PsPrint congratulates the winners of the Holiday Card & Calendar Contest

Oct. 17, 2012 – OAKLAND, Calif. – After tremendous response, more than 350 submitted designs and amazing work from top designers around the country, the winners of PsPrint's 2012 Card & Calendar Contest have been announced. The six grand prize-winning images, along with runner-up images are all available for viewing on the PsPrint Blog.

"Our first priority at PsPrint has always been our customers, both those in the graphic design community as well as small businesses, who are passionate about design and high-quality printing," said Leslie Olsen, vice president of marketing at PsPrint. "We created the PsPrint Card & Calendar Contest as a way to give back to our talented graphic designers, and they exceeded our expectations with truly impressive designs."

Contest categories included Best Design, Humor and three "local flavor" categories, which are designs inspired by the locations that PsPrint calls home, including the San Francisco Bay Area, the Chicago metropolitan area and the East Coast. There was also a category focused on Best Design for a poster calendar.

Many of the contest winners were graphic designers and small-business owners who seized this opportunity to promote their skills as well as their businesses. PsPrint will be providing another opportunity for the contestants to put their entries to work. Select designers have been contacted to create customizable online templates of their designs, allowing PsPrint customers to purchase these for the 2012 holidays, and giving the designers a chance to earn a commission on each sale.

"I just started my online stationery shop early this year, so when I saw PsPrint's 2012 Card & Calendar Design Contest through HOW Newsletter and thought I give it a shot," said Ari Krzyzek of Glenview, Ill., the grand prize winner in the Design category.

In the spirit of giving, several of the contest winners are donating their card designs to nonprofit organizations.

Faye Klein of Venetia, Pa., who placed third in the Design and Humor categories, used the contest to promote her local animal shelter.

"I rarely enter contests, but I chose to use this competition as a dual promotion. I volunteer at an animal shelter [Angel Ridge Animal Rescue in Washington, Pa.] and will use whatever winnings I get to improve the shelter," said Klein. "In addition, I have asked the voters if any of them would like to order [either of] these cards to use this holiday season, with the proceeds to benefit Angel Ridge. I will provide cards to Angel Ridge to send to their donor list, too."

Thom Barbour of Scottsdale, Ariz., whose humor card came in second place, is also donating proceeds to a nonprofit: "During the competition, I contacted a nonprofit when I saw the votes for the card climbing, and we will be selling the cards during the holiday season to raise funds and provide books for children in low-income households."

PsPrint congratulates all the winners and wishes to thank the hundreds of designers and voters who made the contest such a great success.