Nuts and Bolts: The Devil’s in the Details

Recently, I’ve seen some questions asked about how closely customers actually look at cards, and if it’s really necessary for the reviewers to be so nit-picky about every little detail. The short answer is, details matter. Boy, do they matter!

If you want to avoid having cards Returned for Edits or just plain Declined, pay attention to what you’re submitting. Check over your photographs for distracting elements and other potential troublemakers. Use the guidelines in the Wiki. Sounds easy, but we all slip from time to time. It happens.

One tiny thing can mess up a card and make it unsellable. Don’t believe me? Take a look at this example. Here’s the original card by Maria Dryfhout:

Notice anything? Look more closely. See that shadow under the moth on the flower? It looks like a fly! Even the reviewer didn’t catch the fly at first, but in the end, the interloper was noticed.

Maria whisked the intruding fly away, so now her lovely sympathy card looks like this:

And this is what it means when we say the details matter. Professional photographers take hundreds of photographs, and may only choose one or two because in the rest, the details haven’t come together, something’s missing, or in this case, something is there that shouldn’t be. Use a discerning eye. You’ll end up with good looking cards that attract customers like … well, like a fly to honey!

Thanks, Maria.