There’s something truly intimate, emotional and human about sending and receiving a greeting card. It’s a quiet, thoughtful gesture of real-life connectedness. It's a moment to relish, a moment to pause, pick up a pen, and write from the heart.
When you want to say 'I love you', 'You mean the world to me' or 'I'm here by your side' AI generated art just isn't going to cut it.
At Sister Paper Co., we believe that heartfelt messages deserve heartfelt art. That’s why you’ll only ever find illustrations on our cards that were hand drawn by a human. All the artwork you see in our collections is created by me, in my home studio sketchbook on my lap, brushes in hand and helped (or not) by my cat Ziggy.
I know AI art is everywhere right now. It’s fast. It’s trending. But i'm not interested in shortcuts and I wanted to share my reasons behind the conscious decision to not use AI generated art, ever.
A human message deserves human art
I design our cards to be meaningful, much more meaningful than a text message or email. There's no feeling like seeing a colourful envelope drop through your letterbox before your birthday or during a tough time.
Can an AI generated illustration really make you laugh in the same way a human-made art can?
When you're sending a message of support in a sympathy card, get well soon card or thinking of you card it's incredibly important to me that you can find a greeting card in our collection with artwork that is as thoughtful as the message you pen inside. As I'm sketching the artworks for new greeting cards I'm pausing, purposefully, carefully and intentionally considering the meaning behind each tiny painted element, understanding the nuances of traditional symbolism behind flowers and animals I draw.
The imperfections of hand made artworks are magical and soulful. To send a genuine message of connection, human to human, only real, human made art will do.
AI Art Is Bad For The Environment
We're a proudly sustainability focussed company - all our products are made with care and attention at every stage of their journey, and I know you care about that too. We carefully choose our UK based manufacturing partners and suppliers for their ability to create our products in an eco-conscious way. All our products are recyclable and we're committed to only using papers from certified sustainable sources and reducing plastic packaging.
AI generated art requires enormous computing power, data centres require huge use of water and energy and the environmental impact of just one image can be massive. When we actively work to reduce our carbon footprint it would be unethical to generate our images with AI.
We're committed to creating slowly, mindfully and with purpose - so AI generated art just doesn't align with our values. We'll continue to design with care.
Trained on the work of real artists
Seriously AI, this is personal. I'm the artist behind Sister Paper Co. so this one is huge for me.
Did you know that AI art tools are trained by looking at existing artworks? And often these are scraped from the internet without artists and the original copyright owners consent. The next image you generate with AI the image it spits out might just be based on, and a little too much like, an artists life works.
AI generated art undermines the entire creative community - not just artists, I mean all painters, illustrators and designers too who's art style can be mimicked often without them even knowing.
When you choose to buy a greeting card from us at Sister Paper Co. you're choosing to support a female founded, small business that is creating honest, authentic artwork by hand.
Offline is the new luxury
Want to join me as part of a gentle rebellion? A rebellion against doom scrolling, impersonal messages and fast paced screen time. Let's explore real friendships, real art and real life.
By choosing to only create our artwork by hand we're offering products that are a luxury in amongst the deluge of Ai generated images. Sending a greeting card is a tactile, nostalgic, heartfelt, slow experience. Switch off, slow down and send a message from the heart.
Our artworks take time, often days or hours to create every minute detail - can an image generated by AI ever have the same impact as handmade art?
Always Made By Hand
You won't find any Ai generated art here, ever. Only human made art for a human emotion will do. I'm fiercely committed to:
- Never using AI generated art
- Always creating our artwork with human hands
- Continuing our focus on sustainability
You can be sure that you'll always find ethically made, sustainably sourced, human designed greeting cards and gift wrap from us. 🌍