"Fresh and Progressive" Stationery Business Created by Jane Boatman Geller '89 is Thriving

October 31, 2005

October 31, 2005, Greencastle, Ind. - "In the frenzied world of electronic communications, Jane Geller is the old-fashioned girl," begins an article in today's Indianapolis Star business section on the 1989 DePauw University graduate. "Geller is buried in the world of stationery. As owner and president of Indianapolis-based Boatman Geller, a high-end stationery company, Geller believes a simple, handwritten note on an elegant card still means something." (photo shows Jane Boatman Geller with husband Greg, and daughters, l-r, Isabelle and Anna)

The report by the Star's Dana Knight continues, "'Stationery is an expression of who people really are,' said Geller, 38, whose maiden name is Boatman. 'Sure there's e-mail, but sending out a handwritten note has suddenly become a lifestyle for people again.'"

The newspaper adds, "the lifestyle is delivering for Geller. Since its creation in 2002, Boatman Geller has more than tripled its sales. The fashionable stationery designed by Geller has caught the attention of retailers nationwide. Neiman Marcus, Shutterbug and hundreds of other shops and sellers have been scrambling to get their hands on the designs they call fresh and progressive. The client list has grown to more than 1,000."

The firm has moved to new 8,000- square-foot offices on the Northeast side of Indianapolis and has doubled its staff to 20. A sidebar to the article points out that Geller is a graduate of DePauw.

"Geller's design process comes straight from a career in New York City, where she spent six years designing the packaging and marketing products for Elizabeth Arden's makeup. She left that assistant art director job for love. After meeting Greg Geller, an elementary teacher in New York who had landed a job in Seattle, she moved to Washington with him. She spent the next eight years doing freelance design work," Knight explains. "The business, which eventually allowed her husband to leave teaching and become her chief operating officer, grew out of Geller's search for a way to use her design expertise and still have time with her two daughters."

Cindy Rudman, owner of Noteworthy, a Chicago stationery and gift business, tells the newspaper, "My customers seek out her work. You think she's done it all, and then she comes out with something new and she's outdone herself. It's fresh, current and always seems to be with what's in fashion."

Read the entire story at the newspaper's Web site. Visit Boatman Geller online by clicking here.

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