Nuts and Bolts: Orientation Considerations
November 2, 2018
Nuts & Bolts – Orientation Considerations
Some designs simply lend themselves to one particular orientation. Others however, with little to no adjustments, can work in both portrait and landscape orientations. When creating a design, take a moment to consider if it would also work (or possibly work even better) in the alternate orientation.
Here is an example of a photograph by GCU artist Stephanie Laird, while working with the review team, resultantly discovered this lovely image worked better in portrait than the original landscape submission for these reasons:
The background area is still distracting and not serving this image well in this horizontal format. We feel if the left side were cropped out and the card was in a vertical format this would solve that issue placing the focus on the striking dark grapes and red leaves currently on the right side of the image. Please consider cropping to a vertical format and resubmitting. Please also note that there is a hot spot on the leaf just to the left of the center at the top that needs cloning out.
Original:
Final:
Sometimes shoppers are looking for a card in a particular orientation. This rings very true for holiday cards and especially photo cards. A shopper usually starts with the photo they want to use and then looks for the card design that fits. GCU also knows that some shoppers look for cards by orientation when they have a chosen photo they want to upload to the INSIDE of the card as well. So in both of these cases the orientation of their photo dictates the card they will choose.
Consider offering your photo card designs (and non-photo card designs) in both portrait and landscape orientation. Now we are certainly not saying to create both orientations for every single card that you create, especially not for a like image series like age and relationship collections. But for a general card (non-age, non-relation) or one of your more popular designs, yes, it’s worth considering.
Here is a great example by GCU artist, Doreen Erhardt of Salon of Art:
And a couple of examples by GCU artist Doug Hill of Laughing Hippo Studio:
Shopper Custom Request: Can this card be landscaped? I need to order ASAP.
Leverage a design and make it work both ways resulting in two different cards:
NOTE: on the site, for shoppers, one of the sidebar Filter Results options is Orientation allowing shoppers to quickly narrow their search.
TIP: if you are offering the same design in both orientations, be sure to include in your Artist’s Notes a note to shoppers so they are aware of their choices. Like “This design is also offered in landscape orientation, please search for product id XXXXX”.
See this related post on Leveraging Designs.
The difference is made in the details!
Mindy
GCU Community Manager
GCU Community Manager
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GCU Community 
Thank you for these good tips!