Taiwan-born artist Flora Chang studied graphic design in San Francisco before moving to Kansas City to begin work as a greeting card artist for Hallmark. A lot of famous doodlers got their start designing greeting cards (Robert Crumb and Tom Wilson come to mind), and I’ll bet my wooden teeth that Flora Chang is also destined for similar stardom!
From the moment I first discovered her Happy Doodle Land flickr stream, I became immediately enamored with the entire collection of cute and colorful characters, her adorable alphabet animals and her picturesque painted people. Deceptively simple and intricately innocent, it takes a deft hand to create such seemingly childish art. Flora makes it all look so effortless and carefree; which combined with her kaleidoscopic color palette and delightfully charming subjects, makes for a pretty joyful combination. I’d like to live in this Happy Doodle Land one day, but for now it’s quite a nice place to visit.
The talented artists and writers at everybody’s favorite division of a giant greeting card company, Shoebox Greetings, have teamed up to create a highly enjoyable blog full of movie reviews, news recaps, cartoons, and plenty of off-the-wall humor… like this fantastic comic.
Our friends at JibJab recently launched a new brand of “eCards that don’t suck” called Sendables. It’s a great collection of illustrated, animated, and live-action/puppet greetings that’s entirely artist-driven and more fun than your usual eCard site.
Full disclosure: both myself and Jared are contributing illustrators to the project.
Reader Melanie pointed me towards the Flickr page of Mr. Mannun, aka Josh Powers, who has posted some delightful designs and illustrations (many for Hallmark Cards). I just looove all the muted colours.
OK, this post might be a cheat because I have absolutely no idea who created Hoops & Yoyo. But as far as characters created by huge, faceless corporations go (Hallmark greeting cards in this case), these two little guys are both well-designed AND truly funny. And what’s weirder: They’ll actually make you want to send someone an e-card. I know. An e-card. It’s so… Web 1.0.
EDIT 1 (June 1, 2006 – Luc):
As you’ll read in the comments posted below, Bob Holt is the creator and designer behind Hoops and Yoyo (and provides Yoyo’s voice), and continues to produce new H&Y animation for the Hallmark website. His colleague Mike Adair assists him and provides the voice of Hoops, while their editor Bev Carlson provides the voice of the little blue mouse, Piddles. (Thanks Mike!)
EDIT 2 (June 1, 2006 – Luc):
In response to several comments below, Hoops & Yoyo merchandise are available at Hallmark’s online store, but only if you have a US address. :(
Ate Colorful Cards, as best as I can tell, is the portfolio site of Akemi Tezuka. Like the previously blogged Yamauchi Kazuaki, I don’t know much about Tezuka, but I love the work that is on display… it’s the perfect amount of cute to start your day off right. And just look at this awesome picture dictionary!
Taiwan-born artist Flora Chang studied graphic design in San Francisco before moving to Kansas City to begin work as a greeting card artist for Hallmark. A lot of famous doodlers got their start designing greeting cards (Robert Crumb and Tom Wilson come to mind), and I’ll bet my wooden teeth that Flora Chang is also destined for similar stardom!
Reader Melanie pointed me towards the Flickr page of 
OK, this post might be a cheat because I have absolutely no idea who created 
