Over 75 Years of Holiday Card Innovation
Since the 1940s, MoMA has invited artists to create delightful, original and unexpected designs for our Holiday Card Program. Over the years, the designs have evolved from flat cards to pop-up and 3D paper-engineered cards.
Staying true to our mission of offering products that marry functionality with beautiful, innovative design, our holiday cards are more like art objects than ordinary cards. We seek out cards from both established and emerging artists, choosing original, extraordinary designs that are unlike any that are on offer from other retailers. The process of each card begins with the artist hand-assembling the prototype, which is then reviewed by our team. When the cards are ready for production, each one is printed and meticulously handcrafted. These artist-created cards are made for sending greetings for Christmas, Hanukkah, the New Year and the general holiday season. Most of the cards have a greeting printed inside but some, like those featuring work by MoMA collection artists, are blank—so senders can include personalized messages.
How We Choose Our Artist-Designed Holiday Cards
Each year begins with an open call to established and emerging artists: Send us your best holiday card designs. After several rounds of reviews by our selection committee over the course of months, we make our decisions based on the following criteria: innovative and experimental uses of paper, new interpretations of traditional holiday motifs and themes, witty sophistication and elements of surprise. Every holiday season we strive to create a diverse collection of cards with a variety of themes, colors, interactive features and construction techniques that come together to embrace the spirit of the holidays.
Meet Our Established Holiday Card Designers
Our roster of established designers continue to bring us new ideas each holiday season. Peter Dahman is known for creating complex designs from simple, abstract forms, and this year he’s contributed “Shimmering Tree.” “The starting point for this design was the idea of creating a 3D Christmas tree that can be viewed from all sides,” explains Dahmen. “I love the challenge of bringing a familiar theme to life in a new way.”
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“Moonlight Mountain” by Peagreen
Izzy Matthews of Peagreen was inspired by a camping trip beside a Scottish loch for her card “Moonlit Mountain.” “As the sun went down, the bright mountains transformed into dark, eerie, gigantic masses,” recalls Matthews. “Then, finally, a huge orb of orange moon floated up, sending golden ripples over the loch and gave calm definition to the dark mountains.”
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We Also Introduce Cards by Emerging Paper Engineers
For “Seasonal Succulents” by Jann Johnson Paper Engineering with Peter Savage, Johnson was inspired by trips to such locales at the Desert Garden in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. “These cacti and succulents there have such bold, distinctive shapes, in cool shades of blue and green tints,” enthuses Johnson. “That is then contrasted with the impact of hot neon colors of the flowers making the combination a joy to draw and color.”
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