Happy Turkey Day!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING &
HAPPY HANUKKAH!
Wishing you and yours a wonderful time with friends and family!
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Design Spotlight: Michael Peychich
Our Design Spotlight falls on Michael Peychich of MGP Photography – lovely card, Michael!
_________________________
“Happy Birthday, Pink Roses” has turned out to be my best selling card that I have designed so far. It is also the first card I had to show how important it was to have specific categories to increase sales. I had only a few cards in my store and was of the belief I needed to first populate my store with general categories. This is the first card I decided to work on a series such as specific age. Wow, sales started coming in on a regular basis and that was an encouragement to me.
Most of my cards are designed with my own photography and worked on in Photoshop for the boarders and backdrops. The Pink rose was shot originally with a white background but I chose to alter it.
Another card that I used Photoshop to take a heart shaped portion of a couple enjoying a sunset, then choosing two shades from the image created a background to highlight the heart.
I have the most difficulties writing the verses to help I usually just try to think about would want to say to my wife or other family member. Family thinks it is funny that I am writing card verse when most of the time I do not have much to say.
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Dash of Inspiration: Happy Thanksgiving
A Dash of Inspiration, A Cup of Creativity by Doreen
Happy Thanksgiving
I’m sure the majority of you are all busy this week traveling or receiving travelers, baking, stuffing and planning your black Friday route, so I’m keeping this short.
Here are two new fonts from FontSquirrel:
May each and every one of you and yours travel safely and have a beautiful Thanksgiving!
So, until next week … Learn … Create … Inspire!
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Community Shout Out: We Need Spotlights!
SEEKING DESIGN SPOTLIGHTS
Do You Want To Be a Star?
We know artists are taking off their designer hats right now and putting on those chef’s whites, gearing up for Thanksgiving and the rest of the holiday season. 🙂
While you’re enjoying the blessings of the season, keep in mind that we’re actively seeking artists to do Design Spotlights on this blog. Any artist can participate. Just send me a link (click Contact Corrie over there on the right side of this page) to your favorite or best selling card at GCU (or a card you want to showcase) + anything you want to tell us about the design and about yourself.
It’s a great way to promote you and your designs. From newbies to established pros, doesn’t everybody want a little more publicity for your work? Of course!
Please don’t go crazy, okay? If you’ve had a card Spotlighted here in the past, that’s okay, you can still submit new designs as long as your Spotlight hasn’t run within the last month – just to give everybody a fair chance. Other than that, I don’t really have any specific rules.
Thanks!
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Critique Clinic – November 22-24, 2013
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!
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Tips and Tricks: Textures – Felt
Textures: Felt
A popular art/craft is needle felting — using a needle to rough up felt material to make it fuzzier. We’ve seen some very cute creations out there including tiny animals, pop culture figures, etc. One of the effects this art form has had is the rising popularity of felt as a decorative material. You can see examples on Pinterest.
Creating a digital felt texture for a greeting card isn’t too difficult. Think digital felt flowers with a digital wooden button center, for example, which would be trendy and cute. Or a sweet digital felt elephant on a baby announcement. Use your imagination. Just make sure in your product description, you use terms like “digital felt texture” to avoid having shoppers think you’ve using real felt material.
Here are some handy tutorials if you want to make your own felt textures on your graphics. We were unable to find tutorials for GIMP, Paint Shop Pro, and Corel Draw. If you know any, please leave a link in the comments – thanks!
How to Create Felt Shapes in Photoshop Elements
Realistic Felt Tutorial (Photoshop)
Puffy Felt Tutorial (Photoshop)
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Nuts and Bolts: Reviewer Do’s and Don’ts
REVIEWER DO’S AND DON’TS
Since some little confusion may exist among artists as to exactly what the members of GCU’s Card Review Team are responsible for, here’s a list of do’s and don’ts that should clarify things. And if you missed it, see Doreen’t excellent post, Card Review at GCU to get you started.
