Critique Clinic – January 6-8, 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.
- 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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Design Spotlight: Annie Lim Cheng En
Today’s Design Spotlight falls on Annie Lim Cheng En of Annielim Designs, who has won the Design of the Day award a few times. She has a very appealing art style. Thanks for participating, Annie!
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My name is Annie Lim Cheng En, and I am a Christian living in a small country – Malaysia in Asia. Well, this is a mixed culture with Malay, India and Chinese influences, and is the inspiration and source for my designs.Share this:
Nuts and Bolts: Back of Card Credits
Put Your “Pro” Face On: Back of Card Credits
It’s time to talk about the Back of Card Credits (BOC). That’s the information printed on the back of every one of your Greeting Card Universe cards – your logo + your store’s URL.
I don’t know about you, but when I pull a greeting card out of the rack at a grocery store, I look at the card’s front, inside, and the back as well. So do shoppers. The BOC is the second face of your store, something that represents you as an artist, a greeting card designer and a business person whenever a shopper buys your card and sends it to someone.
Just as you want your storefront to be professional looking, you want your BOC to be as professional as possible. It’s your brand, it helps sell you to customers, and it says a lot about you as a business. A logo can make or break a business, which is why companies pay thousands of dollars to design firms to come up with consumer-attracting logos.
You only have one chance to make a good first impression. When the recipient of a card flips it over to look at the back and find out where it came from, no matter how nice your front of card design is, a BOC that looks amateurish, ugly, sloppy, or just plain bad will not draw shoppers to visit your store.
And in case you weren’t aware, in the beginning GCU actually had cards returned by shoppers because the BOCs weren’t well done – hence the option for shoppers to choose a “simplified” BOC instead – meaning store URL only, no logo.
So what goes into making a good logo? Think about the company logos you see every day, the logos of companies you trust to give you a great product experience in exchange for your money.
The basic rules of logo design are:
Follow the Fundamentals – The logo must follow the basic principles of design – form, clarity, consistency, space and color. This means your logo must have aesthetic appeal, the same as the greeting cards you design, and be designed to attract shoppers of all types. No personal photos. The logo should not appear distorted or squished. Every element of your logo, including any fonts you use, must be visible and above all, recognizable or readable at a small size. For GCU, a 200×200 pixel square is the ideal size for BOC.
Form Follows Function – Keep it simple. You logo must be instantly recognizable and usable in any context, at any size, on any background (from plain to patterned, any color) – whether on the back of a greeting card, in a store banner, on a T-shirt, on a matchbook cover or a bumper sticker. The fussier and more intricate your design, the further you’re getting away from a functional logo. Do not under any circumstances use shadow, 3D effects, texture effects, embossing, beveling, glare, or gradients. Simple is best.
For Consistency: Use your logo on every product you produce, on every on-line store you maintain, on your business cards, brochures, and everywhere else. Branding is important to create consumer awareness. The more shoppers see you out there, the more they’ll want to find out more about you.
Find Your Face – Choose an image for your logo that represents something about you as an artist, or some aspect of your business. For example, my CorrieWeb logo is an illustration – the Earth encircled by different animals because a lot of my art has animals in it, and our tag line is “The Wonderful World of Corrie Kuipers.” Your logo should be unique, and have a classic, timeless quality that will not become dated in two years. And don’t be a copycat. It’s a fact that copycat logos will fail. Don’t believe me? Just ask Pepsi. Their old logo was very similar to the one used by Coca-Cola. It wasn’t until Pepsi completely redesigned their logo to be unique that they saw a big increase in sales.
Bottom line: if your logo doesn’t have the professional look, how can shoppers take you seriously?
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Design Contest: I Heart You
Welcome to 2012 – it’s a brand new year! Yay!
Let’s get things rolling with Design Contest: I Heart You. As you can probably tell, we’re asking for submissions of your very best Valentine’s Day card. Here are the rules:
- One submission per artist only
- Submitted card MUST be a Valentine’s Day greeting card with at least one HEART included in the design, and must be available at Greeting Card Universe
- To enter, leave the URL or PID# of the card in the comments of this post. Comments left on other posts, or entries sent to me by email, will not be included in the contest
- Deadline for submissions is January 9, 2012. Cards submitted after January 9th will not be considered for the contest
- Voting will commence on January 10, 2012 and will continue until January 17, 2012. The artist who receives the most votes will win. On January 18th, I will announce the winner. Anyone may vote, so I urge all artists who enter the contest to promote their designs via their websites, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc
- Winner will receive their choice of a $15 Amazon.com gift certificate OR 10 free card credits
- Failure to abide by the rules will result in disqualification
Are we ready? Let’s get the love on!
