Think greeting cards and new media, what comes to mind? E-cards.
Yet a young Palestinian entrepreneur has employed new media to somehow revive the dying art of greeting cards. Not only has she added a unique cultural touch, but also launched a family business with her two sisters in the process.
Maysa Al Shaer, who is 26 and hails from Jenin in the north of Palestine, studied multimedia technology at the American University in Jenin. She begins by attributing her love for art and technology to her father. “Dad is an artist, a painter who draws in oils and writes Arabic calligraphy. He also works in advertising and I believe that my talent comes from him,” she says.
Al Shaer’s sisters and project partners are as talented as her. Tasnim is a graphic design student at Al Najah University in Nablus and Aseel is a recent graduate with a media major. “I choose the design ideas and phrases for the cards. Tasnim, my younger sister, designs them, and Aseel takes care of marketing and following up with customers and stores.”
Al Shaer’s journey was not easy. “I didn’t have any funds to start the project. One major challenge we faced was delivery as we couldn’t afford to deal with a delivery service. But I received lots of support from family and friends. They were the first to buy my cards and helped to deliver them to various Palestinian cities. Nowadays my sisters market the products mainly at festivals where we use stands and booths.”
Asked where the idea came from and how it started, Al Shaer becomes all animated. “I love Arabic and it irks me when my people introduce English into the language, Arabising it. To support the language and bring out its beauty, I incorporated it into greeting cards, which I also love and which are disappearing because of e-cards. This is how it all came about and it then led to the beginning of my project.
“I am also part of a group of young Palestinians who are interested in our heritage, telling stories, and beginning with designing cards for Facebook in Arabic I moved on to greeting cards. We have plans for tourism cards, pins and mugs with value-added designs.”
Her project is named “Loz” (Arabic for almond) because Al Shaer wished to express the joy, love and coolness of the almond blossom season — “I launched my business in 2014 winter, as almond trees were blooming. The teaser of the project’s marketing campaign was ‘almond is blooming’.”
Al Shaer holds a full-time job with a leading advertising company in Ramallah, where she does social media digital marketing. “I do content for clients such as major banks and mobile companies, as well as advertisements and reports.”
Before this particular project, Al Shaer started another successful one. “This project is about a product and making profit, but my first one was an initiative wherein I took groups of photographers to more than 50 Palestinian towns and cities, to the West Bank and Gaza and the pre-1948 Palestine to capture the essence of life here. Thereafter, we travelled to Dubai, Bahrain, Egypt, Sweden and Tunisia. It was part of my blog and since I live on the Green Line between the West Bank and our occupied land, I was proud of this initiative. I am also a blogger on Instagram and photography is my other passion.”
Back to the story of her card business. “We contacted shops and they liked the idea of the cards with our special messages unique to the Palestinian culture. People began buying them for the occasions they were meant for, such as Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, weddings and graduation.
“Palestinians liked the concept of cards talking about our dishes and the bond between the different food items, such as olive oil, watermelon, cheese, zucchini and grapes, as well as our daily life, and slang with a play on our cultural symbols. They are Palestinian cards, and unique as we are. The ideas are my own, although my sisters sometimes inspire me.”
Explaining the business, Al Shaer says, “We do our business on Facebook. My sisters sell to shops in Haifa, Nazareth, Jerusalem, Gaza, Amman and even to shops in Cairo. My dream is to get to Hallmark, but that takes time and money to develop. The printing is done in Ramallah and our business is operated on laptops and mobile phones — call it a home business with new media. Palestinians living in the Gulf states like and buy our cards, as they identify with the language and culture expressed in them. I think what people like about our cards is their fresh sense of humour and wit. You cannot help but smile when you read the cards.”
Al Shaer is typical of many young Palestinians who have their sights set on the world. In her particular case — having travelled to the United States in 2011 on an exchange program, thereafter to Dubai, Bahrain, Egypt and Sweden. She was in Bath in the United Kingdom recently to receive a prize for Loz and its creative designs and phrases. The award for Palestinian Youth Leadership was sponsored by a local mobile company.
“The criteria for success in any business, in my opinion, are all about creating products that are recognised and loved by people, and this recognition translates into profit. We achieved all three, but we are still at the beginning, we have a lot to do and so much more to offer,” she says.
Al Shaer knows that at present she is unique and that many others would jump on the bandwagon sooner or later. “My long-term vision is not to just own a company as that is about profits — which is a headache. I want to head an organisation for creative projects for young Palestinians and to lead and inspire them.”
This is certainly one entrepreneur to watch out for.
Rafique Gangat, author of “Ye Shall Bowl on Grass”, is based in occupied Jerusalem.