New artists have some leeway while they learn the ropes, but if you’ve been a GCU artists for 6+ months at least, you should already know your stuff. If not, here’s a refresher.
What it boils down to is that if you want less delay between submitting cards and approvals, then quit submitting cards with obvious mistakes. Quit assuming the Reviewers will do your job for you! In fact, it’s YOUR job to submit cards that are as perfect as you can make them.
Okay? Then let’s continue to specifics.
Grammar & Spelling
Reviewers DO check your submitted card for spelling and grammar errors. Reviewers DON’T correct these errors nor are they required to give you an education in grade school basics. If your card is Declined due to a spelling or grammar mistake, don’t be surprised. It is the responsibility of artists to check their own work BEFORE submitting a card for review. If you aren’t so hot in the spelling/grammar and punctuation departments, feel free to ask for an opinion on the Forum or on the Critique Clinic we run here each Fri-Sun. Here are some resources that may help you.
Common Misspellings
240 Common Spelling Mistakes in English
Common Grammar Errors
Common Grammar Errors in English Usage
Categories
Reviewers DO check to make sure the category (or categories) you’ve chosen fit the submitted card. Occasionally, they may move a card to a more fitting category, however Reviewers DON’T fix incorrect category choices. It is the artist’s responsibility to make the best choice to begin with, not rely on someone else to do it for them. If you need to learn more, see Nuts & Bolts: Categories or Dash of Inspiration: Choosing Categories for a detailed explanation.
Margin
Reviewers DO check to make sure all typographical and important design elements are within the cut-off margin (1/4″ on all sides OR use the template which you can download by logging in to GCU and going to Manage Store > Administrative Settings > Images & Cards > Download Card Template). You can also use the Print Margin Preview provided when uploading your card. It is the responsibility of the artist to ensure their card will print properly.
Photo Cards/Personalized (Custom Text) Cards
Reviewers DO check to ensure the transparent area you’ve defined conforms to the design on your card and you’ve followed the guidelines, ie, he custom boxes cannot touch each other. For more information and advice with examples, see Mindy’s Forum post on the subject. Reviewers DON’T correct your errors. It’s your job to make sure you haven’t messed up. Check and double-check before you save your submission. In this case, “close enough” isn’t good enough.
Holidays
Reviewers DON’T put special emphasis on cards submitted late for a holiday. Submitted cards are processed on a first come, first served basis (exceptions: Fast Track and Star Submitter). If you wait to the last minute to submit cards for a holiday, don’t cry about missing prime sales time and don’t blame the Reviewers. It’s your responsibility to submit your new cards 3-6 months or more in advance. Personally, we find designing a year in advance works well for us.
Card Title and Keywords
Reviewers DO check card titles and keywords to make sure they are relevant and speak to the card design and occasion. Reviewers DON’T change your errors for you. It is the responsibility of the artist to get these things right for themselves. Do not use a “kitchen sink” approach. Card title and keywords should reflect exactly what the card is and is intended for. Be relevant!
Notes to Reviewer
Artists who habitually use clip art or 3rd party art or photographs MUST keep track of the art’s origin (website, Terms of Use) and put that information in the Notes to Reviewer. If the art/photo is your own work, a note to that effect will be sufficient. Reviewers DON’T launch complicated investigations or go on long Internet hunts for elusive origins. It’s your job to give them the info they need or suffer the consequences of having your card Returned for Edits (meaning more delay) or Declined.
Artist’s Notes
Reviewers DO check your Artist’s Notes to ensure they are correct and relevant to the submitted card. Reviewers DON’T fix a mistake for you. Double check before you hit that SAVE button, especially if you’re submitting age, relationship, or occupation specific cards that need to be changed each time. The Artist’s Notes are also a greet place to include a product description of your card which helps search engines find you more quickly! And be sure nothing is misspelled or grammatically incorrect. This is also the place to give credit where it’s due if you’re using elements from sites that require source accreditation.
