Local Designer Jordan Higa Hand-Paints These Bright, Cheery Greeting Cards

We’re going local for these.

Photo: Mark Kushimi

What puts Hawai‘i on the map for us locals? It’s not the year-round sunshine, the epic mountain ranges, the sick beaches or the ‘ono food. (Although those certainly don’t hurt.) The real reason is because it’s home, and home is where the heart is.

So, whenever we say something from the heart, you better expect it to come with bright, tropical colors, lush florals and a cheery sense of humor that screams “aloha spirit.” Case in point: local artist Jordan Higa’s new greeting cards, called Cards by Hontas, festive slices of paradise that Higa hand-paints and draws in her Honolulu studio. Higa returned to Hawai‘i from abroad last year to embark on illustration, photography and graphic design projects closer to her roots. In the past, she’s teamed up with Fighting Eel, Surfjack and her blogger sister, Lindsey Higa of Pineapple Ice.

For this latest solo endeavor, Higa’s keeping true to her Island style, with fun graduation- and Father’s Day-themed cards that are full of Hawai‘i imagery. Her first round of cards, which were available at Cookspace Hawai‘i’s Mother’s Day pop-up event, were splashed with bikinis, lei, beach-bumming gals, shells and palm trees. Getting tropical fever yet?

You’ll be able to shop Higa’s latest batch at Fishcake’s first-ever Sunday Brunch this coming Sunday, which will feature music, food from Fork It, and coffee from Morning Glass. She’s hard at work pumping out pieces as we speak, but we took a peek at her artist’s drawing board and couldn’t be more excited for what we saw: Think a pidgin-sporting “You da man” Father’s Day illustration of two beers clinking, floral-bedecked “Aloha” type and sweet little surfboards that spell out “Dad.” (The surfboard leash forms the crossbar of the “A”—how cute is that?)

Looks like this is one Island child who’s going to rock it on the rock.

Available at the Fishcake Sunday Brunch, Sunday, June 12, 10 a.m.–2 p.m., 307c Kaimani St. Parking available at the old Lānai Things parking lot.