor, track orders, upload art for virtual samples and even create your own flyers and catalogs of our products. The 2019 IMC catalog is available by request from the IMC website and is posted on the online services. The 2019 catalog is in and includes new retail product and brands as well as additions to our IMC Collections. We’ll continue to treat our clients professionally and get your orders to you…on time and on budget. You can also request our 2019 catalog using the catalog page of our website or download the PDF or see it virtually on our website, Zoom and SAGE. We have products for every event and if your client has invented a holiday or celebration, we can also custom-make almost anything you can dream to make your client’s event all it can be. Take a look at our YouTube channel to see some videos showcasing popular products for some ideas on how to use them. We take our business relationship seriously and we want you to enjoy, give and receive our products and be able to use them every day. We look forward to working with you and we always have ideas to make our products work for your clients. The 2019 IMC catalog remains live and available virtually at Zoomcatalog.com and on our website if you’re tired of fighting paper catalogs and it can be viewed nicely with your laptop, iPad, tablet or phone. IMC is the recognized leader in the introduction of new retail brands to the promotional product industry and has multiple design awards from both ASI and PPAI. We have promotional products for every event, show, convention, corporate store and company program that will keep your client looking to you for new ideas. What do you say…how’s the weather?

 

Is There Coffee?

Donn James

I’m happy to work in a drug-free workplace because I like to at least have the illusion of being safe and I’d like to push some of the other states to offer gun-free workplaces but I know America likes to take baby steps so I’ll take what I can get. Oddly, you rarely see the drug-free sign outside a bar or real estate office which probably explains why bartenders and real estate agents always look pretty wired to me.
What continues to confound me is how we tend to abuse legal drugs like coffee because my offices drink enough coffee we could use to irrigate Peru. The majority of people here come in with coffee and continues to drink it throughout the day so by the mid-afternoon they’re wound tighter than a bullfrog’s butt and can’t fall asleep until April. They have more coffee flowing to various organs than they do blood. And we keep changing coffees in the office until we get a consensus of what everyone can tolerate because apparently there’s a difference between good coffee and bad coffee. What I think is that good coffee smells like shoe and bad coffee just smells like feet.
You can probably tell from my ignorance that I don’t drink coffee because I either don’t want to be awake or don’t want something that smells like feet and I really don’t understand when co-workers need a cup of coffee just to have the energy to get up and get a cup of coffee. I understand from many of my coffee-drinking friends (or fiends) that coffee keeps them going, upright, functioning and it keeps their streak of “never killed anyone” days alive but I have people bouncing around me like gibbons at the zoo and I’ve never had the hankering to drink speed all day. Those knowing me certainly would never believe I don’t drink coffee for religious reasons and by looking at me you would know it’s not for health reasons; it’s just I don’t like hot drinks. Friends tell me I could have iced coffee but why would I waste a good cup of ice dropping it into something that smells like an egg salad sandwich my kid left in the sun a week ago.
In the offices people make two types and I’ve heard them called regular and unleaded and I expect I’ll go to my grave not caring what that means but it looks like one allows you to function and one turns you into a lizard on hot concrete. And I think we should install a revolving door to the bathrooms because coffee seems to run through most people like Tito’s tacos. It’s like a science experiment since I watch people turn a pot of coffee into a gallon of pee.
People take their coffee seriously and they all have their special cup as if a good piece of ceramic can improve the taste. What confuses me is many pour in milk, creamer and/or sugar so it doesn’t taste like coffee. Once they do this they have to stir it and I want to meet the person who first thought, “You know what would make a good stirrer? A stick.” My offices have these stir sticks because somebody actually said, “What would go better with coffee than…wood?” And somebody else said, “Since coffee goes in your mouth and after a swallow, many people say ahhh, let’s shape them like tiny tongue depressors.”