Submission Guidelines
Reviewers DO check the entire card to ensure it falls within GCU’s Submission Guidelines. It’s an artist’s responsibility to read and understand the Submission Guidelines and if you intend to be part of the card selling community, you need to do your homework. That’s your responsibility, not anybody else’s. Get Submission Guidelines 101 here. Don’t assume the Reviewers will catch all your mistakes and you don’t need to do the work. An attitude like that won’t get you far.
Bottom Line
The Reviewers DO a quality check to ensure your card meets all the Submission Guidelines. The Reviewers DON’T correct your mistakes for you. They aren’t here to babysit you. It’s your job to learn the ropes. If you can’t be bothered to make an effort to help yourself and continue to rely on the Review Team to do your work for you, then know you’re contributing to the long delay for approvals.
Artists who continually abuse the review system, refuse to learn the ropes, refuse to learn from notes given by the Reviewers, refuse to do anything except push card after error-riddled card into the system and won’t change their ways may find themselves out in the cold.
What Is the Artist’s Responsibility?
In a nutshell, this is the stuff you need to do as a GCU artist before you submit a card:
- Correct spelling and grammar. If you aren’t sure, ask on the Forum!
- Make sure all design elements are within the margin (cut-off area).
- Follow all Submission Guidelines.
- Choose correct category (categories).
- Don’t wait to the last minute to submit cards for a holiday. If you miss the holiday, that’s on you for not allowing sufficient time! Designing 3-6 months or more in advance is the way to go.
- Be certain the transparent areas you define in Photo Cards and custom text cards follows the guidelines.
- Use the right keywords and title.
- Keep track of where your design elements come from and don’t forget to include that information (link to website, TOU) in the Notes to Reviewer. Don’t simply take things you find on the Internet and assume they’re free. Nothing is free for commercial use unless it states that explicitly in the Terms of Use!
- Use the Artist’s Notes to write a product description.
Learning the ropes at GCU may seem like a daunting task, but the more you put into it, the more you get out of it. Check out our Card Designer’s Checklist which has more information.
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Rainbow Connection: Color Palette Source
Here’s a lively source for new and interesting color palettes: the Color Me section of Scrappyjedi.com. Like others, they provide photographic examples of the colors working together, providing plenty of inspiration for designers. You’ll see an example below. Check it out!
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Dash of Inspiration: Card Review at GCU
A Dash of Inspiration, A Cup of Creativity by Doreen
Card Review at GCU
The complaints continue to flood the forum about the lengthy review time and the demands for GCU to improve the process, yet it seems we (the artists) are still failing to take responsibility for how we can help the review cycle. I’ve heard many times over the years an artist say in their complaint; “Isn’t that what the reviewers are there for, to catch our mistakes?”, or “It wouldn’t hurt for the reviewers to show us some respect by not being rude.”
The reviewers at GCU should be looked at as a Quality Control / Quality Assurance department in any other company. The reviewers are there to enforce the quality levels GCU has put into place, both for imagery and for the fields we fill out for placement of our cards, BEFORE those ‘products’ are placed into the public marketplace … ultimately ending up in a customer’s mailbox.
Quality Control is not, in any company, a department that is there to fix your mistakes, nor are they there to be sweet to you or to loosen up the quality standards. Quality departments in any company which delivers a final ‘product’ to a customer consists of a fairly small group of people who handle hundreds, if not thousands of ‘products’ every day. Carefully inspecting those products against standards set forth by the company, in our case GCU’s Submission Guidelines.
When ‘products’ (our cards) are not approved, this is done more often than not with a long list of preset responses, so the ‘inspector’ (the reviewer) can return or decline quickly rather than having to write out long-winded ‘love notes’ to the person responsible (the artist). This is why some artists may feel that the reviewer was rude to them, when in actuality, the reviewer most likely clicked on an option which simply sent the artist a standard response, therefore saving the reviewer’s time.
