Hot Air Balloon 3D concertina by Cambridge Imprint

Shelley on the newfangled Hot Air Balloon in 1811, having witnessed a balloon ascent from Christchurch Meadows in Oxford: “The balloon has not yet received the perfection of which it is surely capable; the art of navigating the air is in its first and most helpless infancy; the aerial mariner still swims on bladders, and has not yet mounted the rude raft… It would seem a mere toy, a feather, in comparison with the splendid anticipations of the philosophical chemist. Yet it ought not to be altogether condemned. It promises prodigious faculties for locomotion, and will allow us to traverse vast tracts with ease and rapidity, and to explore unknown countries without difficulty.”

This extra-special, double-sided, foldy concertina card is of 300gsm smooth ivory uncoated stock, litho-printed in England in vegetable oil-based colours that are friendly to the environment. It has no message. You can write your own message on the special panel provided. When folded, this card measures 90 mm wide x 180 mm tall. Each card is supplied with a cream diamond flap envelope, and is individually wrapped in cellophane.

Cambridge Imprint is a small paper-making business in Cambridge, England, designing and printing patterned paper. We are known for our beautiful colours, our joyful illustration and typography, a lively, hand-drawn aesthetic, and meticulous attention to detail.

Cambridge Imprint is a design partnership of painter Claerwen James, textile artist Jane Powell and ceramicist Ali Murphy. We use simple hand-stencilled screen-printing to create our original designs, and spot-colour lithography to replicate that studio process in manufacturing the final paper product. The result is a matte paper of unparalleled intensity and clarity of colour.

Our influences are eclectic, but it has often been noted that our patterns have a particularly English quality, with a palette that is both sober and exuberant. We export paper all over the world, even to Kyoto in Japan, probably the world capital of beautiful patterned paper: an indication that we’re producing something with a very distinctive flavour. At recent design awards Katie Law of the Evening Standard called us ‘wholly original’ and ‘trend-free’.