Story of Hello Wai

Hi! I’m Susan. I'm a graphic designer, illustrator, and the creator of Hello Wai.

I was born in Hong Kong and grew up in Dublin, Ireland where I am currently based. I am also responsible for illustrating and designing a range of Canto-inspired notecards and greeting cards at Hello Wai.

Hello Wai was born in 2019, out of a love for greeting cards, stationery, and a never-ending appreciation for nostalgia and Cantonese culture. Growing up in 80s Ireland with immigrant parents from Hong Kong, meant navigating between what seemed like two entirely separate worlds. It was also something that very quickly felt like second nature; like being bilingual and having the ability to switch languages mid-sentence!

And so, I decided to have a name that was a "mashup" of English and Cantonese. The name "Hello Wai" is a word play on my own name and the word for "Hello" or "Hey" in Cantonese. 

Wai is pronounced like Why and rhymes with Hi.

I wanted the brand to appeal to a multicultural audience while staying true to my Hong Kong roots. Inspired by my Cantonese heritage and love for travel; through food, culture, its language (notable for its colourful slang and colloquialisms), I strive to create work that brings a smile, with a side of playful nostalgia.

My background is in Graphic Design but my love for drawing and photography helped kick-start the first Hello Wai illustrations to feature on our notecards and greeting cards. During the Covid Pandemic and because of the imposed restrictions on global travel, I had become increasingly nostalgic and missed Hong Kong a lot. I found myself going through my own travel photo collections, and taking my pencil and markers to begin drawing from the photos I took. Many were of places I’ve travelled to within Hong Kong or outside of Hong Kong. A lot of photographs are of food, objects from childhood or even ordinary everyday… such as a favourite snack or maybe a "yum cha" scene from a Hong Kong tea house. I am still taking photographs today mainly of things that remind me of Hong Kong. It is from these photographs that the illustrations are inspired and born - many of these were first featured on our Instagram. 

These hand drawn "still life studies" have a deliberate simplistic style - distinctive bold black outlines often “wobbly” and blocks of bright colour. The intention is to grab attention, and to convey a human behind the art. They are created to evoke joy and nostalgia.

The Art of Saying Hey!

Hello Wai hopes to connect people through our range of unique and fun, colourful notecards and folded greeting cards. The are perfectly small (A6 format) and the blank backs (notecards) and insides (greeting cards) are ideal for you to get creative with your own personal message to gift to someone or simply just to say Hello/Hey!

Or maybe you would like to treat yourself to a cool mini piece of art instead that you can put in a frame! 

Hope you enjoy having a look around!