Tips and Tricks: Single Image, Double Use
There are a lot more than the usual big commercial holidays out there, like Sandwich Day or Office Curmudgeon Day or other goofy excuses to celebrate. GCU has a whole bunch of sub-categories for these cards listed under Holidays > National/International Days. Now I know a lot of artists feel these sub-categories are a waste of their time. You might not necessarily sell Donut Day cards in bulk, however that doesn’t mean a clever artist can’t kill two birds with one stone.
Here’s a card we made for National Taco Day:
Then a little later, we got an idea, took the same taco, added a birthday hat, created a different background and text, and made a series of age specific birthday cards like the example below:
You see how that one illustration with a few tweaks and changes, goes from one sub-category to another? This is how you do it, folks – be smart and see if you can make your work do double duty.
Have fun!
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Dash of Inspiration: June Design Challenge
And the winners are …
1st Place: Barbara Schreiber with PID1383360
1st Place Winner by Barbara Schreiber – June 2015
2nd Place: Liz Van Steenburgh with PID 1383634
2nd Place Winner Liz Van Steenburgh – June 2015
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Congratulations Julia and Audrey, our winners for May’s Challenge!
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This month’s challenge will stretch your ability to visually create matching imagery for something you hear or read. We’re working with Idioms this month. What’s an Idiom? Here’s an example: A Chip On Your Shoulder when it’s said to us, we understand it to mean: Being upset for something that happened in the past. Idioms have no copyright attached, they simply are common words used in phrases which were created and understood by a culture – in this case English – where the meaning of the phrase differs from the exclusive meaning of the individual words in the idiom. GOOD LUCK and HAVE FUN!
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June Design Challenge Theme: Bring an idiom to life.
Requirements: Choose one Idiom from the offered list and create imagery which visually represents the idiom. Matching it well to a category and occasion. You must use the Idiom in your card front text OR inside verse as part of your message. Full Idiom List – Choose ONE
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Entry Deadline: June 29th, 2015
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How to Enter: Post the PID (card number) and the URL (public storefront link – please WAIT for the card to be available in the public marketplace, please DO NOT post a link to your Manage Cards area) as a post in the challenge blog. We’ll forward your entry to the jury.
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Category: Any Category / Any Occasion
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Rules:
- Submission must meet GCU’s Submission Guidelines and be Approved through the usual Review Cycle – Fast Track your submission with this in the Notes to Reviewer: June Design Challenge Submission here is the link to the blog post: (include THIS blog post URL)
- Only ONE card per artist per challenge.
- Submissions must be NEW, no existing designs.
- Your entry must meet the Challenge Requirements and Theme or it will not be included in the challenge.
- Stock Card Creations entries will not be accepted.
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Judging: Entries will be judged by the GCU Challenge Jury with results posting on the Community Blog – due to the 4th of July holiday – between July 2nd and July 8th. The jury will judge the entries on the following criteria:
- How well the card meets the Challenge Requirements and Theme.
- How well the card speaks to the Category the artist chooses for the card submission.
- Creativity, Execution and Marketability.
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Winners: 1st Place:
- The winning designer’s card and store will be featured on the GCU Public Blog – the blog which customers view and follow.
- As well as featured on the GCU Public Facebook Page – nearly 17,000 followers, now THAT’S exposure!
- The winning card will be Design of the Day following the announcement of the winners (within 48-hours).
EXCEPTION: Horizontal (landscape) cards can not be DOD due to GCU Home Page space restrictions. In these cases, GCU will choose a different vertically oriented card from your store to feature as DOD. Thank you for your understanding and apologies for this limitation.
- The winning card will be added to the Greeting Card Universe Design Challenge Winners Pinterest Board – currently over 800 followers.
- The winning card, should the artist choose, may be referenced in a new series by the winning artist and he/she may Fast Track all cards in the new series (being sure to give the Challenge URL and winning card PID in your Notes to Reviewer for each card in this series).
- Winning card will be included in a marketing email to over 100,000 customers!
2nd Place:
- Your submission will be Design of the Day the following week of announcing the Challenge winners (within 7-days).
EXCEPTION: Horizontal (landscape) cards can not be DOD due to GCU Home Page space restrictions. In these cases, GCU will choose a different vertically oriented card from your store to feature as DOD. Thank you for your understanding and apologies for this limitation.
- Your card will be added to the Greeting Card Universe Design Challenge Winners Pinterest Board.
- Winning card will be included in a marketing email to over 100,000 customers!
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Tips:
Check out these tips, tricks, freebies, and tutorials from our own GCU Community Blog which might be helpful in this month’s Challenge
Nuts and Bolts: The Right Image
Dash of Inspiration – What’s In a Verse
Nuts and Bolts: Writing Funny Greeting Cards
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Example of bringing an Idiom to life for the June 2015 Dash of Inspiration Design Challenge. Doreen Erhardt©
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Many thanks to all our participants this month:
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Tips and Tricks: Free Resources
These days, if you’re looking for free resources for your artistic designs, there are Internet sites you can check that will point you in the right direction. Please note: “free” doesn’t necessarily mean free for commercial use. Be sure to check TOU/licensing terms before you use anything you download from the Internet on your cards.
Makerbook is a site listing places you can get free resources including fonts, textures, color swatches, etc. Something for illustrators and photographers here.
Another place you can check which updates frequently is Growth Supply, which lists all kinds of resources for design as well as for marketing, business, etc.
Have fun!
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Inspiration Station: How to Regain Your Inspiration
Our friends at Make Use Of have posted a very interesting and informative article, How to Regain Creative Motivation After You’ve Burned Out. The article contains some very good advice for artists who are feeling drained and are in need of a little motivation to get themselves running again. Great for newbies and experienced artists. Check it out!
