Birthday wishes

Birthday wishes is quiet where most birthday cards are loud. The front is divided into a grid of large rectangles alternating between a soft peach and a pale lilac, ruled with thin lilac lines, so the pattern reads as tiling rather than as checks.

Over it, birthday wishes & lots of kisses is set across four lines in a rounded lowercase in deep navy, centred and generously spaced. The navy is the only strong colour on the card and it does all the anchoring; without it the two pastels would sit too close together to hold attention.

The typeface has soft terminals and slightly heavy strokes, warm rather than formal, and the ampersand on its own line is what gives the layout its rhythm. There is no illustration at all.

Printed on an uncoated stock with a matte surface, supplied with a lilac envelope that matches the lighter of the two grid colours. Blank inside. It suits birthdays for adults rather than children, and particularly for someone who would find a joke card tiring and a floral card predictable. Send it with almost anything; the softer pink and lilac arrangements suit it best. Browse all notecards.

The card is A6 folded with a blank inside page, and the lilac envelope is unlined so it takes ink cleanly. It is sent flat in a protective sleeve. When ordered with an arrangement it travels alongside rather than inside it. Because the front carries the full message already, what goes inside can be short without the card feeling thin, which is useful for a colleague or an acquaintance.