despair.com > Reviews (1)

This is a brilliant spoof of the motivational, inspirational industry.
It is the perfect antidote to all those irritatingly smug and patronising motivational posters you see on office walls extolling the virtues of teamwork, ambition, individuality, originality, etc. Instead this site celebrates laziness, failure, nepotism, underachievement and despair.

It offers some demotivational posters for sale to display at work, or to give as gifts. There is a pessimist's mug ("This mug is half empty") and a demotivational book, with a smiley face surrounded by cogs in the machine, or a smiley face -> cog design (depending on whether you order the Management, Executive or Chairman version).

The management version of the book - is an ordinary book, costing £15.00. (Prices in this review are approximations in pounds of the American pricing).The executive version is in a metallised cover and costs the same (on special offer). Clicking on the chairman version - you find a special attache case, inside which is a goatskin covered volume and a humidity sensor is built in to the case to keep your book in pristine condition. This will set you back a whopping £700 on offer at £600 (what a bargain - the website mockingly claims).

The company also do a calendar, which you can customise yourself - putting in humorous quotations for days of the year and picking from their fantastic selection of spoof inspirational posters. These range from a couple of birds eating a worm "Leave the early worm to the birds", a lioness lazing on a tree "It only takes 12 muscles to smile, 57 to frown and none to just sit there with a dumb look on your face", Perseverance - with a man chasing after a female runner ("Let her go, its not worth it") and my favourite, "Potential" - a picture of a serving of fries, with "Not everyone gets to be an astronaut when they grow up".
For a retirement gift, you can always get "Retirement", a worn out pencil stub, "Because you've given so much of yourself to the company that you don't have anything else we can use." And for the corporate meeting room - Meetings, "None of us is as dumb as all of us".

There are lots more - but I think you get the general drift. You can also order poster prints, desk accessories and notecards with the same designs.

A brilliant concept, flawlessly executed, with careful attention to detail. The fonts, layout and artwork are careful imitations of inspirational artwork - so that at a casual glance, people might think they are genuine.

I purchased a calendar from firebox.com as a New Year's gift for a friend - firebox.com seem to be the only UK supplier. It arrived within a few days and delivered exactly what it promised - hilarious fun for the whole year!

The only drawback is the pricing - seems a little steep to pay £15 for a calendar. However, the unique concept more than makes up for it.