I was in Aerospace for 15-years and the Quality department worked very much like GCU. Before an item we deemed ‘ready’ made it’s way to the final destination, it went into the Quality Assurance queue and waited for review and ultimately approval, before it was released into production. If there was anything wrong with the item, it was kicked back and sometimes that meant it was kicked all the way back to the engineer’s drawing board … sound familiar?
So, here is the bottom line. The review time will never improve if we artists do not change our behavior and improve the quality of what we submit for review. If you have been actively involved at GCU for six-months to a year, and by actively involved I mean that you’ve submitted cards regularly, read the blog tips and all the great info there, and have taken the time to learn all you can from the forums, Wiki, and GCU University; you should now be considered enough of a veteran artist to not get ANY declines and only the occasional return.
If you still get many returns and/or many declines, then shame on you. GCU, Corrie and I have put in thousands of hours to create step by step tutorials, tips and visual aides to help you. There really is no excuse and if you are still on the receiving end of continuous declines and returns, then the fault lies with you not GCU or the review team.
Are any of these you?
- I’ve heard people post on the forum that they have 800 cards in the queue awaiting approval and another 300 to upload. I create cards just about every day and that adds up to about 1000 high-quality cards a year. So, if you are pumping out 800 cards at a time … slow down. There is almost a 100% chance that the majority of those 800+ cards have issues which the reviewers will need to return and returned cards mean you are now taking twice the reviewer time, not to mention your own by having to correct them.
- Check, recheck, and check again. If you are getting cards returned for something other than imagery such as; grammar, spelling, wrong keywords, wrong category choice and the like … then again, shame on you. We all make the occasional mistake, but if the majority of your cards are getting returned for things you missed, then SLOW DOWN. Use the Card Submissions101 document to check each field for accuracy and completeness.
- If you are not 100% sure that your imagery meets the submission guidelines, then shame on you for not seeking input before submitting it to the reviewers. The Critique Clinic is up Friday through Sunday, it’s free and is handled by a group of your peers, each and every week. Yet more often than not goes underutilized. There are a few artists who have used it with successful results and they now create better cards which fly through the review cycle. Not to mention all the visual examples and details given in each category of the Submission Guidelines.
- If you are not keeping track of the URL information on where you’ve obtained elements used within your design so that you can add that required information to the Note to Reviewer field, then shame on you. As a designer it is your responsibility to establish a method which works for you. Whine all you want, but Mindy has informed us many times over the years that there are too many people who call themselves ‘artists’ and take elements/images from the internet which they have no right to use. Providing this information is mandatory and you should consider it a benefit of GCU’s quality department to be ensuring all of our intellectual property rights are upheld.
- If you take imagery from sites which require credit and/or allow use under Creative Commons, meaning you need to create a derivative work not just added text to an image created by someone else, and you do not give credit and/or do not make a derivative work, therefore your card is declined; then again shame on you. If you wish to be in the business as a designer, you need to follow the ethical and legal rules of the business.
- If you are complaining about GCU’s weeding process – where they are going through each of our stores and declining cards which no longer meet the Submission Guidelines – then shame on you. This was announced nearly two-years ago and if you have not taken the time to rework your designs or clean your own store of cards which no longer meet the standards, then just sit back and quietly accept that you had an opportunity to save those cards, yet made the decision to leave your store in the hands of the review team.
Mindy has stated that the review team at GCU does afford new artists ample time to get up to speed and the reviewers will continue to share detailed suggestions and tips with newbies; however for the rest of us, we should know better. If we have a problem with the review process at GCU not getting faster, then it’s us not them. We are clogging up the queue with cards that either do not meet the submission guidelines or cards which must be returned for errors which should have been caught by us.
So, until next week … Learn … Create … Inspire!
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Critique Clinic – November 15-17, 2013
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 