Lately I’ve been comparing the current stationery market to the classic rock masterpieces that filled the FM airwaves during the early 1970s. Back then, singer-songwriters from Neil Young to Joni Mitchell to James Taylor created auditory universes that were certainly influenced by each other, but remained completely distinctive in and of themselves. Albums were original moods full of mysterious ideas — or at least that’s how it seemed to my 7-year-old self listening to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon on the 8-track player in my step-father’s deSoto.
So it felts a bit serendipitous to learn that much like those proverbial double albums I used to “borrow” from my older brother to hungrily read all the lyrics, the sister act at Tiny & Snail releases their greeting cards in themed collections too. Grace and Leah aim for three-four launches of eight cards per year, and experience wonderful interaction with their ever-growing community with each. Some of their customers take the day off work to celebrate, while the sisters build momentum leading up to each release by sharing elements like launch discounts in their newsletters.
With that more “classic” approach, each release builds on the shoulders of the last one. So it’s not too surprising that the sisters’ most recent release, The Floral Collection, has been their best-selling complete set to date.
“This collection was inspired by our life-long love affair with flowers,” Grace told me. “When Leah and I were little, our dad would let us pore over garden catalogs and choose what bulbs we’d like to order for spring. We believe that sometimes flowers are truly the best thing to send. They accompany births and deaths and some of the most momentous occasions of our lives. We wanted to come up with a stunning collection of ‘everlasting bouquets’ that people can send to one another and convey tenderness, love, and care.”
I love seeing Grace and Leah experiment with the symbolism of flowers and the sentiments they can carry — and then distilling their magic in everlasting stationery form.
These designs can be bought two ways — as a self-contained set of eight, complete with sticker sheet, or solo.
Think of the set as the entire album experience, or if you just want to buy a few favorite songs, you can do that too. Start your shop here, and you will quickly see why this grassroots brand has gained an ever-growing legion of fans over its relatively short lifespan.
