There is much to be said for the serendipity that comes from the process of just exploring and trying something different. One of the dangers I struggle with when talking about "sustainable design" is that it often comes off sounding very proscribed—don't do it this way, only use these materials—and it turns people off.
But, of course, serious designers understand that rules are good—for breaking. That the best design requires a willingness to push beyond the norm, to set aside the go-to aesthetic formulas, and take a chance on just trying something you haven’t tried before. It doesn’t always come up roses, of course, but the really good stuff grows out of a willingness to risk a little failure.
When illustrator and designer Marian Bantjes got the idea for her Valentine’s Day cards this year, she wasn’t sure it was worth taking on. Intricately designed in Bantjes’ lavish, hand-wrought style, the cards were laser-cut from old Christmas cards collected from friends and associates. “I started getting exciting envelopes of cards in the mail,” she writes on her website, “This must be what it’s like to be popular!” But she quickly discovered that working with reclaimed materials poses certain challenges. How do you handle irregular paper weights, for example, when working with production equipment built for standardized materials?
Luckily for Marian (and her recipients), her persistence in the pursuit of a creative vision often pays off. Below is a short email interview we did with Marian to learn more about her Valentine’s cards with such a small footprint and a big, big heart.
Jess: How did you land on Christmas cards as your material of choice?
Marian: The idea was a surprise—just one of those things that popped into my head, which I can't trace the possible source of. However, once I had the idea, I realized how perfect it was because Christmas and Valentine's Day share similar colours (red, white, gold, silver) and motifs (fire, sparkles, bows, bells, glitz, velvet, angels).
One of the challenges I've run into using reclaimed materials is the added layer of prep work that's often required, making certain projects inappropriate for longer runs (you had to sort the cards by weight to prep them for the laser cutting, for example). But you do a ton of hand-work anyway - what are the advantages of investing more time in the design and production process like this?
Well, I nearly postponed this project until next year because of the amount of work. I really did not have time for this this year. But I looked at my mailing list, and I saw all these names of people I really like and just wanted them to get these great cards this year! I had to sort the cards several times: by weight, then by cards i liked, and weeding out those that just wouldn't work, then I had to trim them and stack them so the machine operator could just feed them easily and the best part of the card would be in the center…and it's the result that makes it worth it.
But sometimes these hand-work things go horribly awry. I can't tell you the number of times I've invested hours in something that just looks a mess: amateurish. You have to know when to cut your losses and walk away.
Might you have chosen another approach if this had been a client project, or a longer run?
Whether it's for a client or for me makes no difference. A longer run, well yes. I had to solicit all my friends to send me their old christmas cards, and it was difficult getting enough. Plus its expensive. There's no real volume price break with laser cutting; they still have to be fed by hand so the per-unit price never changes, as it does in printing. So sourcing materials, time and money are all the challenges that would increase for larger volumes.
How on earth did you choose which hearts to give to which recipients?
It was so hard. I wanted to keep them all (and I did keep some of the best ones), but some of them just seemed to speak of someone in particular. Again there was more sorting—the really amazing ones, the ones with particular motifs (cats, US flags, Santa, etc.), colour variations—and I just started assigning them as I stuffed the envelopes. There was one that by chance just looked incredibly sexual. I could only have given it to a man I was sleeping with, and alas, I still have have it.
Is there anything else you'd like to add, either specifically about this project, about sustainable design in general, or otherwise?
I think that the best thing with this project, and potentially with other projects made from reused materials is that there are a couple of levels of surprise. For me—although I knew this was going to work out great—when I got the lasercut cards I was surprised by how great. It was pure delight, looking at each card and seeing the incredible transformation of the image. But then there is the recipient: they receive something that is what it is, but when they figure out where/what it came from, what its origin is, that is the extra level of delight. This is very important in design, I believe.
