I created the ZendLove app for you to share love and fun with family and friends by sending beautiful and unique digital greeting cards. Continue reading, and I will share all about the making of ZendLove, about the artists that so kindly have created beautiful cards, and some essential features of the app.
The idea
A few years ago, I had the idea to create the ZendLove app after a fabulous dinner party. The evening was filled with great conversation, lovely wine, and fantastic food. The whole evening was so wonderful! I had such a great time that I continued thinking about the evening even the next day.
I started thinking of ways to thank my friends for the fabulous dinner party. I could send a paper "thank you" card, but I don't really have paper cards. Plus, sending a paper card did not feel the environmentally friendly thing to do. I decided to look on the Apple App Store on my iPhone for digital greeting card apps. I thought a digital greeting card would be the perfect way of thanking my friends for dinner.
I searched and scrolled through all the digital greeting card apps on the Apple App Store and didn't find any useful apps. All the apps had poor quality artwork, the images were cheesy, and the overall quality was just bad. The apps also didn't care about privacy, asking to access my contacts, which was scary.
None of the apps ended up fitting who I am and how I wanted to thank my friends, so I set out on creating my own digital greeting card app called ZendLove.
Getting to know the artists
For me, having unique and quality art was the most important part of creating the ZendLove app. The art needed to represent the artists' personal style, their path as an artist, their culture, and their inspiration. I didn't want it to be art that could be found anywhere else on the internet or other apps. This started me on a journey of finding talented artists all around the world who could make beautiful and unique art for ZendLove.
I reached out to many talented artists and was able to build wonderful relationships with each of them. We worked together to create unique art that would best let you send love and fun to your friends and family through digital greeting cards.
Are you an artist? Would you like to be part of ZendLove? Contact me here.
Making the art of the cards
The artists and I collaborated on coming up with lovely art themes, which the artists implement in their own personal style. The art becomes the card, and the cards are grouped together into a card collection shown in ZendLove. Each artist creates four to six cards for each card collection. Since the cards are shown on a mobile screen, the final cards must meet strict requirements, so the art looks amazing on iPhone screens.
The themes have varied a lot since the start of the ZendLove app. I noticed that the themes might be based a little bit on what is going on in my life. For example, when my friend got two cats, she was always telling me about the crazy things the cats would get up to. This inspired me to talk with an artist, Karolina from Poland, to create a card collection with adorable cats doing crazy things.
Another time, I was binge-watching the TV show "Game of Thrones", which I loved. This inspired me to work with another artist, Marjana from Ukraine, to create a card collection that was inspired by the TV show. The card collection has mystical characters that are absolutely adorable.
I wanted to honor my women friends. I have worked with several artists to create card collections that represent women's love and kindness. Below is Tarik B. art, he is from the UK.
There is a card collection for my lovely guy friends that shows their deep love and kindness too. We just added our first cards with LGBTQ+ representation. These cards are great and show a sense of pride and love, plus they are extremely cute. Sasa K., from Indonesia, created the artwork below.
You can personalize each card with a message. The card message area has been specifically crafted to fit the artwork. The perfect font style, color, and size has been selected for you, so you can focus on what is important, sharing your feelings with your loved ones. This makes each card personally unique to you.
ZendLove card collections have grown a lot, with many different artists, themes, and styles. Thanks to your premium subscription, we can continue growing more and more. Now, ZendLove has card collections for every occasion.
Supporting the Artists
ZendLove is a free app that offers premium subscriptions.* A subscription is not necessary to use the app, but with each premium subscription, it allows us to bring new artists and more unique art to ZendLove! Your premium subscription helps artists directly.
* With ZendLove, you can send 3 free cards per month. With the premium subscription, you can personalize and send any card as many times and to as many people as you want. The premium subscription can be monthly or yearly, whichever best fits your needs.
You can learn about each artist by reading their bio in the ZendLove app. In the artist's bio, each artist shares their story as an artist, their journey, what inspires them, and more. Learning more about each artist is a unique feature that sets ZendLove apart from any other digital greeting card app.
Ease of Use and Privacy
Beyond the art, I really love how easy it is to use ZendLove. You browse the card collections and select the perfect card to send to your loved one. Next, type a message to personalize the card and then use the iPhone's Share feature to send the personalized image via Apple iMessage, email, WhatsApp, Skype, or whatever communication app you use. This way, your loved one gets the card from you and knows who sent them a card. This helps to make sending the card a lot more personal and safe.
Other digital greeting apps require access to all the contacts on your iPhone, then send scary links from random phone numbers or unknown emails, which for the person receiving it, it looks just like spam with a scary link.
With ZendLove, the card will come from you with your phone number, email, or contact when sending the digital greeting card. Because of this feature, ZendLove does not need to ask for permission to access your contacts. They remain totally private to you. It also protects the privacy of your friends and family.
Final Thoughts
I set out to make sending love and fun to friends and family the main focus of ZendLove. I feel that this definitely can be seen in ZendLove. Our digital greeting cards all feature unique art from talented artists from around the world. Your premium subscription supports the artists and helps us bring more wonderful art to ZendLove. I hope you enjoy the ZendLove app!
Aldo
