The Per Annum Insider - News, Product Reviews, Contests & More

The Photographer Behind Our 2011 NYC Wall Calendar

We were happy and proud to introduce the 2011 New York City Wall Calendar this year, and we thank all our customers who decided to give it a try! When our production team decided to produce the company's first-ever wall calendar, they didn't have to go far for the featured NYC-themed photography.  At the time, Per Annum's own Lisa Flanagan was in the middle of a just-for-fun Twitter Project 365 that she called “Scenes from My Commute”. Each day she would take a picture of her daily journey between her home in Westchester, NY, and our office in Manhattan and post it on the popular social media site.  Liking what they saw, the team asked if they could feature some of her best shots in the calendar.  A few months later, the 2011 New York City Wall Calendar was published and has been a wonderful success!

If you've been living without a calendar for the past month, are jonesing for some NYC nostalgia, or just want to see what all the fuss is about, you can still get the calendars on our website in 12x12 and 9x8 sizes.

       

For you photographer-types out there, Lisa took the calendar photos exclusively with her iPhone, occasionally manipulating them with some of her favorite apps, including:

• CameraBag
• Hipstamatic
• Cool Fx
• QuadCamera
• Lo-Mob
• PerfectlyClr

About Lisa

Lisa has been with Per Annum since 1998.  In addition to taking many of the product shots for our website, Lisa is an accomplished travel and portrait photographer.  Her photos have been published in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.   Her photography – including many more from her commute – can be seen at www.LisaFlanaganPhotography.com.

Lisa also has a fan page on Facebook and if you're on Twitter, @LisaFlanagan tweets often about all things photography and more.

2011 Diaries Are Going Fast!

Brad Pitt FlatSpecs Fever may still be in the air here at Per Annum, but this time of year is always a busy one for our crew.  It's prime season for individuals, retail stores and corporations to buy their 2011 Diaries and we are deep in the process of sifting through those orders and shipping them out.  Those of you who pre-ordered your copies as far back as February should have received your copies by now.  But if you haven’t ordered yet... well, now is definitely the time!  In fact, I wouldn’t wait much longer, because they are going fast -- believe it or not, we are already sold out of the following colors:

Manhattan – Purple
Chicago – Teal
San Francisco – Purple and Teal
18-City Metro – Teal
Boston – Purple

Plenty of other great colors are still available, though, so don’t hesitate if you have your heart set on a particular style.

Here’s a handy list of the 2011 Diaries (as well as our all-new City Wall Calendar for NYC), with direct links to our website:

Manhattan Diary
Boston Diary
Chicago Diary
Los Angeles Diary
San Francisco Diary
18-City Metro Diary
NYC City Wall Calendar
Manhattan Daily Plan-It
Metro Desk Diary
InfoPlan Diary
InfoPrint Diary
InfoCord Diary
New Yorker Desk Diary
MyBook Adaptable Planner

Order soon!  2011 will be here before we know it....

SPOTTED: Brad Pitt is a FlatSpecs Fan!

 

Well, imagine our surprise when we were alerted to the following photo in the British Daily Mail:

 

(Click the photo for the full article)

Yup, that's Brad Pitt sporting some stylish-looking reading glasses.  But wait -- don't those specs look familiar?  They are none other than our very own Nannini FlatSpecs Readers!  (Style Compact 1 in the Dolphin color, to be exact -- click here to find them on our website.)  Per Annum has been the official North American retailer of these Italian-made specs for several years and they have slowly but surely been gaining traction here in the States -- needless to say, this celebrity sighting makes us very happy!

Brad, it's great to see that you're a FlatSpecs fan!  If you need any other colors for yourself, or if you'd like to give a pair to Clooney as a gift, or perhaps some similarly-styled sunglasses for Angie and the kids, you can find them (and more) online at www.FlatSpecs.com.

Contests, Giveaways and Prizes, Oh My!

Who doesn’t love getting free stuff?  I’ll let you in on a little secret…giving stuff away is almost as much fun as being on the receiving end.  We love it so much that we are going to do more of it.  AND, by helping us spread the word about Per Annum, our cool products and, of course, our random giveaways, you will have multiple opportunities to enter:

1. Be a Follower.  Follow @PerAnnum on Twitter.  This will count as one contest entry, and you will be one of the first to know about future contests! If you are already following us, we will give you an automatic entry into our first giveaway in November 2010.
2. Like us on Facebook. This will count as one contest entry, and you will be one of the first to know about future contests! If you are already a fan, we will give you an automatic entry into our first giveaway in November 2010.
3. How to get multiple entries per contest:  For each contest (unless noted otherwise), you can retweet the news on Twitter, share it on your Facebook page and/or post it to your blog.  Are you a part of an online community that would be interested in us?  Post about our contest in a forum for another contest entry. Once you’re done spreading the news, come back to our blog post for that particular contest and tell us what you did via comment.

For most contests, winners will be selected at random.  All entries will be entered into an excel spreadsheet and using a random number selector, we will choose the winner.  Winners will be announced on our blog at the designated time.

So, be sure to keep an eye out for contest announcements, spread the word and participate as often as possible – we promise to make it worth your while!

Welcome to the NEW Per Annum Insider!

Hello and welcome to the shiny, new, revamped Per Annum company blog -- now known as... drumroll, please... The Per Annum Insider!  In this space, you will be able to find out everything you ever wanted to know (and some things you never thought to ask) about the wonderful world of Per Annum, Inc.  There will be product reviews, special offers and customer feedback... articles about industry trends, gift suggestions and creative ideas... not to mention exclusive peeks behind the curtain of Per Annum's history and the pieces that have kept us chugging along, putting a city in your pocket, protecting your treasured memories and helping you see clearly for the past 30+ years.

As an added bonus, we also hope to have lots of fun contests and giveaways -- so if you like to win free stuff (and really, who doesn't?), you’ve come to the right place!

Above all, we want The Per Annum Insider to be a fun, informative, interactive experience for everyone involved -- we will always welcome any comments, questions, suggestions, and yes, even criticisms you may have.  Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook for an even more constant flow of Per Annum information & goodies.

Be sure to bookmark us and check back often.  We at Per Annum are bursting with ideas and excited to share them.  And just to kick things off on the right note, here’s a coupon code for use at www.PerAnnum.com -- just enter BLOG10 during checkout to take 10% off your next order!

Much more to come!  Stay tuned…