Focus on ... Ornament Art

This week’s ‘Focus on…’ is Jo & David from Ornament Art.

Their colourful, vintage inspired cards are something a little bit different for Chirpy and are proving popular already.

Read their interview to get to know a bit more about them.

Tell me a little bit about yourselves & your company

We are Jo and David; we are a couple who started our greetings card business in 2024. We have what you might call an eclectic home, full of antiques, ceramics, mid-century glass and paintings and when we moved into our house we managed to find an enormous display cabinet which sits in our living room that we soon filled with stuff. When a friend came round with her daughter who was about 8 at the time she asked her mum “Does anyone live in this museum?”  I think then we realised it was all a bit unusual.

Our card designs tap into that love of collecting, featuring photographs of the treasures that fill our home and studio space. We reimagine them mixing vintage vibes with modern humour, using bold, contemporary colours to result in Ornament Art’s distinct style. We like to take people down memory lane and inspire feelings of warmth and nostalgia, raising smiles and sometimes eyebrows too. Everything we create is photographed for real, sourced and styled by us, object by object, with No AI involved.

 How did you get into doing what you’re doing?

In 2024 I was made redundant from a job I’d had for 25 years – I was too young to retire but too old to want to stay in the corporate world. David and I had worked on photographic shoots together for over 10 years – he’s an advertising photographer and I’d been a marketing director for a clothing brand. We knew we made a good team; we loved coming up with ideas and the buzz of creativity, and we had a big cupboard full of objects crying out to be photographed! The idea for Ornament Art arrived whilst we were on away in Prague, we found some amazing antique shops packed with the most wonderful ceramics and bought a few holiday souvenirs with the intention to take some photos of them... and so Ornament Art was born.

 What does a ‘normal’ day look like?

Our live is split between home in Manchester and our studio space in Sheffield so a normal day usually starts early with a drive over the Snake Pass. We’ll arrive at the studio, put the kettle on and make sure we sort any orders as a priority. Then it’s often all about creating which can mean anything from making dozens of “Plaster of Paris” cakes in vintage jelly moulds to sourcing bridal wear for toy dinosaurs or heading to the antique and charity shops of Sheffield to find our next inspiration.

Biggest achievement to date?

To be honest getting our cards into stores like Chirpy is the big achievement for us.  We look out for shops we’d really love to be in and work to make ourselves relevant to them. We found you when we started creating our first designs, so we followed you on socials to understand more about what you like and sell, got in touch, sent some samples, followed up with a chat … so when that first order arrived it felt like a huge achievement.

Where can we find your cards?

We are very popular in Brighton so you ‘ll find us well represented there and are growing with lovely independents around the country. We have been busy attending most of the card and gift industries trade shows to help us meet more customers.

Favourite card you’ve designed  / most popular card design?

This is a tough one because I really love some of the very cute, sentimental ones we have but also some of our cheeky ones really make me chuckle and our favourites change the more we create. Our new “Hot Cakes” range  of bright kitsch cakes for all occasions have been very popular recently but if I must pick just one I’d go for Diva Dog, staring a very handsome whippet wearing a string of pearls. The ornament lives in the cupboard in our living room so I spend time admiring him most days and the card is a big favourite with lots of customers.

Have you seen any changing card trends over the last 12 months?

I think cards with photos of ornaments have become very popular!

Joking aside, we have been so busy building our brand and defining what Ornament Art is we haven’t really thought about trends, we’ve just been creating what felt right for us and hopefully in doing that we’ve designed some cards that people enjoy.

Why do you think sending cards is still so important?

 Picking a card is that moment where you stop and think about someone – would this make them smile, laugh, feel better, feel loved? It’s about memories of fun times, in jokes, connection and it feels good to do. Then when you send the card as the recipient it feels lovely to open something that’s personal. You feel good, they feel good – and it’s such a simple thing.

Best thing about running your own business?

The support and enthusiasm from other small business owners, customers and fellow publishers. You would think it would be quite a lonely thing working for yourself but to be honest I realise now I felt on my own when I worked for a big company than I do now. And I get to spend a lot of time with cute ceramic cats!

Advice to someone looking to turn their hobby / talent into a business?

If you really want it, go for it – just be ready for the fact that you’ll have to do a bit of everything, not just the bits you like – however you‘ll be surprised by the things you can do that you never knew you could.

Plans for the future?

We’d really love to see our designs on other product categories – stationery, homewares, ceramics – but for now the focus is cards and gift wrap, introducing Ornament Art to as many people as we can and finding lovely independents who we can work with to get our cards out there for customers to enjoy

 Pop into Chirpy to see our range of Ornament Art cards.

Check out their instagram to see what she’s up to.