PICTURE PERFECT

Have you ever spent ages searching for that 'perfect' card for someone, and given up because you just can't seem to find it? Jessica Huie decided it was time to do something about it.

Jessica solved the problem by launching 'ColorBlind cards' with friend AnnMarie Thomson, after she'd become increasingly fed up with trying to find greeting cards featuring non-white children and adults in high-street stores.

Jessica's own mixed-race daughter, Monet, desperately wanted to like Barbie with long blonde, straight hair, and it dawned on her that maybe there should be far more positive images of Asian, black and mixed-race people. Jessica and AnneMarie both have a background in PR, and so they decided that if you want something badly enough, you have to go out there and take the initiative...it certainly paid off with ColorBlind Cards.

Jessica explained: "We are both ambitious and felt equally passionate about the need for a card range which would incorporate people of all races and not exclude anyone. Whilst there are a few small ethnic card ranges in existence, we hadn’t seen anything commercial, light hearted and modern, which we felt could compare with our vision. So we raided the piggy banks and both invested a sum of money to fund the initial outlay for the photo-shoot, card printing and website design."

The pair contacted a photographer called Nina Duncan, who was delighted to be involved with the project, and they drafted in Jessica's daughter, and two neices to be models. By June 2006, the website was was up & running.

The company is currently trading online with stockists in a number of high-end stores, but their long-term vision has always been to get ColorBlind Cards stocked alongside other strong card ranges on high-street shelves.

"It seems bizarre to us that in 2006 you can’t walk into a card store on London’s Oxford Street and see a non-white face. We intend to change this.

"We actually exhibited at the Notting Hill Carnival, and there was a wonderful moment when a mother was looking at our cards and her son aged 9 or 10 wondered over to look then said, “That’s me” pointing at one of the cards which featured a little black boy.

"It wasn’t him of course, but he saw a reflection of himself in our cards, and that’s what it’s about. Just as we are determined that ColorBlind Cards will be a huge commercial success as a business, getting ethnic cards on high-street shelves will be a huge personal victory for us as well.