Company & Brand
Design Design is a manufacturer and distributor of personal expression products found in 3,600 retail stores across the United States, Canada, and the UK. We employ about 100 people, and currently partner with 135 independent and company sales representatives in the U.S., Canada and abroad. Our business operates primarily from our headquarters building in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and we distribute products from Wyoming, Michigan, about ten miles from our downtown facility.
Mission
Connecting people to people by being a family-oriented, fun company that provides trend-driven product choices for celebrations of life.
Brand
We are celebration! Family-owned for almost 25 years we are the emerging brand for personal expression. Our wide range of products and price points give us the competitive advantage in the marketplace. We are the just right, one-stop solution with a simple approach: original, trend ahead, design-driven concepts to compliment any existing inventory – or a complete line of the essentials for an all-in-one, celebration destination. We don’t follow the trend, we set it.
Butterfly
The butterfly represents many things depending on your perspective; world traveler, symbol of love, luck and the resilient human spirit. From our perspective the most exceptional of these is beauty, an everyday reminder of life’s infinite possibilities. Out of that beauty comes expression; a simple transformation that takes an ordinary moment and turns it extraordinary.
Just as the butterfly uses its well-developed vision to hone in on its destination, we share our vision of a world where there is celebration in each and every day – the daily opportunities we have to make something special, to make someone smile, to make something beautiful.
Beginnings
Design Design, a leader among mid-sized greeting card companies, was started by Don Kallil in 1987. Kallil was a stockbroker at Merrill Lynch in Chicago, but his childhood dream of being an entrepreneur was stronger than his passion for stocks and bonds, and he knew he had to follow his dream of starting his own business. After over a year of intensive research, he decided to open Design Design. Kallil says, “I’ve always been business-minded. The challenge of manufacturing something and selling it is very exciting. But the real attraction of the greeting card industry is the creative aspect of it–working with artists, copywriters, and printers on products that are always fresh and creatively diverse.”
During the first two years in business, Design Design worked hard for recognition in the highly competitive gift and stationery industry. Kallil often worked around the clock to keep his growing business on track. He recalls, “I have to admit, there were times I questioned the sanity of starting this company. I am thankful that my wife Jennifer was very understanding and supportive.”
Today, twenty years after he printed his first greeting card, Kallil is more motivated than ever. Kallil comments, “This business never gets stale. The market is constantly changing and providing new challenges and opportunities. We have some very big plans in store for Design Design.”
