Helen Keller International, APDA reuse BRE images

It has been just over a month since I last shared any business reply envelopes that I’ve received. The artwork on used a couple that arrived in my post office box last week isn’t exactly brand new, but both envelopes are worth mentioning.

First is a BRE from Helen Keller International. The front of the cover bears two preprinted stamp-sized images picturing Keller, one with the inscription “Happy Birthday” at the bottom.

While I’ve seen these on the BREs included in numerous mailings from the organization, this is the first time I’ve seen mixed usage. In the past, both images have had captions, or neither image has had a caption.

The second envelope showed up in an American Parkinson Disease Association mailing. The three preprinted designs picturing flowers were used on the BRE enclosed in an October 2022 mailing.

The designs on this example look washed out, though, as if perhaps the magenta ink had been exhausted and only cyan, yellow, and black were still printing. I’m not sure we can call this a true color omission, but it’s still an interesting variety.

Published 2024-06-30