by Carla Caruso

Park Lands lover Joseph Nes believes Valentine’s Day – on February 14 – should be just as much about ‘friendship love’ as romantic love.

Joseph and a pal have launched a personalised greeting card line, celebrating things that aren’t ordinarily acknowledged, like mateship.

The two will also mail the cards on your behalf. (50 cents from every one sold goes to ReachOut Australia, helping to support the mental health and wellbeing of young Aussies.)

When Joseph’s not working on his side hustle or in his office job, you’ll find him wandering your Park Lands and visiting a pair of ducks he’s declared Adelaide’s most loved-up duo.

We recently chatted to Joseph about his small biz and his burning passion for your Park Lands.

(PS. We’re also partial to this idea, which was recently floated, around sending love notes to Adelaide’s trees. Plus, check out our guide on where to picnic with your Valentine this February 14.)

Hi, Joseph. Please tell us how the idea for your greeting card line, Unseasoned Greetings, came about.

[Co-creator] Jacqui Dean and I would often joke around about ridiculous business ideas, many of which made it no further than puns and slogans.

One day, though, Jacqui brought up her time on maternity leave, which occurred in 2020, a time when there was so much uncertainty in the world. 

Due to lockdowns and being isolated, she talked about how she had felt loneliness like never before and was desperate to reach out to friends in a way that was a bit more special than a simple text message. All the digital ways to communicate just felt overused and meaningless. 

Unseasoned Greetings was created as a way to address this, encouraging people to send a card to a friend ‘just cos’.  

There are definitely people out there who do personalised greeting cards, and there are others where you can post directly to recipients, but we haven’t really found anyone in Australia who does both.

There have been a couple of different companies in the US and UK who have a similar ethos [which has] really inspired us. One of them is called Thoughtful Human [in America], and they also use seed paper for all of their cards. That’s something we’d love to do in the future too.

What role do you and Jacqui each take on in the business?

It's honestly extremely collaborative. We have brainstorming sessions where we both come up with ideas for cards, usually based on a personal experience that one of us has had.

I like that the business is incredibly personal to both of us. I think that’s what really gives it heart. 

For all the card descriptions, I think we wrote about half of them each, but Jacqui has definitely done more of the blog and social media content, and I’ve done more of the website and design.

We also engaged a local graphic designer to create ‘Dash’ – the little snail in our logo – and we are so glad we did. We adore him! 

Probably the best thing about working with Jacqui is that we are on the same wavelength and have a similar outlook on life.

We are also not afraid to call each other out – and I think that’s really important to make sure that you get the best possible results.

Many of your cards take inspiration from animals or nature. Why do you think this resonates?

I think especially with the animals, they have characteristics that we also see in ourselves and those around us.

I personally see myself as a cockatoo because I love to tease my friends and every day is a bad hair day for me.

But there is also something so calming about nature. When I have a bad day, I go for a walk. And I find that it’s really hard to return home, still upset, when you’ve just spent an hour walking past beautiful trees and greeting newborn ducklings. 

Speaking of nature, where would you recommend as a good spot in the Adelaide Park Lands for people to spend Valentine’s Day?

I think Grundy Gardens [Park 12], near the Adelaide Uni footbridge, is a beautiful spot for both lovers and singletons.

It’s next to such a tranquil area of the river and it’s also home to Adelaide's most loving couple – the two biggest ducks on the river, who my partner and I have nicknamed ‘Charles’ and ‘Camilla’ (the king and queen of the river). They are there every night and I never, ever see them fight. 

The other great spot to go is the Adelaide Botanic Garden [Park 11]. A lot of people seem to forget that it is open really late over the summer months, so it’s a great spot for an evening picnic.

I’d recommend finding a nice, quiet spot and getting Uber Eats or Menulog delivered to the North Terrace gate. It’s a great way to spend an evening.  

How often do you frequent the Park Lands?

EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I’m super lucky to live in a little apartment, not far from the river, and I go for a walk along the river every day, rain or shine.

My walk starts near the Hackney Road bridge and follows along the river, past Adelaide Zoo [Park 11] and Adelaide Oval, down to Pinky Flat [Park 26]. And if I’ve still got energy, I extend it further down to the Torrens Weir.

Botanic Park is also often part of my commute, as is the Botanic Garden [Park 11]. Not a bad way to start the day, right?  

Back to your cards – why do you think receiving messages via snail mail is still important?

We live in a society of instant gratification, where we have become so impatient and want everything immediately.

I think because it is just so easy to get in touch with someone now, through things like Facebook Messenger and text, some of it has just lost a little bit of meaning.

Using snail mail shows that you really value someone, and you’ve made a real effort to acknowledge them.

And because all we ever receive in the post these days are Amazon packages and bills, it just feels so good to receive a card – especially when it’s not tied to an occasion and it’s completely unexpected. It can leave someone glowing all day.

Finally, what else keeps you busy in between creating cards and photographing cityscapes?

I have a day job, working in a local government marketing role. I specialise in content writing, but I am also an analytics nerd.

Apart from that, I love my podcasts and audiobooks, which ties in nicely with my daily [park] walks. :)