I recently needed to shop for a couple of greeting cards, and was reminded of how much shopping for greeting cards pisses me off. To buy a card that is at all appropriate for the intended recipients, it’s necessary to browse and read a number of cards. Invariably I walk out of the card shop or pharmacy brushing glitter off of my hands. Invariably, I find a spot of glitter on my shoes, or shirt, or nose hours later. I’ve vowed to never again purchase cards with glitter - and if I see a particularly shimmery card, I won’t even pick it up.

Nevertheless, with each passing holiday, there seems to be another pound of glitter distributed among the cards. I can only assume that the majority of men, and probably some women have the same reaction I have to the glitter. I never had such intense negative feelings toward glitter when wearing it was optional - but now that it’s become mandatory for card shoppers, it rubs against my grain more than a little bit.

I’ve done enough design that I know that it’s tempting to be self-indulgent, and easy to forget some elements of the experience of the user/consumer/target market/human at the other end of the chain. But reel it in with the glitter already - or suffer the devestating embargo that you will otherwise be forcing me to organize.