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Happy 2012!
The New Year is almost here. 2011 passes, and 2012 begins – a new year with new opportunities, new chances, new designs, new colors, new fonts, new successes! I wish my fellow artists much prosperity, joy, happiness and peace in the coming year, and raise a glass of champagne to you all!
We’re out for the holiday, but we’ll be back on January 3rd with a new Design Contest for you to enjoy.
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Recommended Font
Today, I’m recommended a really cute, whimsical font that is completely suitable for greeting cards, and will make a wonderful addition to your font collection which I’m sure you’ll use again and again. Best of all, it’s on sale!
Dinzy Minzy is one of MyFonts Hot New Fonts – and I agree that it’s hot. You can see a sample above. Dinzy Minzy is going to become one of my “go to” fonts in the future.
Normally, Dinzy Minzy costs $20. However, right now the creator has a doozy of sale going on through January 13. You can get this font with license for just $2. TWO DOLLARS! The Desktop license allows you to use the font on greeting cards, T-shirts, etc.
Here’s what you do. Go to Dinzy Minzy on MyFonts.
If you’ve already got an account at MyFonts, you’re okay. If not, you will need to sign up to create a free account, but you can do that later, no problem.
Put the font in your shopping cart.
You want to choose the Desktop license.
Enter the promotion code: cheaper
Proceed to checkout. You can pay by major credit cards or PayPal. I went through the whole process using PayPal payment, and it went through smoothly. Once your order is complete, you can download the zip file.
If you’re in the market for a really sweet font with informal applications (perfect for birth announcements or Mother’s Day, for example, but I wouldn’t use it on funeral invitations), this is it.
Don’t wait too long to take advantage of the sale.
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Blast From the Past: Blogging Tips to Find Your Voice
Finding Your Voice
I’ve said it before, and you’ll probably hear me say it again and again – in the blogging world, content is king. Search engines and visitors LOVE original content.
What does that mean? Simply put, to succeed you should write what you know and be yourself. In other words, once you’ve picked what you want to blog about, next find your unique writing “voice.”
Blogging, especially for newcomers, can be intimidating, but having the freedom to write what you want and share what you know with others is a wonderful experience. Adding the ability to promote your art via GCU card links is icing on the cake.
You don’t need to use twelve dollar words and complicated concepts. You just need the ability to write a clear, understandable sentence. And another, and another, and another… and soon you’ll be blogging with the best of them.
No matter HOW you say it, the point of blogging is to get your message across to readers. If you can do that – and you should be able to – then you’ll quickly find a natural sounding way of expressing yourself, and you’ll enjoy writing posts. That enjoyment will shine through, making people WANT to read your blog.
Here are some tips to finding your writing voice:
Daily Devotion:Reading and writing are important. Read something every day. You could be inspired. Write something every day. Writing is like any other exercise: the more you practice, the better you get at it. Don’t throw out your old writings, either. You never know when you might be moved to polish up an older piece and present it to the world.
Be Yourself: Writing a blog is vastly different than writing a formal business letter. Don’t take refuge in stiff formality. Let your personality shine through.
Quit Wasting Time: Don’t spend so many hours editing and re-editing a blog post that you run out of time to actually write. Off-the-cuff remarks have charm. Don’t focus all your energy on perfection. As long as you avoid grammatical and spelling errors that turn your prose into alphabet soup, you’ll be fine.
Don’t Worry: You don’t need to write about earth-shattering topics of importance. If what you have to say moves you, it will move other people, too. You can reminisce about the past, ruminate about the present, voice an opinion, make a statement, share your knowledge. Anything that sparks your passion!
Spread the Love: Once you get your blog started, have a look around the Internet for blogs with topics similar to your own. Get commenting. Invite people to visit you, and encourage them to leave comments, too.
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Blast From the Past: Designer’s Tips for Photo Cards
Here’s another Blast From the Past – an article from an August Newsletter that you may have missed. Enjoy!
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Designer’s Tips for Creating Photo Cards
Since Photo Cards are the hottest topic at GCU right now, with virtually every designer feverishly creating and uploading cards, I thought I’d talk about some of the slightly more technical aspects to Photo Cards that you may not know.
