A shop with one person in it.
Technology does the generating. I do the deciding.
My story
My name is Lingzi Kong. I studied technology and business, then spent my career in marketing across IT infrastructure and finance. None of that was supposed to lead to a card shop.
Cards came much earlier. I gave them away through childhood and kept the ones that came back; I still have bags of them from school.
The other thread was visual. One wall of our apartment in Beijing was covered with my drawings. I never studied art; the instinct just changed form — websites, photography, then campaign work beside designers. For years, I gathered references, set direction, said yes and no to drafts, and learned to know when something finally felt right.
Then image tools got good enough. I started making illustrated cards for people I cared about, putting them into little worlds for birthdays and holidays. They liked them more than I expected.
The hard part was never generating an image. It was deciding what was worth making, and when it was good enough to send.
So I built Fond & Fold around that part. You look first. If something here stops you, most of the deciding is already done. Add a photo, choose the words, and make it theirs.
What gets in
Not every beautiful image becomes a Fond & Fold card.
First, it has to be worth sending. I explore more directions than I publish—from airy watercolor and layered paper craft to botanical collage, nostalgic scrapbook, and quiet line art. The style can change completely, but the illustration, composition, wording, and mood still have to feel like one finished idea.
Then, it has to hold onto that idea when the person changes. I work each design through different faces and photographs to understand what should stay recognizable, what can vary naturally, and where the design begins to lose itself.
This is where art direction meets an understanding of generative tools. Sometimes a design needs more freedom; sometimes tighter boundaries. The goal is not to reproduce the same picture, but to preserve its character while letting it rebuild itself around someone new.
By the time a card reaches the shop, those decisions have already been made. You start with a finished design, add a photo and a few words, and see your own card before deciding whether to keep it.
Taste gets a design started. Judgment earns it a place in the shop.
See how a card earns its place →Contact
Stockists, magazines, brands, other illustrators — if you've been turning something over, put it here. If a specific card raises a copyright or other rights concern, choose that subject and include the card or page link.
Fill in the form below, or email me directly at hello@fondandfold.com.