Why this exists
Away Notes started in 2025 after our founder sent a particularly bad e-card to a close friend going through chemo. The card was an animated GIF of a bear holding a sign that said “Get Well Soon!” with a banner ad for car insurance underneath. The friend laughed about it for weeks. Not in a good way.
Paper cards do better, but they cost five dollars, require a trip to the store, and arrive three days late. E-cards are free but feel like spam. There was a gap in the middle: a card with real illustration, your real message, delivered to a phone in under five minutes. Away Notes is that gap.
How the cards are made
Every card on Away Notes is illustrated by hand by a working artist. The illustrations are drawn in the style of editorial cartoons: warm, specific, often a little dry. The goal is to look like something a person would actually pin to a fridge, not a template a brand would mail you.
New designs are added monthly, focused on what people actually need cards for: birthdays, holidays, milestones, hard moments, thank-yous. If a card on the site feels like it could be on a Hallmark rack, it doesn't belong here.
About the founder
Away Notes was founded by Casey Brennan, a designer based in San Diego who spent six years at a stationery brand watching people pick the same generic card off the same rack. The job involved a lot of time staring at “Wishing You a Lifetime of Happiness” in cursive on a sunset. The job also involved noticing that the cards people actually kept were the ones with handwritten notes that said something specific.
Casey believes the average greeting card is the literary equivalent of a high-five — fine, but you can do better. Away Notes is an attempt to do better, at scale, for less than the price of a stamp.
What we believe
- Specific beats generic. “You drove me home that night in August” lands harder than “you're the best.”
- Cards should arrive when they're needed, not three days after.
- Hand-drawn art has a warmth that's hard to fake.
- Free should mean free — no card on file, no trial, no sign-up wall. Paid should be cheap. No subscriptions.
- The card belongs to the sender, not the platform. Your message isn't our advertising data.
How we make money
Sending a card is free if you watch a short ad — same model as podcasts and most free video. If you'd rather skip the ad, it's $1.50 per card, processed by Stripe. We also link to relevant gifts (Amazon Associates) where it fits the occasion. We never sell your message content, your recipient list, or your email to anyone. The full policy is on the privacy page.
Where to find us
We're a small team based in San Diego, California. If you have a question, a partnership idea, or want to suggest a card we're missing, reach out through the contact page or email hello@awaynotes.com. We read everything. We answer most of it within a few days.