The Bigger It Is, the Better It’s Liked: At a bare minimum, the photo area (this is the transparent spot where the shopper’s photo will go) should take up 1/4 of the card’s surface area. However, market research has shown that consumers prefer the purpose of the card to showcase their photo, not the artist’s work (which should enhance, rather than dominate). The bigger the space you leave for the shopper to fill, the happier they are. If possible, try to use at least 1/3 to 1/2 of the card’s surface for the photo area, if not more.
For the Purpose, Please: One of the worst things you can do is take an existing card design, and try to shoehorn a space out of it to make it a Photo Card. This does not work. In a lot of cases, it looks exactly like what it is: an afterthought. You’ll have much more success designing Photo Cards from the ground up.
Elementary, My Dear Artist: Again, we’re going back to that research thing. Shoppers love Photo Cards where an element of the design will interact with their photo (such as a frame with part of the flower detail coming over the photo). It looks cool, but you need to be careful of a couple of things. First, don’t let the element be too intrusive – that great whacking snowman you designed may look great, but if Frosty’s taking up half the photo area, that’s too much of a good thing. And second, always be aware that in general, when uploading their photo, shoppers will try to put their face in the center of the photo area; if the card is meant to be sent by a family or group, faces will be going across the length (or breadth) of the space, so never position an element that will obscure those smiles.
The Cutting Edge: At the moment, one of the hottest trends is the 100% Photo Card (that’s what I’m calling it)- meaning the shopper’s photo takes up the full 5×7 front of the card, with some kind of design element, such as a customizable text box, small banner, and/or discreet graphic somewhere that won’t interfere with the photo’s subject.
Now you’ve got a few tips to get started, or help you refine your existing plans. Go for it, and happy designing!
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Happy Holidays!
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah,
Joyous Solstice, and Happy Festivus!
We’d like to wish all our fellow Greeting Card Universe artists a wonderful, magical, joy-filled holiday season, and a wonderful New Year.
In 2012, may we all be blessed with…
The creativity and imagination that leads to great designs
Lots of inspiration to get our artistic juices flowing
Plenty of ways to expand our knowledge
Heaps of marketing and promotional opportunities
And finally, MORE GREETING CARD SALES!
Hope you and your loved ones enjoy a safe, healthy and happy holiday! We’ll be back on December 27th with some most Blasts from the Past.
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Blast From the Past: 5 Photo Card Tips
From a past Newsletter, here’s an article you may have missed the first time around! BTW, don’t forget that it takes 3-6 months for new cards to be indexed by search engines, so you should be designing and submitting holiday cards in July for any chance at sales in the same year. Otherwise, expect to see action next Christmas.
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Top Five Tips for Designing Photo Cards
Now I know some of you already have Photo Card templates available at places like Zazzle, and like me, you find this an exciting development. Others are completely new to the concept, or perhaps aren’t as confident as the seasoned pros, so I want to address them here in my Top Five Tips for Designing Photo Cards.
First, don’t panic. Whatever graphics editing program you use (Photoshop, PSP, Gimp, etc) you will find tutorials on-line for how to work with transparent layers and make .png files. Learn how to do that first, as this knowledge is paramount to successfully creating Photo Card templates.
Second, study your market. Many on-line greeting card retailers offer Photo Cards these days. Go have a look at their offerings. Do your homework. Can you identify any trends?
Third, do your best. Treat new Photo Card designs exactly the same as you would any other design: it MUST have commercial appeal, be well composed and have eye appeal. Shoppers are more discerning than ever, and there’s plenty of competition out there for their hard-earned dollars. In addition, new Marketability Standards have to be met. If you aren’t sure, feel free to submit a new design to the Critique Clinic held on this blog every Friday-Saturday-Sunday.
Fourth, find a niche. You know everybody’s going to be designing Photo Card templates for the super, ultra popular categories like Christmas. But there are many other opportunities for sales if you design Photo Card templates for less well represented categories. Study the categories list. Identify categories that have few or no cards, and make some to fit.
Fifth, don’t be afraid to try something new. Shoppers tend to be a little more fickle when it comes to Photo Cards versus traditional greeting cards. They like what’s hot and new, so a Photo Card template that’s on the cutting edge one year may decrease in sales the next. Break out of a design rut by trying new ways to express your creativity. You may find that by staying on top of the trends, and offering new templates in a timely manner, you’ll see more sales.
And don’t forget to have fun!
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