Handmade in Ixelles, Brussels, and letterpress printed on Heidelberg presses between sixty and eighty years old. The press inks the type, the card is brought firmly against it, and sheet after sheet is stacked and left to dry. Happy Birthday comes out in dark blue on banana yellow, and each letter leaves a fine footprint in the card, so the greeting can be felt as well as read.
The cornflower blue envelope is every bit as sturdy as the card. Le Typographe cut each one on a press, glue it by hand and check it by eye before it leaves the workshop. It closes with a pointed flap, and the card inside has softly rounded corners, the sort of finish nobody mentions and everybody notices.
Blank inside, with room for a proper note rather than a printed verse. Bright enough to hold its own on the mantelpiece all week and easy company for a present, it is a birthday card for anyone who has ever kept one.
