Critique Clinic – January 24-26, 2014
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 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 intended for sale at Greeting Card Universe.
- 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 before submission. Give us the link where we can see the card, such as your private gallery, Flickr, Tinypic, etc. If you do give a private gallery link, be sure your private module gallery is ON. Please do not post links to your Manage Cards section – do you really want strangers tinkering with your cards? And please don’t ask us to critique a card that’s pending review – we can’t see it until it’s approved.
- 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 
Happy Sunday everyone! I just did this today and actually submitted a version with a less busy background and no black. My reason for asking about this one is that I really like it for some reason and would love to use it but need more eyes to tell me if it is too busy, cluttered or just plain unappealing! Thank you.
https://dragonfiregraphics.wordpress.com/
I think the design doesn’t quite work because it’s very difficult to distinguish any of the patterns and line elements from each other. Even the text is hard to “see” because of everything else shouting too loudly. I think you have a concept that could work, but you need to tone the design back a little.
Corrie
Corrie, I guess I pretty much figured that. Just needed to hear that sage advice! Thanks so much!
Hi Betsy,
I agree with Corrie, it’s a good design, but the red checks may be too much. I’d love to see the red checks as black and see if that is enough contrast to make it all work. 🙂
Thank you, Doreen! Here is the black check version that I changed to red.
https://dragonfiregraphics.wordpress.com/
Hi Betsy,
I do like the black and white checks much better and think it helps the overall design concept tremendously. I would change those ‘burgundy’ areas to white to further pop the design off the black checked background – but that may just be personal taste.
Hi again Doreen, just thought I would show you the result with the burgundy stems done in white. I did it with both the burgundy and black backgrounds and added a black stroke to the flowers.This one with the black background is my favorite. Thanks for your input! I have to say I am suffering from the eye strain you described in your piece on doing series and breaking them up. I just finished this same design in bright colors for ages 1-12 in 7 relations, that I have been working on for 2 weeks and I am ready for a new design!
https://dragonfiregraphics.wordpress.com/