Illustrator Emma Bryan, has made her latest range of greeting cards available to the public to download for free on her website. The Surbiton-based independent greeting card publisher launched her latest range, Softly Spoken, back in January before the pandemic hit. The range features messages of positivity and support which have become even more poignant since the government asked everyone to stay inside. Initially, she hastily assembled a few boxes of her cards, along with those of other publishers, to give out to enable loved ones to stay in contact. But once the isolation rules tightened, she formed a different strategy.
“I usually supply independent retailers directly, but they have been forced to close for the foreseeable future. Coming from an industry where connecting is our key purpose, I started to think about the ways the public will stay in touch with loved ones during an extended period of lock-down. As customers can’t get into retailers to find my cards at the moment I decided to offer them for free on my website for this period when the shops are shut.”
Emma’s designs can be downloaded without signup and used as an insert in an email, or printed out and posted. You can also purchase a real card with free P&P which Emma will write on your behalf and send.
“The key message at the moment is to stay at home but that doesn’t have to mean stop connecting. I wish that the government had chosen to called it Physical Distancing, rather than Social Distancing – social is going to be more important than ever!”