IMC has in excess of 2,200 promotional products that will help you serve your client and we are adding new brand partners and products from our collections and our established retail brand partners. We believe IMC products speak for themselves and we can also show you ways to use and market them to your clients. Our products with decoration will have your customer coming back time and time again. Since introducing Waterford® Writing Instruments and MoMA years ago, IMC has presented more than 60 retail brands from global suppliers to enhance the selections you can offer your clients. We invite you to browse any of our 2,200+ products on the BRAND NEW IMC website to see items suitable for any occasion or event and pieces you can use to personalize your relationship with your clients. You can register as a distributor, track orders, upload art for virtual samples and even create your own flyers and catalogs of our products. We’ve just returned from PPAI 2019 in Las Vegas and we hope you had a chance to stop by and visit us in Booth 3751 and saw new retail brands and IMC Collections. The 2019 IMC catalog is available by request from the IMC website and is posted on the online services. The 2019 catalog is in and includes new retail product and brands as well as additions to our IMC Collections. We’ll continue to treat our clients professionally and get your orders to you…on time and on budget. You can also request our 2019 catalog using the catalog page of our website or download the PDF or see it virtually on our website, Zoom and SAGE. We have products for every event and if your client has invented a holiday or celebration, we can also custom-make almost anything you can dream to make your client’s event all it can be. Take a look at our YouTube channel to see some videos showcasing popular products for some ideas on how to use them. We take our business relationship seriously and we want you to enjoy, give and receive our products and be able to use them every day. We look forward to working with you and we always have ideas to make our products work for your clients. The 2019 IMC catalog remains live and available virtually at Zoomcatalog.com and on our website if you’re tired of fighting paper catalogs and it can be viewed nicely with your laptop, iPad, tablet or phone. IMC is the recognized leader in the introduction of new retail brands to the promotional product industry and has multiple design awards from both ASI and PPAI. We have promotional products for every event, show, convention, corporate store and company program that will keep your client looking to you for new ideas. What do you say…should you make another pot?

 

Leaving Las Vegas

Donn James

Well, I made it back from Las Vegas safely if not soundly and even had money in my pockets because I saved four quarters just in case phone calls from hell were more expensive than here on earth. I also avoided the 19-car winter storm pileup in the Cajon Pass because well, the plane flew right over it. As usual, the flight was the best part of the trip and lest you think I’m being unfair to Vegas let me proclaim in the vernacular of the day that I’m totally cool with Vegas staying in Vegas. It’s still a great place to go if you need a $7 roll of Lifesavers or a $15 coke but they have far too many visitors and you all know how I feel about people in general. I think it was probably a beautiful place when it was just a desert but then they put in a slot machine and a couple of people from Iowa and it went downhill from there. After having to visit almost annually over the last 40+ years I have noticed some changes and that is usually not a good sign. Years ago all the old people wore matching leisure suits but now they’re all wearing matching track suits as if they could at any minute drop their canes and break into a jog. Was there a sale on these suits at Walmart?
I know I mentioned last year the increase in these damned scooter carts. This year the increase reached the proliferate stage as they were everywhere, running into each other, clipping unsuspecting pedestrians and half of them are towing wagons or suitcases behind them as if they were seeking asylum in a new country. I just don’t understand how you can use one of these and then say you call on customers; do they have to meet you at your car with a wheelchair? And over the last year I’ve become positively blasé about those who get their hair color out of a crayon box but usually it’s just one crayon and one person isn’t trying to impersonate all the Teletubbies at once.
This year I saw more of what I would discreetly call “unusual hairstyle choices” with spikes, mohawks, half a haircut, to add to the rainbow of colors I didn’t even know were in the rainbow which leads me to the belief that hair stylists should be drug-tested before getting a license. I really don’t understand the half a haircut where one side is buzzed and you have hair on the other side of your head. When you face a certain way do you tell people you’re a Marine?
What I also saw this year was thousands of women in those half boots with jeans that only come to the top of the boot and whoever convinced you to do that did you a disservice because that outfit is only good if you’re riding a horse across a river or clam digging in the mountains; as if there was ever a good reason for Capri jeans. On the plus side in four days I saw only one “Make America Great Again” cap.
The city fathers, in opposition to my cries, continue to build to make it bigger to attract more visitors as if that’s a good thing and apparently those who visit go home and tell their friends and then they come and this happens over and over with no stoppage in sight. So, you get a town full of people who are like ugly Americans who visit Paris for the first time and yell, “This is breakfast. Why are we having cheese for breakfast?”

