Many happy returns

Meet Martin Schruegger, man of many trades

Musician and composer Martin lives in the city centre of York. He’s a very busy man – he writes and composes music for performance, he teaches undergraduates, he helps organise the York Spring Festival, does photography work for York Concerts and is also doing a PhD! And as if that wasn’t enough, he also found the time to make a truly original birthday card for his partner Kathryn! “She's an amazing cake decorator, so I always end up with a masterpiece for a cake and I wanted to return the favour!” he explains.

How shall I say Happy Birthday? Let me count the ways

“I live in the centre of York, surrounded by independent shops and restaurants, each with their own distinctive sign,” Martin tells us. “So, I decided to take photos of loads of signs that Kathryn would recognise from our neighbourhood in order to spell out 'Happy Birthday Kathryn' - 20 letters was perfect for an order of 20 different Postcards! I'm a keen photographer, so this was brilliant for me (and I got to play with a new lens a bit more!) – and the results were fantastic! When the postcards arrived, I simply attached them together in order to make three long fold-out cards. Kathryn then proceeded to see if she could identify the source of each letter, which she basically did (with a few prompts!) She loved it - so much better than a shop-bought birthday card.”

How on earth do you follow that?

Despite his many different jobs, Martin still finds time to have a million and one ideas for new MOO things! “I’d like to write a piece of music specially designed to work with MOO cards. I would create a big single sheet score, then divide it up onto a load of cards like a puzzle. I would just chop up the design and send these to be printed. I would jumble the cards up and give each one to a different performer. It would be up to them as the performance goes on to find who they 'musically go next to' (by listening to what each other is playing) and moving around until they put all the cards together in the right order. I think this would be fun to watch and listen to, and a great use of Printfinity!

“I also teach percussion and drum kit, and I've been thinking about getting some Business Cards printed with different exercises on each. Imagine how much more fun scale and arpeggios on the piano would be if they were each on cards which you pick from a box yourself rather than having a big book.”

Written on:

29 Oct 2012

Categories:

Business Services Ideas, Marketing, Business Cards