Critique Clinic – December 28-30, 2012
How does it work? For three days a week (Friday-Sunday midnight), I will open the clinic to any artist who wants an honest peer review and critique of a card which gets plenty of clicks but no sales, so something’s probably not quite right, or you’ve got a new design you want to test drive, or you’re unsure about the marketability of a card. Or perhaps you’re a newbie who isn’t sure if a recently submitted card is up to a marketable standard. Anyone is welcome to participate. In fact, I encourage everyone to at least look at the cards in question and read the critique comments – you may learn something. The purpose of the clinic is to help artists improve the commercial appeal and marketability of their cards.
THE RULES
- ONE card per artist only.
- Card must be for sale at Greeting Card Universe.
- We will take an unlimited number of artists, including those who have submitted recently, HOWEVER I reserve the right to close a clinic for the day if the submissions become overwhelming. If the clinic has been closed, and you submit a card, your comment will be deleted.
- To submit a card for critique, post a link to the card at GCU in the comments section of this clinic post. Allowances will be made if you’ve had a card declined, or made a new design you’d like advice on. Give us the link where we can see the card, such as your private gallery, Flickr, Tinypic, etc.
- Any artist is free to comment and/or give a critique of a submitted card. HOWEVER, post-and-run comments like “great card” or “you suck” will not be tolerated, nor will abuse. Criticism should be constructive, not destructive. Play nice or you will be banned.
- I also won’t tolerate temper tantrums if you decide your “artistic integrity” is being stepped on because you asked for a critique, and someone told you the photo you’re using isn’t in focus. If you can’t take honest criticism, don’t submit. Once gets you a warning; twice and you’re banned from submitting in the future.
- Artists who critique may do so by giving their opinion, posting an example of another card, or pointing the submitter to a video, on-line article, or other helpful suggestion.
- Don’t forget that artists who are giving you tips and helpful advice are volunteering their time and trouble. Be nice. A link back to their store on your website or blog is appreciated (but not mandatory).
- You are free not to take any advice offered. There’s no guarantee any card will be a bestseller, so don’t come into the clinic with unrealistic expectations.
- Rules may change as we go along and we see how things turn out, okay?
So without any further ado, I declare this week’s Critique Clinic open!
GCU Community 
http://www.zazzle.com/funny_old_couch_poodle_birthday_card-137397117417844026
This card was rejected with “unprofessional” as the reason. No further explanation on whether it was the concept, writing, design or photo. It sells on Zazzle. Wondering if anyone can give me some insight? Thanks!
I’ll have to defer to the professional photographers for their opinion on the poodle. I’m not wild about the font used, but that’s a minor quibble.
Corrie
Thanks, Corrie!
If you read the GCU Submission Guidelines, you’ll see under the section Composition >> Unprofessional that GCU may not accept cards with a snapshot feel; i.e., those which have household objects in the background or image and that is probably your demise here.
Your photo is okay, it doesn’t jump off the page at you and it’s a wee bit dark, but not objectionable … so my guess is it’s the sofas in the background that were amiss here.
Here is a link to the Submission Guidelines if you haven’t seen them.
http://www.gcuwiki.com/sg.html
Good luck!
Doreen
Thank you, Doreen, I really appreciate your help and time to look at this. I guess, I’m a lot more nit-picky with images that I use for advertising than for greeting cards. I was going for a candid, casual look that the average person could relate to (not annual report quality). Obviously, GCU is going for award-winning photography! LOL! Thanks again!
To add to Doreen’s comment & link, the reasons in their full glory can be found on the wiki via the link provided.
Composition >> Unprofessional
Whether a photograph, illustration or digital art, the creation process must appear to have been applied with a complete understanding of the medium, giving the overall appearance of a professional greeting card. Declines may include, but are not limited to: distracting elements and/or background, household items, snapshots of people, babies, crowds, buildings, street scenes, knicknacks, and food, photographs from moving vehicles or through windows, and children’s art; i.e., messy, distorted and/or poorly drawn art.
Yup, just looking for a less distracting background.
Thanks Mindy, but if that’s all it is, then I think it should be left up to the buyer of the card to determine if it’s too distracting to purchase or not. I don’t find the background distracting (and I’m pretty anal about those things). I was thinking it was a more blatant problem with the card.
Actually Patty, it’s up to the business who has your card on their shelf to sell to customers and in this case it’s GCU. Our cards are the face of Greeting Card Universe therefore GCU gets to determine what they put on their ‘shelves’ to sell. Just to clarify if that helps.
It’s not unreasonable that GCU has the final say on merchandising.