IMC has in excess of 2,200 promotional products that will help you serve your client and we are adding new brand partners and products from our collections and our established retail brand partners. We believe IMC products speak for themselves and we can also show you ways to use and market them to your clients. Our products with decoration will have your customer coming back time and time again. Since introducing Waterford® Writing Instruments and MoMA years ago, IMC has presented more than 60 retail brands from global suppliers to enhance the selections you can offer your clients. We invite you to browse any of our 2,200+ products on the BRAND NEW IMC website to see items suitable for any occasion or event and pieces you can use to personalize your relationship with your clients. You can register as a distributor, track orders, upload art for virtual samples and even create your own flyers and catalogs of our products. We’ve just returned from PPAI 2019 in Las Vegas and we hope you had a chance to stop by and visit us in Booth 3751 and saw new retail brands and IMC Collections. The 2019 IMC catalog is available by request from the IMC website and is posted on the online services. The 2019 catalog is in and includes new retail product and brands as well as additions to our IMC Collections. We’ll continue to treat our clients professionally and get your orders to you…on time and on budget. You can also request our 2019 catalog using the catalog page of our website or download the PDF or see it virtually on our website, Zoom and SAGE. We have products for every event and if your client has invented a holiday or celebration, we can also custom-make almost anything you can dream to make your client’s event all it can be. Take a look at our YouTube channel to see some videos showcasing popular products for some ideas on how to use them. We take our business relationship seriously and we want you to enjoy, give and receive our products and be able to use them every day. We look forward to working with you and we always have ideas to make our products work for your clients. The 2019 IMC catalog remains live and available virtually at Zoomcatalog.com and on our website if you’re tired of fighting paper catalogs and it can be viewed nicely with your laptop, iPad, tablet or phone. IMC is the recognized leader in the introduction of new retail brands to the promotional product industry and has multiple design awards from both ASI and PPAI. We have promotional products for every event, show, convention, corporate store and company program that will keep your client looking to you for new ideas. What do you say…did it stay in Vegas?

 

Weather I’m right…

Donn James

Because I am being dragged across state lines on Monday for the PPAI convention(probably a clear violation of my parole conditions), I have been listening to more AM radio this week because they are better at the weather than FM or even TV. I understand AM radio is where careers go to die but they, at least, have windows and can look outside and say, “Hey, it’s raining. We’d better tell everyone.” On those devil FM stations they don’t allow windows and those deejays are more interested in telling you their favorite flavors to vape while playing music that makes your dog’s ears bleed, while on TV they’re more interested in telling us why it might or might not rain and they have confusing pictures that look like they were painted by Salvador Dali after he had a stroke or Rommel’s battle plans for the invasion of Africa. In reality, TV weather people are just there between auditions to be the next great game show host anyway and don’t care if they’re right or not. So I’m listening to the radio to keep apprised of the weather in Las Vegas and the fact that I’d like my flight to land wheels first. I learned that the weather is supposed to be cloudy and rainy while I’m in Las Vegas but it hardly matters because I’m not crazy enough to go outdoors in Vegas on any day that ends in Y and these days most of the casinos have roofs.
I started this because I’ve been listening to AM radio against my better judgment and I have discovered an unusual phenomenon residing there. Most of the stations do very timely weather and traffic reports but I learned the stations have a variety of unofficial traffic reporters; people who take time from their stop-and-go traffic jam to tell the radio station they’re in a stop-and-go traffic jam. I find it peculiar that these pseudo traffic cops take it upon themselves to police the roads and call in to a radio station with an update as if knowing there’s a baby crawling in the fast lane on the 110 freeway will impact my commute. Yesterday a guy called in to tell people it was foggy and I just don’t know how necessary that was. All it did was make me think…I can see fog so why is this dork telling me something I can see? Are there a lot of blind drivers who can’t see the fog? I’m a little color-blind with some colors but I don’t know anyone who’s fog-blind. And why is the guy driving through fog taking the time to get on the phone to tell us it’s foggy? That’s a good way to have one less traffic reporter. By the way, why do cars even have yellow fog lamps? They’re useless as all they do is prove you can’t see through yellow fog. What is equally odd about the people who call in is that they’ve given themselves names; apparently so the station will know they’re serious and have real information to report because it’s critical we know there’s a semi full of chickens overturned on the 14 near Tehachapi and we’d better avoid the area so KFC can get there and scrape up our dinner. Personally, I don’t think you have any more credibility just because you call yourself “405Phil” or “Downtown Abby.”
Assuming all goes well with my annual foray to Las Vegas, I will talk to everyone next week. If not, please begin a search although I expect you’ll find me buried under a pile of quarters in a corner of the Mandalay Bay.

