Perhaps it is some personal character flaw of mine, but I’ve always enjoyed sending letters on fake stationery. Not forged stationery, mind you, but hand-drawn letterheads from goofy entities—mostly made up. In probably what is a genuine character flaw, I use things like this to sort out people with my sort of sense of humor from all the rest. If the letterhead brings a favorable response, great. If it brings a solemn “what is this?,” I know I’m going to have compatibility issues with this person. I think we all do this, one way or the other, putting ourselves out there in a particular way and gauging the response.

What: Concept, design, illustration
For: various personal stationery letterheads
Client: self, early 1980s