Diaries & card decks
The two things we make that are not books — one deliberately unfinished, the other with no sequence at all. What each is for, and how each fails.
- A Diary for a First Year of MarriageThe first year is the least recorded stretch of a marriage. A diary catches what the wedding album cannot — if it is given to both of them, on purpose.3 min read
- A Diary for a New YearThe one diary occasion with a real deadline, and the one most likely to be abandoned by February. What raises the odds, and the size that actually gets filled.3 min read
- A Diary for a PregnancyNine months with a natural end date, which is what makes it one of the few diaries that gets finished. What to print at the front, and what to leave out.3 min read
- A Diary for a Travel YearA travel diary is written in transit, which decides the size, and it competes with a phone that is always in a pocket. What makes it worth carrying anyway.3 min read
- Card Deck Sizes: 27 or 52Two sizes, ₹999 and ₹1,699. The choice is not about budget — it is about whether you actually have fifty-two things worth putting on a card.3 min read
- Card Decks as a Group GiftOne card per person is the only group gift format where every contributor gets equal space — which solves the problem that ruins most collective presents.3 min read
- Card Decks for a Long FriendshipFifteen years of a friendship is not a story with an arc, which is exactly why a book struggles with it and fifty-two unordered cards do not.3 min read
- Card Decks for CouplesFifty-two reasons is the most-made version of this gift and the easiest to get wrong. Why you should write evidence rather than reasons, and what fills a deck.3 min read
- Photo Diary Sizes and Page CountsFour lengths, 120 to 240 pages, ₹699 to ₹1,299. Which to choose depends entirely on how often the person actually writes, and most people overbuy.3 min read
- Playing With a Photo Card DeckA deck that is only read once is a book in an awkward format. Six things to actually do with fifty-two cards, and why that is the whole point of the shape.4 min read
- What Goes in a Photo DiaryPrinted spreads at the front, blank pages after. How many photographs the front should hold, and why fewer is almost always the right answer.3 min read
- What Goes on a Photo CardOne image and one line, and the line is doing far more work than people expect. What makes a card land, and the four kinds that reliably fall flat.3 min read
- What to Write in a Photo DiaryThe page you write at the front decides whether the rest of it gets filled. What to put in that page, plus prompts for the person who has to keep going.3 min read
- Who a Photo Diary SuitsA diary is the only thing we make that can fail after it arrives, because it needs the recipient to do something. Who that works for, and who it does not.4 min read