IMC has in excess of 2,200 promotional products that will help you serve your client and we are adding new brand partners and products from our collections and our established retail brand partners. We believe IMC products speak for themselves and we can also show you ways to use and market them to your clients. Our products with decoration will have your customer coming back time and time again. Since introducing Waterford® Writing Instruments and MoMA years ago, IMC has presented more than 60 retail brands from global suppliers to enhance the selections you can offer your clients. We invite you to browse any of our 2,200+ products on the BRAND NEW IMC website to see items suitable for any occasion or event and pieces you can use to personalize your relationship with your clients. You can register as a distributor, track orders, upload art for virtual samples and even create your own flyers and catalogs of our products. PPAI 2019 in Las Vegas begins on the 14^th and we invite you to visit us in Booth 3751 to see our new retail brands and IMC Collections. The 2019 IMC catalog is available by request from the IMC website and is posted on the online services. The 2019 catalog is in and includes new retail product and brands as well as additions to our IMC Collections. We’ll continue to treat our clients professionally and get your orders to you…on time and on budget. You can also request our 2019 catalog using the catalog page of our website or download the PDF or see it virtually on our website, Zoom and SAGE. We have products for every event and if your client has invented a holiday or celebration, we can also custom-make almost anything you can dream to make your client’s event all it can be. Take a look at our YouTube channel to see some videos showcasing popular products for some ideas on how to use them. We take our business relationship seriously and we want you to enjoy, give and receive our products and be able to use them every day. We look forward to working with you and we always have ideas to make our products work for your clients. The 2019 IMC catalog remains live and available virtually at Zoomcatalog.com and on our website if you’re tired of fighting paper catalogs and it can be viewed nicely with your laptop, iPad, tablet or phone. IMC is the recognized leader in the introduction of new retail brands to the promotional product industry and has multiple design awards from both ASI and PPAI. We have promotional products for every event, show, convention, corporate store and company program that will keep your client looking to you for new ideas. What do you say…how’s the traffic?

 

Do You Have Some Time?

Donn James

Someone reminded me this week that we were in a new year and they said, “Happy New Year” but I couldn’t tell from their voice whether it was a statement, question, plea or prayer. I hope everyone survived their celebrations but I don’t really do much because I’m of an age where I consider New Year’s Eve just amateur hour for drunks. For the young people it’s really not much of a factor as they pound Fireball and bacon-wrapped chunks of Spam but for adults who, need I remind you, don’t do shots, I would probably have some top-shelf liquor after a nice meal and all I would be thinking was, “How much money am I puking up right now?” Anyway, I needed the reminder it was a new year not because I had forgotten the new year but rather had forgotten that I remembered it. Another vagary of age I suppose with these little memory lapses. Yesterday I gave a family a Christmas ornament I bought in November and put somewhere safe so I wouldn’t forget it and promptly forgot where I put it. I found it the day after Christmas and to compound this error I put it in my car so I wouldn’t forget to give it to them and promptly forgot it was in my car for 8 days until I finally remembered it yesterday.
This time of year everybody is overly obsessed with time because you hear things like, “Boy, last year really went by fast” or “I can’t believe it’s a new year, time really flies” or my personal favorite “It will only hurt for a minute.” Well, here’s the deal…no, it doesn’t. A second is still a second, a day is still a day and a year is still a year and every year is 365.25 days of 24 hours, 1440 minutes and 31,557,600 seconds so unless you live in a cartoon, you’re stuck here with the rest of us. I grudgingly submit there are times when time feels like it flies and times when time feels like it stands still. Obviously it can’t do both…so it does neither. It’s just our general craziness that makes it feel that I can cook for 6 hours, eat in 10 seconds and feel like I’m washing dishes for 3 days. M&M’s melt in your mouth in a matter of seconds but if you’re listening to your Grandmother describe her childhood in the 30’s you feel like you’re watching a tree die. I suppose when you’re having sex it can seem like time is flying but then you’re in line at the DMV and you think about drinking our own urine to stay alive. I stayed on the treadmill for what felt like hours the other day so you can imagine my discouragement when I checked my clock and saw I had been jogging for only 35 seconds.
Even resolutions people make this time of year involve time but like most resolutions, they time out…usually by tomorrow when the treadmill becomes a coat rack. I can tell you those of you resolving to change your relationship status on Facebook from Desperate to Single may be setting the bar too high. On the other hand, if your idea of burning calories is to leave cookies in the oven while you nap…congratulations on having an attainable resolution.
I have a resolution… well, I’m calling it a resolution in case I have to go to court and need evidence.  For 2019, I resolve to be less tolerant of people since I’m usually right and I don’t know how much longer I can hold my tongue.

