Our Revival of Airmail Envelopes

Hello again! If you haven’t already make sure to read last week's blog where we explained the concept of our ‘Vintage Travel Postcards’ (which is a follow from that) and we believe that a postcard or any greeting card isn’t complete without an envelope!

History

Airmail service began in the 1918s in the U.S. and went through a turbulent program (pun intended) between the US army, Post Office Department and private aviation companies. Through the power struggles and high demand, private aviation companies were granted the responsibility and service by the US government around 1939.

In 1971, FedEx (Federal Express) was born. FedEx had designed a shopping system exclusively for shipping cargo by air.

Airmail envelopes were typically designed with a coloured border depending on the country of origin where the letter came from. This made mail sortation easier as international mail could be picked out from a nation’s internal mail due to the coloured edges of the envelopes.

Sadly today airmail envelopes are no longer used due to the rapid growth of international shipping. The classic airmail envelopes are mainly sold for decorative use rather than practical use.

So.. Why?

We designed our postcards to be both practical and decorative. So whether you wanted to write and send the postcard, you could. Or if you wanted ‘Vintage Travel Postcards’ to build your collection (like us) or even just for keepsakes to display on your bedroom walls that would work too!

But to add that little bit extra from other postcards, we designed our own custom airmail envelopes with the classic and widely recognisable red and blue coloured borders. We’d have liked to have printed these ourselves but something this specialised requires special equipment and resources. Outsourcing this job was difficult as prqactically no one offered the service we wanted or had a reasonable price. On Zazzle there were listings charging between $300 - $600! CRAZY!

So we set out to design our own custom airmail envelopes complete with the rubber stamp printed on it and the aeroplane icon on the back. Eventually finding a service which could turn the idea into reality, we were delayed by the global strikes at the end of 2022 so we paused our launch to avoid any disappointment for us, you or anyone else involved!

Once everything had calmed down, we uploaded our custom design and put our order through. We opted for no window (for extra security and privacy for the contents inside) and a self-adhesive strip (for hygienic purposes - so you don’t have to lick the envelope to seal it!).

The envelope material is made from Bond uncoated paper with a weight of 80gsm, has no window and has a self-adhesive strip. That probably means nothing to you, but trust us, it's a piece of art! :D  

Our Reasons

• Uniqueness -
• We wanted our Vintage Travel Postcards to stand out and shine from the rest!
• Protective -
• To protect the artwork of the Vintage Travel Postcards.
• Practicality -
• To provide security and privacy for your postcard messages if you wish to send them to friends and family. 

  

You can shop our Vintage Travel Postcards here.

TLDR; To accompany our ‘Vintage Travel Postcards’ we custom-designed and revived airmail envelopes!