Hope Spring is delighted to welcome a special creative contribution to its fundraising work following a generous offer from award-winning designer Christoph Gabriel, who has agreed to donate his design skills to Hope Spring eCards.

Gabriel, a gold award winner at the European Stone Festival 2026 in Freiburg, will use his creative experience in an entirely different medium by producing a collection of six original Christmas eCards for Hope Spring.

The collaboration brings together two very different worlds: professional design and the fight against water poverty. While Gabriel is best known for his work in stone design, his contribution to Hope Spring will see his creativity translated into digital Christmas greetings that can help the charity connect with supporters during one of its most important fundraising periods of the year.

A Conversation That Led to a Creative Donation

The idea developed following a conversation between Christoph Gabriel and Hope Spring trustee Temi Odurinde.

Odurinde contacted the Witten-based designer to congratulate him on his success at the European Stone Festival in Freiburg, where Gabriel received a gold award. During their conversation, the subject of creative design and Christmas greetings emerged.

Gabriel already has a personal connection with greeting ecard design. Each year, he creates Christmas ecards for himself and members of his family. What began as a personal creative tradition has now developed into an opportunity to support a charitable cause.

During the conversation, Gabriel generously agreed to produce six unique Christmas eCard designs for Hope Spring.

The designs will become part of the Hope Spring eCards collection, giving supporters additional choices when sending festive greetings to friends, relatives, colleagues and other loved ones.

For Hope Spring, the donation is particularly valuable because it represents more than the creation of six images. Professional creative skills, artistic experience and time are valuable resources, and donating them allows a small charity to benefit from expertise that might otherwise be difficult to access.

Bringing a Different Design Perspective to Hope Spring eCards

Gabriel’s professional background is quite different from traditional greeting card illustration, and that is part of what makes the collaboration especially interesting.

His work, some of which is showcased at his website Besondere Grabsteine , demonstrates an understanding of composition, symbolism, form, detail and visual storytelling. These are qualities that can work just as effectively in a digital Christmas greeting as they do in other areas of design.

Some of the design motifs and creative influences that could inspire the new Christmas eCards can already be seen in Gabriel’s existing portfolio on the Besondere Grabsteiner website.

Moving from his usual design medium into digital greeting cards provides an opportunity to reinterpret some of those artistic ideas for a completely different audience.

Rather than commissioning work in the traditional way, Hope Spring will benefit from Gabriel volunteering his creativity and expertise. It is an example of how professionals can support charities not only through financial donations, but also by offering the skills they have developed during their careers.

Hope Spring eCards Welcomes the Contribution

The donation has been warmly welcomed by the team responsible for Hope Spring’s digital greeting card platform.

Hope Spring eCards platform manager Mary Adeotan said:

“We are absolutely delighted and grateful for Christoph Gabriel’s donation. It will bring much-needed depth to our Christmas eCard designs.”

For the eCards team, continuously introducing fresh designs is important. People sending Christmas greetings have different tastes, relationships and reasons for getting in touch. Some prefer traditional festive imagery, while others look for something contemporary, artistic, humorous or unusual.

Adding work from designers with different creative backgrounds makes it possible to build a more varied collection.

Gabriel’s six designs are expected to help expand that choice while giving supporters another reason to explore Hope Spring’s Christmas eCard collection.

Creativity That Can Support a Bigger Purpose

Hope Spring eCards is closely connected with the wider work of Hope Spring Water, a charity working to alleviate water poverty.

The principle behind the eCard platform is simple: people already send greetings to mark birthdays, Christmas, anniversaries and other occasions. By choosing a charity eCard, those everyday acts of kindness and connection can also contribute to a wider charitable purpose.

Hope Spring works with communities where access to clean, safe and reliable water remains a challenge. Clean water can affect almost every part of everyday life, from health and hygiene to education, family responsibilities and the amount of time people spend collecting water.

Fundraising therefore plays an essential role in helping Hope Spring Water continue its water-related projects and activities.

Digital greeting cards offer one way for supporters to become involved. Instead of treating fundraising and everyday communication as completely separate activities, an eCard can allow someone to send a thoughtful message while also supporting a charity working to improve access to safe water.

That makes contributions such as Gabriel’s especially useful. Better designs can help make the eCard collection more appealing, giving existing supporters more choice while potentially introducing new people to Hope Spring and its work.

Six New Designs With One Shared Purpose

Although the six Christmas eCards will each have their own creative identity, they will share one important connection: they have been created through generosity.

Gabriel is donating his time and expertise. Hope Spring eCards will provide the platform through which the designs can reach supporters. People using the ecards will then have an opportunity to send their Christmas wishes while learning more about the charity behind them.

It is a chain of contributions that begins with creativity.

For Hope Spring, collaborations like this demonstrate how people from very different professions can become involved in tackling water poverty.

You do not necessarily need to work in water engineering, international development or fundraising to contribute to clean-water work. Sometimes the most valuable contribution a person can make is to use the skills they already have.

Looking Ahead to Christmas

The Hope Spring team is looking forward to seeing Christoph Gabriel’s six designs become part of its Christmas collection.

His move from award-winning stone design to festive digital greetings may seem unusual at first, but creativity often works best when ideas are allowed to cross traditional boundaries.

The collaboration also adds another story behind the eCards themselves. When supporters choose one of Gabriel’s designs, they will not simply be selecting a Christmas image. They will be using artwork donated by a designer who decided to turn his creative talent into support for a water poverty charity.

Hope Spring would like to thank Christoph Gabriel for his generosity and for choosing to share his skills with the organisation.

As the charity continues working to improve access to safe water, contributions of time, expertise, creativity and financial support all have a role to play.

And this Christmas, six new eCards will provide a small but meaningful reminder that even something as simple as designing and sending a festive greeting can become part of a much bigger effort to make a difference.