IMC has in excess of 2,200 promotional products that will help you serve your client and we are adding new brand partners and products from our collections and our established retail brand partners. We believe IMC products speak for themselves and we can also show you ways to use and market them to your clients. Our products with decoration will have your customer coming back time and time again. Since introducing Waterford® Writing Instruments and MoMA years ago, IMC has presented more than 60 retail brands from global suppliers to enhance the selections you can offer your clients. We invite you to browse any of our 2,200+ products on the IMC website to see items suitable for any occasion or event and pieces you can use to personalize your relationship with your clients. You can register as a distributor, track orders, upload art for virtual samples and even create your own flyers and catalogs of our products. PPAI 2019 in Las Vegas begins on the 14^th and we invite you to visit us in Booth 3751 to see our new retail brands and IMC Collections. The 2019 IMC catalog is available by request from the IMC website and is posted on the online services. The 2019 catalog is in and includes new retail product and brands as well as additions to our IMC Collections. We’ll continue to treat our clients professionally and get your orders to you…on time and on budget. You can also request our 2019 catalog using the catalog page of our website or download the PDF or see it virtually on our website, Zoom and SAGE. We have products for every event and if your client has invented a holiday or celebration, we can also custom-make almost anything you can dream to make your client’s event all it can be. Take a look at our YouTube channel to see some videos showcasing popular products for some ideas on how to use them. We take our business relationship seriously and we want you to enjoy, give and receive our products and be able to use them every day. We look forward to working with you and we always have ideas to make our products work for your clients. The 2019 IMC catalog remains live and available virtually at Zoomcatalog.com and on our website if you’re tired of fighting paper catalogs and it can be viewed nicely with your laptop, iPad, tablet or phone. IMC is the recognized leader in the introduction of new retail brands to the promotional product industry and has multiple design awards from both ASI and PPAI. We have promotional products for every event, show, convention, corporate store and company program that will keep your client looking to you for new ideas. What do you say…how much time do you have?

 

Can’t We All Just Get Along?

