3rd Annual Holiday Card Review

After you’ve pushed back from the Thanksgiving table, it will be that time again. Time for Christmas letters, Nordic sweaters, the occasional decoratively-deployed stile. And as in years past, the designs of holiday photo card makers like Minted, Paperculture, Pinhole Press, and Tiny Prints reveal the aesthetic preoccupations of the moment. In 2009, the “Modern” category was anemic, populated by a few red squares and Helvetica greetings. By 2010, it had grown apace, though, as I wrote then, “card designers’ idea of modern runs only to the first string of sans serif fonts: Arial, Avant Garde, Trade Gothic.” Last year I did not see much that was new, and gave the cards a bye. But for 2012, I can identify four key trends that have trickled down from Brooklyn restaurants, across from Pinterest, and through the cloud from Instagram and Facebook. This may be the one time this year most of you buy stamps (I recommend these), and one thing is clear. By our holiday cards, you shall know our social media preoccupations.