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The result was not initially a commercial product, then, but rather one for personal use.
"I just didn't even think that people would like it," she conceded of her new design. "Now, people order it, [and] real estate agents love it!"
The popularity of that first Eichler Christmas card eventually led to an entire line of 'Retro Modern Holiday Cards.' It also gave Castro an idea about how to bring the company into the 21st century.
"What I did, I downsized it [our product line] and I made it retro," she explained. "I just took something I love—the '50s, '60s, retro, 'atomic'—and I turned it into that."
Keeping many of their traditional and cartoon-style designs, Castro began mid-century modernizing her designs for not just greeting cards, but announcement cards, invitations, and other printed items.
In addition, she switched to soy-based ink, completely recycled paper, and other 'green' decisions. The company also continues to use only U.S.-made products and materials. If she outsourced abroad like some card companies, Castro said, "I would probably have a lot higher profit margin. I would rather buy American-made products."
Castro also added the option of customizing card designs for individual orders.
"I draw them and…they feel like it's them and their family," she said of her customers and the custom cards, replete with the correct number of family members and pets. "You can customize the outside, the inside…People love it."
Castro must be doing something right, because "the company has just grown and grown and grown." In fact, this month Harrison Greetings celebrates the opening of their first-ever storefront, in Orange.
And to what, other than the modern designs, does Castro attribute the success?
"When people order from us," Laura boasts, "they can't get it anywhere else."