“Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the most famous envelope of them all?” Why, of course, the Oscar envelope. While I may be no mirror and this may be no Oscar winner, luxury stationer Marc Friedland’s creation has come just as close, literally and figuratively, since 2011. Oh, and, make that creation-s, plural, there being 121 nominees in 24 categories this year. Also this year is the 25th anniversary of Marc Friedland Couture Communications.
“These envelopes are works of art in themselves,” actor Tom Hanks said when these envelopes made their public debut. Today, one billion people in 225 countries have seen it, yet fewer than 100 people own it. “It’s always been a dream of mine to have designed the envelope,” admits Friedland. Weighing a quarter-pound each, the envelopes take over 100 hours to make.
Deconstructing the Oscar envelope
“We wanted something that was going to be timeless, yet also have the glam and deluxe nature of the academy awards and the heritage of the academy awards.” Enter metallic gold paper with red lacquered accents. Hand-stamped in satin gold leaf, each bears an ecru plaque with the name of the award category in charcoal ink, plus a red satin ribbon embossed with a custom PriceWaterhouseCooper red-and-gold lacquered seal that says ‘authentic’.
What lies within
More than one-eighth of an inch thick, ecru winners cards, with the name of each nominee! Bearing gold-foil accents and a gold leaf embossed Oscar statuette, along with the phrase, “And the Oscar goes to…” each card, in its corresponding envelope is meant to be carried around, much like the glorious statuette that gives it company.
Marc Friedland
Synonymous with luxury, yet so subtly, the brand and the man are harbingers of remarkable heritage. In 2010, Friedland approached the academy and suggested that with great glamor comes great responsibility, the kind that includes tossing ordinary envelopes away. “In this age of technology and tweeting and texting, this is the most low-tech thing possible but the amount of emotion, spirit, heart and soul contained in that envelope will last a lifetime for that winner and will bring them back to that moment when their name was announced.” Touché.
With that belief, Friedland hand-delivers three sets of each year’s envelopes; two sets for the accountants at PriceWaterhouseCooper and one for backup. Which makes sense especially since this year’s cost about $200 each. And only the winners get to keep their envelopes and cards, the rest are destroyed subsequently. “We don’t want them to end up on eBay,” Friedland explains. Gah! Such a shame!
[Via – USA-Today]
