Post cards have been present round since the Egyptians committed thoughts to papyrus communications ‘scrolls’ to one-another, and from the time since the historic Chinese started sending written New Years notices and ideas to their friends and family hundreds of years ago. These cards that were being sent hundreds of years ago would had born little resemblance to our modern greetings card, with its cellophane wrapper and its matching envelope, but they were exactly the same in form and function. People wanted to send something to each other, to say Hello, Congratulations, I Love You, Happy Birthday, Sorry…. the list goes on.
By the mid 15th century people in Europe were posting cards on paper for the first time, although in Germany many an old style greetings cards were sent printed on wood blocks rather than paper or card. Around this same time, Valentines cards were particularly standard, and thus another custom was born that is still important to people today. By the 1800’s, large industrial shifts made it much cheaper and easier to mass produce cards, and after the first Christmas card was produced in 1843 as a result of Sir Henry Cole commissioning John Calcott Horsley to paint an illustration that he could send by way of Christmas greetings to his friends and family, there was no holding the greetings card or the Christmas card back.
Larger publishing houses began to produce cards, and authorized leading artists, often book illustrators, to design for them. People like Kate Greenaway and Walter Crane were key players in the greetings card market in the 1860’s and their Arts and Crafts influence is still being felt today. One hundred years later though, by the 1950s, the greetings card market had expanded and alongside illustrated picture cards, studio-cards were becoming increasingly popular. These studio-cards featured photographs or cartoons rather than more formal illustrative images, and often had humorous messages or witty captions inside and on the front. This is a trend that has lasted through to today, with captions on cards still very popular with the modern buyer.
In fact, the greetings card market globally is now massive; with the average person living in the UK sending 55 cards a year. It is a distinct industry, and although there are great commercial business firms operating in the sector, it is sure to say that lesser design companies still play a large part in offering the consumer a varied and interesting range of different cards, all paying respect to a whole range of previous greetings card genres.
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Fuff birthday cards email undoubtedly take inspiration from many of these diverse influences; their careful illustration with colour and shapes is striking, and the sense of proportion in their cards is distinct. Their beautiful bird forms and their precisely drawn landscapes definitely have a faint feeling of the Arts and Crafts era, which was when greetings cards in Britain really took off; and yet their prints also pay homage to the flowers and patterns around in the 1950s. Their oversized Fuff pigeon is faintly reminiscent of the 50s studio cards, as is their ‘Word’ card range. No doubt going forward Fuff will draw on more greetings card history as they play their small part.
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A. Damians is a travel journalist for Tuscany Villas , a portal all about the Tuscan lifestyle. He is also interested in designer womens trousers .
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