This page sits under the gift itself, the stage where the question has narrowed to an object on a table. Either side of it sit the three finishes, where the same design is settled as paper, cloth or both, and the question of the quote, which is where most people find out what will not fit. Not sure how many years it is? The years-of-service calculator works it out exactly from the two dates.
The name print takes four typed lines
On the name print you fill in four boxes and watch the layout change as you type. Their name is the only one you have to complete, and it takes up to 40 characters. Their profession takes up to 40, their years of service up to 20, and where they worked up to 50. The last three are marked optional and the design still holds together if you leave any of them blank.
The words "Happy Retirement" sit above the name in small spaced capitals. They are part of the design and cannot be changed. Below them the name is set large in a serif, exactly as you type it. A thin rule with a small diamond in the middle separates the name from the profession and years, which print together in capitals. Where they worked runs underneath in italics.
There is no date field, no message field and no box for a quotation. Four lines is the whole of it, and the reason to say so plainly is that a lot of retirement-gift copy implies otherwise. If the words you want are a saying rather than a set of facts, read what to do about the quote before you order anything.
The portrait starts from a photograph instead
The other route is the retirement portrait. You upload a photograph of the retiree, or of the ward, the yard, the classroom, the boat or the garden the career happened in, then pick one of five painting styles: oil, watercolour, charcoal, pop art or impressionist. Up to three successful previews per day are free after email verification, so you can compare your saved results before deciding whether to buy one of them. There are no typed lines on a portrait. The picture is the personalisation.
What each one costs
As a digital file the name print costs £9.99, as an A4 poster £14.99. Move up and it is £28.99, then £34.49 at 50x70cm, or £59.00 printed on a canvas of 40x50cm. Already framed, the A3 comes to £69.00. On a mug, £16.99.
The portrait is priced above the name print because the artwork is generated for your photograph alone. It starts at £14.99 as a digital file and £19.99 as an A4 poster, £85.00 on a 30x40cm canvas, and £119.99 on a framed canvas of the same size. Every price on this page includes free UK delivery.
Which one you can use is decided by what you have
If you have their name, their job and a rough number of years, the name print is available to you this afternoon and nobody's got to find a photograph. If you have a good photograph and no confident grip on the facts, the portrait is the one that works. If you have both, the difference is what the gift says: the print states a career, the portrait shows a place.
Buying for a particular person rather than a particular format? Who is retiring takes the other route through the same products, and the twenty profession guides go further into what a specific job is worth saying about.
How it is made and when it turns up
Nothing here is held in stock. The file is rendered from what you typed or uploaded, printed in the UK, and sent out. Making it takes two to four working days; the post takes another two to five. Order a fortnight before the leaving do and it will be there. A digital file skips both halves of that and arrives by email.
Because each piece is made to your specification, check the spelling before you pay. We typeset exactly what is entered, and a misspelled name isn't something a reprint can be free about.
