Card Designer Spotlight X Cardideology

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! 

This November, we're thrilled to spotlight Lesley Ord & Tracey Wikennheiser. Powerhouse sister duo, 3x Louie Award & Consumer's Choice Award winners from Cardideology. Learn how a non-compete turned a card hobby into a successful stationery business! 

How did you begin your card-making career and company? 

"I had sold my lifestyle boutique and signed a three year non-compete, which basically meant I wasn't allowed to sell anything even remotely similar to what I'd carried before.  I figured maybe it was time to slow down a bit - so I "retired".  That lasted about six months before I realized I was terrible at retirement.

I decided to open a floral boutique, but because of the non-compete, I couldn't carry any of my old card lines.  And anyone who knows me well, knows I have a very particular aesthetic - everything in the shop has to look right.  I just couldn't find any cards that fit the aesthetic I wanted.

Lesley, my sister, had a background in graphic design, so I called her and said, "Let's just make our own cards".  We started with maybe a dozen designs, and to my surprise, they started flying off the shelves.  I'd hear women in the shop laughing out loud while reading them, then buying them eight or ten at a time.

One day I called Lesley and said " I think we are onto something here".  We decided to see if other stores might want them too - and before we knew it, orders were rolling in.  What started as a fun little side project turned into both of our full-time careers."

Pictured: Lesley Ord & Tracey Wikennheiser

Where do you draw inspiration from? 

"So much of our inspiration comes from our mum, June.  She was compassionate and generous to a fault, and she has this incredible sense of humour that she passed on to both of us.  She taught us that being thoughtful and witty aren't mutually exclusive - that you can make someone laugh and feel seen at the same time.

That idea is really at the heart of what we do.  We want our cards to be beautiful - printed on high quality paper with a design aesthetic we love - but also full of personality.  There's definitely a woman's voice behind our cards, with a touch of irreverent wit, but we also make cards with genuinely lovely sentiments too.  That mix of beauty, humour and heart is very much our mum's legacy.

Many of our cards carry the For Juniper logo, a line we started in her memory.  Those designs, in particular, reflect her sense of humour and the kind of sentiments we know she'd love.  Four of our cards were created specifically with her in mind - two of them even feature her image as. a child."

What do your days as a card designer duo look like?

"For the most part it's just the two of us. We work from a shop on my property, so once Lesley arrives in the morning, I walk out to meet her and we start by reviewing and pulling orders. We usually spend the first part of the day kitting cards and packing up the orders that are going out. There's a lot of laughter while we work - half the time we're tossing around new card ideas in between counting cards and sealing boxes.

Then it's onto the usual day-to-day items - emails, invoicing, customer service, managing inventory and planning marketing campaigns. And in the summer, if time allows, I can often be found "working" from the pool right outside the shop door.

On design days, Lesley works from her home office, and we're usually on the phone or FaceTiming for hours, bouncing ideas back and forth. Our husbands think it's hilarious how often we'll sit there "together", not even talking - just working, listening to each other breathe.

As for my favourite part? Honestly, it's that as sisters and best friends, we get to work together. We laugh every single day, and that's pretty awesome."

What are you most proud of as a creator and card maker? 

"I'm really proud that what started as a little side project has turned into a successful full-time business - and one that lets Lesley and me spend every day together. It brings us so much joy to hear people laughing at our cards or telling us how much they love them. There's nothing better than knowing something we created made someone smile or snort-laugh - something our mum was famous for.

We were also completely blown away that in our very first year entering the Louie Awards, we received seven nominations and three wins - including the Consumer's Choice Award. It still feels a bit surreal, but mostly it just makes us so grateful to be part of such a supportive and creative community.  We have made so many amazing new friends as a result.

And perhaps the most meaningful moment for us came when our Louie Nominated "Those We Love" card was chosen to be carried in Paper Source. That card was designed in memory of our mum. When she was ill, my daughter asked how she'd know if her grandma came back to visit her after she was gone, and our Mum replied "I'll be the little bird that lingers longer than normal". So the little bird on that card is For Juniper. Knowing that something created from such a personal place is now out in the world - reaching people who might connect to it in their own way - means the world to us"

What does your creative process look like? 

"We don't really have a set process - it's a bit organic (and a lot of fun). Usually, one of us will say something funny and we'll just look at each other and say "That's a card". Sometimes we start with the sentiment and then find imagery to go with it, and other times it's the reverse - we'll come across an image and immediately think of the perfect line to go with it.

When we first started, everything was strictly letterpress - simple black and white or gold foil designs using vintage or licensed artwork. Every now and then, if Lesley has time, she draws something by hand and we will digitize and tweak it in Photoshop. I wanted everything to have a very clean, monochromatic look that fit my store's aesthetic.

Eventually, we added digital printing, which opened the door to using more colourful imagery. That's when things got even more fun. We love isolating characters from classic paintings and pairing them with unexpected, funny sentiments - the more irreverent, the better. Sometimes we alter the image to make it more absurd, such as putting Napoleon in short shorts for the world to see his wonderfully knobby knees.

These days, most of our design work happens in Photoshop and InDesign. It's not a rigid process at all - it's more like an ongoing creative conversation that just happens to result in a lot of laughter and, hopefully, great cards."

Any Fun Facts?

"We actually chose our company logo before we even had a name. We loved the vintage look of the anatomical heart, and the name came later as a play on Cardiology - because really, Cards ARE our ideology. Funny enough, it turned out to be a little prophetic...four years later, we both ended up being diagnosed with heart arrhythmias. Clearly we were destined to be in the heart business one way or another."

Find cards from Cardideology at your local Paper Source store or online at papersource.com. Explore customer favorites from Cardideology here, Know What Love Is Love Card, Murdering Spouse Love Card, & Blank card. For more behind the scenes content be sure to follow Cardideology and Paper Source on Instagram!