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Font Frenzy: Alpha Slab One
The Alpha Slab One font, when used in all caps, mimics the very trendy, super fat and chunky serif fonts we’ve seen cropping up in advertisements and on TV. It’s an attention getter, so you want to use this emphatic font mainly for typography type cards or with minimal graphics so they aren’t overwhelmed. And it’s free for commercial use. You’ll see an example below. Have fun!
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Dash of Inspiration: Marketing Monday
A Dash of Inspiration, A Cup of Creativity by Doreen If you’re like me, you want to understand SEO and how it can be applied to our specific needs in simple terms. So this SEO Cheat Sheet is the best I’ve seen, and I’d consider it a MUST READ for the online artist.
Search Engine Optimization For Dummies, 5th Edition by Peter Kent
There is a book too, if you’d like to grab that for more detailed information. The image is linked to the book page.
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Though keywords may not be as critical for search engines as they used to be – knowing how to choose up to ten of the most popular keywords which directly relate to your card’s occasion and subject can be a very valuable addition to your content.
Never spam – adding keywords which do not directly relate to your specific product is likely to cause your product link to fall to the bottom of the search list (therefore never found) and/or some search engines (and POD sites) will ban you for misdirecting traffic to that which is truly not relevant.
How To Find The Keywords People Are Searching For Online
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If you read the above, you now understand that CONTENT is key to each product being found. This might help you get past this roadblock if writing is not something in your powerhouse of skills.
The Secret To Writing Product Descriptions For Ecommerce Success by Trin Salaloy
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So until next week … Learn … Create … Inspire … and MARKET Your Cards!
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Every week, we showcase a GCU category that has few or no cards. We’d like you to create at least one card for this category using the Stock Cards function (Bigstock) or your own graphic designs.
Remember, when you’re submitting your new card, add a little note about the intended category in your Notes to Reviewers – cards submitted for underused categories are much more likely to be approved provided they follow the Submission Guidelines. Be inventive, be clever, be creative. Good luck!
Today’s category with 1 card is:
Holidays – Ramadan – Customize for Any Relationship
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Inspiration Station: Hottest Design Trends 2015
If you’re looking for the cutting edge of trendy artistic design, we’ve got the scoop right here! Incorporating trends into your work not only brings freshness to your art, it’ll attract shoppers’ attention. Don’t forget proper keywords and product descriptions – these are your most important marketing basics.
Watercolors
Watercolors in every hue are extremely hot! Incorporate a watercolor background or watercolor elements. Check around for watercolor textures, brushes, even programs that allow you to convert text into a watercolor effect (but before you invest, be sure your graphics editing program fits the requirements). Or make your own watercolor textures to use – here’s a video to get you started: How to Create Watercolor Textures in Photoshop.
Retro/Vintage
The 80’s and 90’s are making a comeback in the retro scene. Think cool neon graphics, bright colors, futuristic geometric patterns, metallics and glitter, Day-Glo, black light, spray can graffiti, colored animal prints and cassette tapes. Space and galactic themes are coming in too. Check out 80s Designs on Pinterest and 50 Mind Blowing Retro-Style Photoshop Illustrations for plenty of inspiration.
Flat Design
You’ve seen it cropping up everywhere, from websites to software – a minimalist graphic style that’s incredibly modern and appealing called flat design. The important thing to remember about flat design is this: for such a pared down style to be successful, the shopper must immediately grasp the meaning and intent of the image. For more info, check out The Beginner’s Guide to Flat Design and Flat Design on Pinterest.
Now you’ve got some new ideas to play with, so get designing and have fun!
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Inspiration Station: Bible Inspiration
Many categories lend themselves to religious cards with Bible verses such as Get Well, Congratulations, Sympathy and others. If you’re looking for inspiration, check out Pinterest – a fantastic resource. One caveat you should heed: not all Bible translations are in the public domain. Some are copyrighted. If you find a verse you like, be sure you use a non-copyrighted version of the Bible (such as the King James) in your designs. Use your own judgment as to which verse will be most appropriate and relevant for your intentions.
Here are some links where you can get inspired:
Elsewhere on the Internet, you’ll find other sites of interest.
25 Bible Verses to Give You Peace
18 Bible Verses for Sympathy Cards
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Dash of Inspiration: Principles & Elements Design
A Dash of Inspiration, A Cup of Creativity by Doreen In any ‘industry’, success means many things, but one of those is to understand the ‘language’ of the industry and be able to apply the ‘rules’ of the trade with consistency and quality. In design, there are Principles of Design and Elements of Design – for each, there are terms you should be familiar with in order to properly communicate with customers, other designers, even the reviewers – and each of those terms is an item you should be able to incorporate into your designs with a full and complete understanding. Just like photography, you can’t ‘break the rules’ until you have mastered the ability to flawlessly execute those rules.
These two references, courtesy of Patrick Butler, make great tools for you to keep on hand.
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For those of you who are inspired to dive deeper into these areas and give yourself a lesson, or refresher course, on how to recognize principles and elements of design; and how to make practical use of them in your designs, here’s some ‘homework’ for you …
Design elements are the basic units of a painting, drawing, design or other visual piece and include … continue this very complete listing and explanation of each at Wiki.
Graphic Design Tutorials from About Tech
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Now, if you’ve really studied and are ready to fully apply the Elements and Principles of Design into your work; here’s a fun, but challenging, test you can take. You may find a weak spot in your technique or understanding that deserves further study and in doing so, you might make a positive impact on your future designs!
If you take the test, please come back and share how well you did compared to what you thought you knew. It would be fun to hear what everyone thinks.
Principles of Design Test – How Much Do You Know?
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So until next week … Learn … Create … Inspire!
Be sure to create an entry for our May Dash of Inspiration Challenge too, there is one more week left for entries and you can fast track your entry!
GCU Community 