Retirement pen

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Gregf

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Joined
May 22, 2010
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Location
Richwood, OH
I work for Highlights for Children. The publisher of the children's magazine familiar to many in the U.S.
Goofus and Gallant, Timbertoes, Hidden Pictures.
www.highlights.com
They have fantastic cover art.
Our corporate attorney is retiring in Feb so I wanted to make him a pen featuring cover art from the month he was hired and the month he retired.

Tompen.jpg

covers.jpg
© 2018 Highlights For Children

The interesting part of this was getting permission to use Highlights artwork. Normally you would go through the attorney.
Highlights is a fairly small company, about 500 people, so the corporate jungle is not too bad to maneuver.
Starting with the CEO's executive assistant, I left her a sample of what I wanted to do. Within an hour I had an email from the CEO granting me a license.
Next on the list was a trip to HR to find out his hire date. Not a problem, took longer to explain what I was up to.
Knowing the editorial office has the images somewhere, I called the IT director to find out who to ask. He emailed the appropriate person, I had the images within an hour.
Saying the project had the CEO's approval doesn't hurt either. The downside of this was this was I'd set an expectation to deliver with the grownups.
I finished this with one day to spare for his retirement party.

Greg
 
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Very, Very nice work. I know the magazine well, it seems to be in every doctors and dentists office in Montana. Even saw a copy at Fort Harrison VA hospital on my last visit. What a great retirement gift to receive indeed!
 
Excellent idea! Had you more time you may have been able to have the design team customize the Highlights covers (charicature of the retiree?) with his/her name, etc. Great job and execution!
 
Interesting idea.
It's not beyond possibility that the company could commission a pen, now that they have seen one.
 
That is so cool! I remember Highlights very well from my early school days! Congratulations on such a cool piece.
 
Great idea, and very well executed! Highlights was one of my favorite growing up also. Don't be surprised if you get orders after the party.
 
Excellent pen and great idea. That's one of the advantages of working at a smaller company. Sometimes you can go right to the top to get things done.
 
Thanks everyone. I have to admit to being surprised myself with the result. I attribute most of this to the artwork of the covers, and a fair amount to dumb luck.
Having access to the original files made a big difference in the outcome. The actual file that was sent to the printer. They reduced down in photoshop with no loss of detail. A lot of trial and error, mostly errors on this one. I wasn't happy with the initial results with my older HP so I quickly ordered a Canon Pixma. I scoured the casting forum to find what was working for others. I had the parts to make a casting pot but hadn't put it together yet.

A couple of years ago I had a conversation with Tom, our attorney, to see what the process was to get approval to make pens with cover art to donate to internal charity fund raisers. He patiently explained the considerations of this, which are extensive, as well as the number of departments involved. The quality has to represent the company brand. The red in the logo has to match for example. I decided it was more trouble than it was worth at the time.
I do have "a licensing to use any Highlights owned IP in the making of pens for our employees, for retirement celebrations or other reasons". I will of course, be extremely careful with this. I'm not sure what "other reasons" cover.
When I handed the pen to Tom I said, "And yes I have permission for this". I couldn't stay for the party but reports were that he was showing the pen off.
 
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