Donn James

As the holiday season winds down and we descend from the euphoric December highs and morph back into the bloodthirsty savages most civilized countries think we are, I think there is no better time to engage in America’s favorite pastime…finding someone to blame. The root of our problem is that we have turned everything into a battle and if it’s not a ‘good guys vs. bad guys” theme, it’s at least an “us vs. them” situation and when in doubt I always…blame the media. I’m always telling newscasters, usually by yelling at my TV so I’m not sure they hear me, to stop giving us opinions and just give us facts because we think you’re all idiots. We wouldn’t let you babysit our children, date our sons or daughters and we’d ask for a second opinion if you told us the sky was blue and lately, waiting for you to get to the point is like watching a snowman die. These days I can get more useful information watching an episode of Hoarders.
Truth be told I can’t even blame this generation because in the mid-70s TV gave us the Battle of the Network Stars which began this flushing spiral we call TV. TV would put together the most inept, uncoordinated group of stars from one network and pit them against a similar group of inept, uncoordinated stars from another network and call it a “battle” although that’s a pretty generous use of the word since there were no lives dependent on Farrah Fawcett’s inability to bowl or William Shatner not drowning as he tried to get from one end of the pool to the other. This idiocy with celebrities led to Splash, a diving competition among so-called celebrities which, because of all the injuries, did nothing but prove that celebrities couldn’t, in fact, hit water if they fell out of a boat.
The lack of success for this drivel did nothing to deter TV from its ultimate goal to dumb us into rocks which gave us the likes of Are You Smarter than a 5^th Grader? and proved without a doubt that we are not. We have the Bachelor and Bachelorette which cast like 20 men or women trying to out lie each other to a man or woman who is lying to them. It’s like Truth or Dare without the truth.
There are some talent shows but those are also oddly skewed. I’m told Dancing with the Stars is very popular and it goes a step beyond learning that celebrities can’t dance. It has judges who I’ve never seen dance tell us how bad they were and then the masterstroke for TV is it lets America, who we know can’t dance, vote dancers off. Sure, that sounds fair. Vocal battles are big right now with America’s Got Talent, the Voice, X Factor etc. but you could have the best singing voice in the world and if you come up against an 11-year old girl in a wheelchair holding a puppet, you might as well buy your bus ticket back to Little Rock.
Cooking, probably because of its inherent boredom, has really tied itself to the competition bandwagon with shows like Cupcake Wars, Iron Chef, Celebrity Cook-Off, where we learn in addition to everything else, celebrities also can’t cook and Kids Baking Championship. The last one is particularly incongruous because you’ll have a kid trying to get his crème fraiche just right while he’s yelling for his Mommy to come tie his shoe. And unless someone comes up with a nuclear cupcake I’m not too worried about whose is best…as long as it has bacon in it. Iron Chef takes cooking to another level and if I ever had that many people in my kitchen, they are there to put out the fire. I’m watching the show from my couch with a bag of Cheetos and a Bud Lite so I don’t think sous vide is coming into play.
This said, in this season and during all seasons I refuse to believe everything has to be a battle with contestants vying for a bride, groom, crystal mushroom or golden buzzer and you’ll notice I haven’t mentioned Storage Wars because I don’t care that you paid $64 to buy an abandoned storage locker only to find it held the missing nude photos of Martha Washington.

IMC has in excess of 2,200 promotional products that will help you serve your client and we are adding new brand partners and products from our collections and our established retail brand partners. We believe IMC products speak for themselves and we can also show you ways to use and market them to your clients. Our products with decoration will have your customer coming back time and time again. Since introducing Waterford® Writing Instruments and MoMA years ago, IMC has presented more than 60 retail brands from global suppliers to enhance the selections you can offer your clients. We invite you to browse any of our 2,200+ products on the BRAND NEW IMC website to see items suitable for any occasion or event and pieces you can use to personalize your relationship with your clients. You can register as a distributor, track orders, upload art for virtual samples and even create your own flyers and catalogs of our products. IMC is preparing for PPAI 2019 in Las Vegas in January and we invite you to visit us in Booth 3751 to see our new retail brands and IMC Collections. The 2019 IMC catalog is available by request from the IMC website and is posted on the online services. The 2019 catalog has gone to print and will include new retail product and brands as well as additions to our IMC Collections. We’ll continue to treat our clients professionally and get your orders to you…on time and on budget. You can also request our 2019 catalog using the catalog page of our website or download the PDF. The IMC 2018.5 flyer is posted on our website and you can see those new products on our website and download a copy of the flyer. We have products for every event and if your client has invented a holiday or celebration, we can also custom-make almost anything you can dream to make your client’s event all it can be. Take a look at our YouTube channel to see some videos showcasing popular products for some ideas on how to use them. We take our business relationship seriously and we want you to enjoy, give and receive our products and be able to use them every day. We look forward to working with you and we always have ideas to make our products work for your clients. The 2018 IMC catalog remains live and available virtually at Zoomcatalog.com and on our website if you’re tired of fighting paper catalogs and it can be viewed nicely with your laptop, iPad, tablet or phone. IMC is the recognized leader in the introduction of new retail brands to the promotional product industry and has multiple design awards from both ASI and PPAI. We have promotional products for every event, show, convention, corporate store and company program that will keep your client looking to you for new ideas. What do you say…are you ready for a battle?