

|
Four young
entrepreneurs make their mark in the Bay Area.
by Kelly Gallagher
& Diane Irvin
an April 1998
article from

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M.A.R.S. is (from left)
Rosie, Marlene, Sebastian, and Annie.
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Greetings From M.A.R.S. is a local ground level
greeting card company owned and operated by four teenagers:
Marlene, Annie, Rosie, and Sebastian. They have long had
interests in art, and at first, drawing developed into just
hobbies for them. After talking it over with their mother,
Marlene and Sebastian decided to invite a friend each and start a
small greeting card company. They originally started a company
called J.A.M.S., that made Christmas cards last year. However,
after a company rearrangement about three months ago, the new
company, often referred to just as M.A.R.S., was formed. Their
logo is an alien holding a red planet.
The four young entrepreneurs combine their
artistic talents with business and personal skills to make up a
winning team. Marlene, the librarian & record keeper,
"can understand Annie" and "likes to read, a
LOT." Annie, the inventory & quality control manager,
and the only member who claims to actually come from the planet
Mars, "speaks in patterns of distinct grunts, clicks, and
squeaks." Rosie, the company treasurer, "plays piano,
takes Kenpo karate. Has dyed her hair almost every color of the
rainbow. Loves to rollerblade, skateboard, and skim board.
Favorite place to be is the beach. Loves listening to
music," and "writes poems." And Sebastian, the
worker bee," is insane!!" and "has creaky
knees." Their backgrounds in art range from classes in
pottery to creative art. Most of their drawing skills though come
from a mix of just sitting around drawing and serendipity. The
greeting cards from M.A.R.S. are created by a group effort. The
process begins by the M.A.R.S. members just getting together,
sitting down and drawing whatever comes to mind. They do not
start out with any preconceived themes, yet on occasion when one
member comes up with a particularly interesting piece of art
work, it is often repeated for awhile as variations of that
theme. For instance, when one came up with a fish design that was
accidentally sprinkled with paint, more sprinkles were added for
an effect that turned out very nice, and another fish drawing
soon followed embellishing on some of the newly discovered
effects.
The drawings are done mostly using colored
pencils or water colors and pastels. The handmade cards created
by M.A.R.S. all come from their original works of art. These
artistic greeting cards cover an array of themes from fish,
flowers, and cubic fruit to birds, barns and everyday objects in
surrealistic settings. The inside of each card is left blank for
the customer to modify for any occasion. M.A.R.S. presently has
over a dozen card designs that it can reproduce as orders come
in, and so it is now working on the marketing end before creating
more designs. The members feel it would become too complicated if
they create any more designs at this time. After their company
gets off the ground, they plan to continue creating more greeting
card designs, and expanding into other fields. They now sell
mostly individual greeting cards; however, for the holidays, such
as Christmas, they package together groups of cards around the
holiday themes.
M.A.R.S. presently works out of a rented space in
back of Bay Moss Studio where they get together in 1½ -2 hour
sessions a couple of times a week. Most of their time is spent
drawing and snacking with very little time left for "goofing
off." All of their art works are drawn at the gallery and
then photocopied down the street at South Coast Printers before
being assembled either back at the gallery or at Sebastian's
home. The production process from drawing to photocopying and
gluing has been quite a learning process for the team. They have
adjusted some of their methods to continually improve the quality
of their products and thus keep their customers happy. The future
of M.A.R.S. may include producing business cards for
discriminating businessmen and businesswomen who would enjoy
having something above the ordinary. A second marketing idea is
to begin creating personalized stationary for both home and
office use, and to offer designer cards at a client's request,
showing the client's house or whatever the client wants. M.A.R.S.
is also contemplating doing workshops for young people to show
them how to create greeting cards of their own. These workshops
will most likely be over the summer break and the fee of the
workshops, about $15, will just cover the cost of the supplies.
Locations and times are still in the planning stages, so call
269-0965 before summer vacation begins to check for prices,
schedules and availability.
Presently, Greetings From M.A.R.S. cards can be
seen and purchased in Coos Bay at Bay Moss Studio. Over this past
spring break, the M.A.R.S. team marketed their cards up and down
the coast in towns like Bandon and Florence, so there may be more
art galleries and gift shops carrying these wonderful greeting
cards soon. For more information, you can contact a M.A.R.S.
member at the phone number above. Greetings From M.A.R.S. are
truly fabulous artistic greeting cards that are out of this
world, and just about anyone would enjoy sending or receiving one
no matter what planet they're from.
E-Mail Greetings From
M.A.R.S.!!!!!!!!!!
All artwork © 1998 Greetings From M.A.R.S.
Article © 1998 The Whole Shebang! do
not reproduce without permission.

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