Card Designer Spotlight X Vanessa Harnik
The Card Designer Spotlight is a series featuring independent makers whose greeting cards you can find in Paper Source stores. Meet and be inspired by a new designer every month on our blog!
Celebrate National Card and Letter-writing Month with our April Card Designer Spotlight featuring card designer, Vanessa Harnik of Notes & Queries. Read what inspires Vanessa as a generational card maker and business owner here.
How did you begin your career in the card industry?
The fact is that I grew up making cards from the moment I knew how to draw. It is something that every member of my family has always done from my grandmother to my mother, to my own daughter and my husband. I have always loved paper and art. I still have examples of the greeting cards that I made for my grandmother when I was four years old. In fact, in college, I studied papermaking and book binding. But all of which is to say, I definitely saw this as a personal pursuit only. It wasn’t until my father offered me a job to work at Notes & Queries when I was 24 years old that I thought that I could make a living selecting gorgeous cards designed by really talented creative people to be sold in the U.S.
*Vanessa’s Mood Board
Where do you draw inspiration from?
Growing up, I was surrounded by art all the time. Both of my grandparents were artists and that had a huge impact on my life. I have also been lucky enough to travel all over Europe, South East Asia and the U.S. which has allowed me to constantly see the beauty of the world from different perspectives. These new experiences have forced me to consider why some design imagery resonate for me and why do some do not? So, I try to spend my free time walking and exploring to glean a new way of seeing. It also helps that I have an extraordinary network of family and friends who I can count on to be both loving and blunt that also provide feedback on what I’m looking at. I will say strong, unique color combinations will always grab me!
What does your day look like as a greeting card distributor and curator?
I’m a morning person. Anyone who knows me, knows that! So, I’m usually up by 5:00 a.m. with a cup of coffee in one hand and a cat named Juno by my side – making my daily list of top priorities. I travel to London at least 4x a year to meet with our artists and designers. We always stay near Hyde Park so my mornings always begin with a 3 mile walk through Hyde Park, after which we spend the next eight hours looking at artwork and planning product launches over the next 6 – 12 months. But if I’m home in Baltimore, the morning usually begins by laying out the thousands of card designs on my handmade conference room table, interspersed with meetings with my father (who started Notes & Queries) and lives in Michigan and meetings with my staff to review orders, shipments and customer service – definitely day to day stuff. We try to celebrate as often as possible at N&Q so once a month, we try to host a fun event with the entire team. It might be an Easter Egg Hunt, or a potluck, or a gardening event! One needs to have fun at work!
What are my favorite kinds of cards?
Oh I just love paper! It is so hard to choose! The best kinds of cards, I think are the ones where the front of the card beautifully links with the sentiment/occasion of the card and it makes you feel something! I always say that the greeting cards we sell are #thecardsyoukeep. I will say that popup 3d cards are probably my very favorite kind of greeting card. I just love the intricacy and the unique nature of a superb 3d popup card! Truly a gift as well as a card.
What does your creative process look like?
I have been lucky enough to work with my father for the last 25+ years here at Notes & Queries and have learned a ton from him – not just about design but how to work on win/win partnerships with artists and designers. We are both extremely vocal about expressing what we like or don’t like about design. In fact, some of our conversations are so animated that some of our team can hear us from across the office! We are both very blunt about what we love and don’t love. But we always start off by laying the thousands of designs all on the table and seeing it as a whole and then asking ourselves the big question - What do we love? What do we do not love? What are the designs or occasions that we need to sell? Which designs compliment other designs? And then we begin to reduce the assortment to get to what we think is the “right assortment” – the balance of sentiment, design, and color. This can take weeks to complete but it starts with thousands of greeting cards on a big table with a big cup of coffee in one hand.
What are you most proud of as a curator and wholesaler of 25 different European designers and artists?
I am super proud that we sell really beautiful unique greeting cards, designed by extraordinarily nice and talented people that often cost less than a cup of coffee that make people feel good. What more can we really ask for! What an amazing way to earn a living. I will say that when we get consumers reaching out – expressing to us how much getting one of our cards has meant to them! I can’t tell you how much that has moved me. I will say that when I see a greeting card that “knocks it out of the park”, it serves as a reminder of how lucky I am to be in this industry. My new favorite greeting card is this new design from Alljoy Design, designed and produced in Ireland by super duo husband-wife team and two of the nicest people on this planet – Ling and Jiawen. It is the card I gave my daughter last month when she went to Sweden to work on a 4H Farm. An amazing card!
We have been lucky enough to work with Paper Source for 30 years! In fact, this year as we celebrate our 45th year in business is also our 30th (!!!) anniversary of working with Paper Source. How amazing is that! We are so grateful for Paper Source’s commitment these 30 years! Happy Anniversary, Paper Source!
Fun facts about Vanessa!!
*Vanessa was born in Madagascar the day the revolution started and has a Malagasy name!
*Vanessa’s family has always had a tradition of making greeting cards. All members of Vanessa’s family make greeting cards for the holidays. That is how Vanessa’s husband “courted” her all those many years ago. In fact, before Vanessa’s parents met, Vanessa’s mother made and sold her handmade cards to the same store that Alan sold greeting cards to – and neither of them knew that until years later! Vanessa’s mother is a well-known anthropologist and isn’t even in this industry
