The card aisle can be a frustrating place when you don't actually feel represented, especially on Valentine's Day. That’s why London Drugs worked with Rethink to launch the Cards for All collection — a collection of valentines designed to celebrate all love. It features more than 30 cards to help everyone share their love, regardless of the language they speak, how they identify, or the makeup of their relationship(s). 

 

I was invited to create a custom card for the South Asian Punjabi community. It was an opportunity to represent an aspect of the cultural diversity of Canada by disrupting the usual narrative of Valentine's day. Having a connection to the South-Asian Canadian diaspora, projects like this, mean leaps and bounds in the right direction towards inclusivity. It was also important for me to enhance the subtleties within Punjabi culture itself. The Punjabi language is phonetically similar but written in two different scripts, Shahmukhi in the Pakistan part of Punjab and Gurmukhi in India. My design attempts to integrate the two scripts seamlessly like the rhythm of its sounds.