ABOUT THE COMPANY

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In 1994, when cassette players were playing hits from Nirvana and Ace of Base, and the computer was still an unheard of luxury, four innovative individuals gathered together in one modest little Moscow basement.
Discussing politics, economics and the weather, they suddenly realized that Russia has so many wonderful holidays, but for some reason, absolutely no good greeting cards. The situation needed to be changed.
And off it went! The innovative individuals came to an agreement with the American company, American Greetings. They printed the first greeting cards..
Only then did they realize that there were no envelopes of the needed size. So they brought a container full of envelopes straight from the States. Then, some more. They wanted to print special cards with foil and embossing. Turned out — there was nowhere to print..
So they discovered the Kaluga Polygraphic Company, the only one in Russia where this was possible. The first customers appeared — the Russian State Post and book stores.
The new business was gaining pace, and our sales were booming, with annual growth of up to 60%! We were so overjoyed that we bought our first Maсintosh computer and even hired someone who knew where its ON button was. Next came the crisis, the growing competition, our foreign business trips, more ideas, contracts, partners, yet another crisis… and so on and so forth.
Over time, the tiny basement office turned into a spacious three-storeyed building in the center of Moscow where we kept creating our greeting cards. The old Macintosh has long been replaced with state-of-the art equipment; however, we retained our learnings, a penchant for greeting cards, and an aspiration to make people happier.

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1999

1999

We acquired controlling interest in Kaluga Polygraphic Company. Art&Design became the only Russian greeting card company with it’s own production facilities.

2000

2000

Art&Design received a “Greeting Card Oscar” in New York. Our ‘Snegurochka’ (Snow Maiden) greeting card earned a LOUIES AWARD as the Best Greeting Card in a Foreign Language.

2003

2003

03

Art&Design became the national supplier of greeting cards, envelopes and calendars for the Russian State Post. Our greeting cards were sold by more than 40 thousand post offices.

2005

2005

04

We built a large warehouse next to the factory and started direct dispatch services to customers from Kaluga.

2009

2009

05

Kaluga Polygraphic Company started manufacturing paper gift bags.

2011

2011

06

Lacart company joined our large and close-knit family.

2014

2014

07

We became an exclusive license of Hallmark in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Now we have even more greeting cards with luxury finishing, calendars with trendy designs, fancy gift bags, lovely mugs and so much more!

2015

2015

08

We built a new spacious (3,400 sq.m) warehouse in Kaluga, and our total storage area reached 16,000 sq.m.

2017

2017

09

We established two new brands of greeting cards: “Beautiful Gift” and “Happy Cookie”. They go beyond a simple greeting for a public holiday or a personal anniversary, providing a means for getting closer, expressing your emotions and moods, and revealing your feelings for someone important in your life. Miniature format, designer envelopes, and a fundamentally different approach to texts and images made the new greeting cards a great way of showing that you care: they are pleasant to hold and look at, and are usually carefully stored to remember those special moments.

2018

2018

010

Art&Design opened “Gift Isles” in hypermarkets of major retail chains. A Gift Isle is a dedicated space where a customer can purchase a greeting card or a gift, which he or she can select from a comprehensive range of our products.

2019

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2019

25

A very special year for us. We celebrated 25 years from the foundation of the company. Just imagine: a quarter of century we give essential emotions – joy, laugh, delight, love and happiness! We have so many big plans and bold ideas ahead.

2020

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2020

Fr

This year was full of strange things – crisis, coronavirus and quarantine. But we are ok! Not just ok, but super cool. We’ve created the most positive and inspiring collection of cards called #prorvemsya. We’ve resumed cooperation with Disney and made awesome product for kids with the most loving characters from «Frozen», «Cars», «Vampirina» and all princesses.