Don’t diss the e-card – it’s a first prototype of a future model

As a student of sustainable design, Jim Davies’ Private View ‘E-cardinal sin’ shocks me (DW 18 December 2008). To hell with deforestation? This is not a comment that I feel comfortable reading.

Christmas cards create a huge amount of waste every year and the way an alternative, however crude or impersonal, can be disregarded in this way saddens me. There must be other alternatives to the traditional postcard that allow for greater creative freedom than churning out the clichéd, generic designs we see today.

I would be interested to see alternatives to both the Christmas card and the e-cards being investigated further in the design community.

On another note, I feel that this article shows an archaic way of thinking. E-cards are a development of a tradition that shows movement and progress in an industry that has remained stagnant for many years.

There will be an alternative for sending season’s greetings – e-cards are merely the first prototype.

Harry Wilson, by e-mail