If you are not yet familiar with Mirthos, frankly I am a bit jealous that you get to experience it for the first time! Its brilliant creator Hilary Meehan defines ‘Mirthos’ as “a whole attitude of jovial good vibes — like pathos, but on the happy side.”
Honestly, I don’t know anyone who can’t use that, and that may be why Mirthos is my card go-to when I really need to put some good juju, snail mail style, out into the world. There’s just something about Hilary’s perfectly imperfect lettering and swirly textures that feels as though it approaches the lives we are actually living with authenticity — seasoned with copious fun flair, of course! If I could only choose one card to send out for the rest of my life, it would probably be that below. There’s not one occasion it doesn’t work for.
The Mirthos range however did not appear fully formed; like all fabulous things, it took time and careful consideration. I did a bit of consulting for Hilary early on (you can see her kind words here, just scroll through the testimonials). While I was able to help her better understand her niche, the larger market, and what her stockists and end users are seeking, Hilary did the heavy lifting and hard work solo.
This all came into clear focus for me recently, when Hilary sent me a stationery care package of Mirthos lovelies. Included was a glassine envelope on which she had written “evolution of a card …” — dotting the ‘i’ with a star of course. (When it comes to the choice between vellum — which is having another moment — or glassine, I am a glassine girl through and through. I love its more scientific origins, and to me its proclivity for getting slightly wrinkled when touched is the perfect dose of wabi sabi.)
Back to the card evolution, within that superb package lay three versions of the same card. It was born in 2020 — before the official birth of Mirthos — and then tweaked in 2022 and 2023 as the brand began to hit its stride. I had lots of questions of course, and realizing this was a TPN post waiting to happen, I sent them to Hilary. She sent them back last Friday — just before starting a big pot of jambalaya! — and her responses are below.
SS: Tell me about the very first card in the series. Foiling a message over a patterned background is nothing new, but your approach felt different right out of the gate. What were your main concerns at this point?
HM: This was the first card of a small collection I created under my own name in late 2020. I had been making abstract art “messes” through the pandemic. The looseness & process-based approach was meditative.
When I began using my abstract art for cards, I used the energy of the art to decide what they would say & where to place the words within the pattern. I think this is the difference you notice, rather than an overlay centered over the background. Of course, my goal was to create lavish, eccentric & earnest stationery that brought high volume color to the card wall!
SS: Now let’s move onto the second card, circa *Noted 2022. You got rid of the foil, moved a lot of design to the back, and came up with your new brand!! What went into this design? What were you trying to achieve?
HM: Good memory of this release at *Noted ’22 & the official debut of Mirthos Paper!
The short version of this starts with a new print partner I was using, who couldn’t reuse the foil plates I already had. I had been working with “flourishes” in several designs — which you will see sprinkled throughout my line — so I reworked several pieces from my namesake collection into “less intense” experiences via flourishes of pattern. Indeed, I was intentionally trying to balance the maximal patterns with some white space. Frankly, the early handwriting being reused was solely due to time constraints! 😎
SS: Now onto new for 2023! You added two stars, moved around the texture and further re-worked the back. Design wise, what were the decisions that got you to this point?
HM: I knew this card needed some attention!! I love the pink, loopy art so much & I adore birthdays! What I noticed over the past year is that, in some cases, I went too far away from my maximal roots as I was creating a cohesive Mirthos aesthetic. The Mirthos stars are full of personality & edge — I like what they add to the mood of the simple greeting. This Mirthos approved design actually developed immediately after another redesign — which I get into below!
SS: Are you going through a similar process with other designs?
I am working with a select few designs to fully wrap them in Mirthos magic. As a matter of fact, this newest birthday card in the series came just *after* I finessed another older design — although this isn’t intended to be a working method long term! With this latest revamp, I’ve found the instinctive threads that will guide my use of abstracts in the line moving forward.
SS: Now that you have settled into your brand a bit more, have you redefined internally what you do? AKA to your mind, what are the must-have features of a Mirthos card?
HM: There are several styles in my line that I feel coordinate without being matchy-matchy. Therefore, my collections within the line are growing from stew-like releases that have many flavors working together.
Must haves in a Mirthos card: vibrant colors that work with hot pink, black accents, hand lettering once removed & sometimes contrasted with a font, lavish details, intuitive magic, something messy but gorgeously so, humor or sincerity & something on the back!!
I still believe in offering lavish, eccentric & earnest work. To me, lavish is not just gold foil but also neon ink, thermography, metallic printing & saturated colors! Lavish is the invitation style envelope that looks extra special in the mailbox! Lavish is a heavy weight textured paper that lets your ink sink into the paper when you write, too.
Eccentric is …. an unexpected detail, an unusual array of information on the back, a reminder that you rock! Eccentric is using messy, wild artwork to convey heartfelt words because life is not always tidy & now there’s a card for that!
Earnest, I say, because sometimes you need a card to say the hard, real things that need said for you. If it can be said poetically & with a certain edge so that those of us less pastel butterfly people can say these things, too, all the better.
Cards are the jewelry of our mailbox, of course.
“The jewelry of our mailbox” … I just love it! Take it from Hilary and I, every last card printed these days should aspire to that lofty goal. That idea means different things to different ranges of course, so I encourage every last maker to lean into her own vibe to create those standout pieces that really push the potential of the card medium. There are so many great ideas and approaches out there, and the market has never felt as open as it does now to new ideas and treatments.
I hope Hilary’s process inspires others to take the occasional design risk and be unafraid to try something a little different. Meanwhile I encourage everyone to shop Mirthos’ site here for a welcome dose of all things lavish, eccentric and earnest; my friends in the trade can stock up on Faire here.
