As a first-year architecture student, one of my jobs was to deliver the Christmas presents to clients. Like Santa, I traipsed all over Brisbane carrying my goodies. My sleigh? Our Honda CRV, the trusty work car. My gifts? Not personalised wine bottles or boxes of chocolates, no, the gifts I carried were wheels of cheese, the signature Christmas gift at the firm where I worked. Back in the office, the venetian blinds would start to grow heavy with Christmas cards, and a silent competition began brewing over which director received the most. The steady march of Christmas hampers filled the reception as we haggled over who would get what.
This last Christmas, I had the chance to consider what my practice would offer to the Christmas gift realm. I wanted to say thank you to everyone who had supported EBA over the last year. My gift giving budget isn’t quite at ‘wheels of cheese' yet, so I settled on a Christmas card.
I had just finished drawing of a Spanish Mission a home in New Farm, Santa Barbara. The home of Mrs Balls on Moray Street. An early newspaper clipping praised the home:
“Bringing the Mediterranean to Brisbane. No one can drive past Santa Barbara, the home of Mrs. Balls in Moray Street New Farm without exclaiming over its unusual colour scheme and its striking architectural style. Along the shores of the Mediterranean where some of the most famous pleasure resorts and beauty spots of the world had to be found, this type of architecture is very popular.”
I drew the house from Google Street View. I like being able to go back through the years on street view to see better detail. I pick and choose what I want to include in the drawing from street view and old photographs. Santa Barbara has a bus stop out the front, and throughout the years, there were many people waiting for the bus, some of which made it into the drawing.
The house has two street elevations, and being unable to pick a side, I drew both, combining them into one elevation, with two chimneys, my favourite part of the home.
Santa Barbara was the perfect style for a Christmas card, with its chunky walls and roof, reminiscent (in form) of Santa’s house in the North Pole.
Using the pen drawing as a base, I quickly traced over the main form with a thicker pen, leaving some of the detail out so it wasn’t too fussy. I scanned it, imported it to illustrator, added my logo and done!
I work with projects that take a year or more to execute, and even then, my hands are never in the finished product. I make art, but I can never truly be sure that it is finished. Making and shipping a Christmas card was a rewarding exercise, completed over a short time frame delivering a fully executed product that I could hold in my hands.
Like any creative project, it provided a chance to make, ship and evaluate.
Here are some things I learnt while making Christmas cards:
Check the readily available envelope sizes before designing the card. I designed my cards as 5 x 7, starting with a template that I found on the internet. After putting off the envelopes till the week before sending, I found that Officeworks didn’t stock that size, thankfully Amazon came through.
It takes a long time to fold and write cards. I should have known this, I remember the afternoons that directors would spend around the meeting table, diligently writing in card after card.
What is the sustainable solution for Christmas Cards? There is the Christmas e-card, but they are deleted within seconds from my inbox. Then there are custom Christmas gifts, but my small business is not quite ready to commit to the cost. Someone told me they received a Christmas card that you could plant in the garden and there were seeds infused in the paper.
I wanted to say thank you and there’s no doubt that the cards lead to connection. People reached out to me to say thank you.
I will make cards again this year. I like the idea that they become a handmade collection, a reflection of the growth of Emma Butterworth Architects. I also like the idea of them being interactive. Maybe this year will be a drawing of a flat pack house that you can cut out, fold and make?
The intent of this project was to say thank you to a few of those people who helped my business grow over the last year. I wanted to provide a little moment of whimsy during the Christmas rush, and I wanted to remind people that I’m here. My greatest hope was that someone would read ‘featuring Santa Barbara’ on the back and find out more about the house. Sharing the things I love, with you, is the greatest gift.
If you are running your own business or have things to share about your family, why not consider Christmas cards as a creative project for this year. Is there anything better than seeing your name handwritten on an envelope and opening it to find not another plumber’s magnet, but a hand written card, saying thank you.
