Throwback To The Late Eighties….

As a young child, I vividly remember mail coming to the house specifically the Christmas cards. Being immigrants my parents would receive cards from friends and family in Asia and Australia. I recall them opening the envelopes that often had photos of babies and family and the joy my parents felt when they received these letters. I was really into the stamps from different places and the cards themselves too. Back then the musical card was my absolute favourite, playing that high pitch tone of Jingle Bells over and over, open…close…open…close… until my parents confiscated the card from my hands. I haven’t wandered far from that love of letter writing and mail, it fuels so much of my creative life as a designer, I truly truly truly make things I want to see in the world and I share them in hopes they may bring you happiness too. My collection of stationery and cards is extensive and I can honestly say I have a card on hand for any occasion… recently I realized I had to start collecting sympathy ones showing my age.

A Designers Purpose…

Whenever I design something, I really do just want to bring joy to the person that receives it. I spent hours decorating envelopes of letters and cards I mailed out, to me, the OUTSIDE was just as important as the inside of the envelope. The outside would pass through many hands until it finally reached its final recipient, my then boyfriend, my best friend or my family…. I decorated my envelopes in hopes to stand out in a sea of letters, to bring a smile to any postal worker that handled my letter and for them to think, wow this is a special letter/package. I knew a beautiful envelope would feel like a gift in itself, and that is why my mantra of Send Beautiful Mail stays so strong in my vision as a designer.

From bubble letters in my adolescence to nib and ink calligraphy as an adult, my love of lettering and sending mail has not faded in time, only intensified. Intensified meaning I felt it was necessary to take upon myself to create things to make my letter writing journey a bit easier, and that is how I came out with my line, and curved lined templates.

I wanted to create a tool/template that allowed me to create straight and well spaced lines with out measuring! This was an especially painful thorn in my side if I had to address envelopes for clients sometimes over the hundreds. Its as simple as placing onto your envelope and using a mechanical pencil draw light lines that can be erased after the address was lettered.

And this year I created the sister of the first template, my curved line template. I always found drawing curves tricky but knew this layout could make an envelope look really dynamic, so I buckled down and created my rainbow template with curved lines.

Letter writing to me will always be a form of travelling art. I also understand that not everyone has the affinity to spend hours on decorating an envelope, so I have also created a line of screen printed mailers so that others can simply send beautiful mail without the fuss.

These mailers are 7 x 9” and fit an array of things, from photographs, to cards, calendars and stickers. They are great when you want to send something special but don’t want to pay an arm and leg for shipping.