Dash of Inspiration: August 2020 Design Challenge
This month is back to back Design Challenge vs. the usual Stock Challenge. After all, once again the holiday season is coming and as designers we need to be way ahead of the rush. So get motivated and inspired and show us your new holiday design!
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Theme: Holiday Season
Requirements:
- Any of the seasonal categories; Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc. Standard cards or photo cards will be accepted.
- Any winter season category which your card speaks to.
- No Stock card creations will be accepted.
- Blank verse will not be considered for entry in this challenge.
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Entry Deadline: Monday, August 31st
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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 holiday themed category (for the winter holiday season).
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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: August 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.
- Your designs should differ from those already offered in the category of your choice to offer shoppers a variety of choices, not more of the same.
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BLIND Judging: We hope each of you enters every month. Entries are submitted anonymously for judging by the GCU Challenge Jury which means that before and during the challenge, judges do not have any way of knowing what artist is behind each entry. This eliminates any and all concerns with ‘favoritism’. Results will post on the Community Blog. 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 56,000 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 may not be featured as 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 GCU’s Pinterest Page followers: 2K!
- 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!
- NEW starting this month, GCU will create a Meet the Team board for the winning artist under the Pinterest GCU account where the winning artist will be able to pin and promote her own storefront and all that makes them a unique card designer and one of GCU’s artistic community team member.
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Winning card will be posted on GCU’s Instagram with 2,000 followers and counting!
- GCU will create a Meet the Team board for the winning artist under the Pinterest GCU account where the winning artist will be able to pin and promote her own storefront and all that makes them a unique card designer and one of GCU’s artistic community team member.
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 may not be featured as 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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Winning card will be posted on GCU’s Instagram with 2,000 followers and counting!
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Tips:
- Nuts and Bolts: The Right Image
- Dash of Inspiration: It’s All in the Type
- Nuts and Bolts: How to Write Greeting Card Verse
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Doreen Erhardt©
Be inspired to create and learn something new!
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For standard front designs, consider using Stock Card Creations to create new cards quickly. These cards are automatically set for expedited review so no need to Fast Track.
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Freebie Wednesday: Peach Roses Watercolor Clipart.
Freebie Wednesday:
Peach Roses Watercolor Clipart. 13 watercolor clipart of flowers and rose leaves plus a bouquet as a gift.
YOU WILL GET:
• 13 elements of hand-painted watercolors;
• Png with transparent background;
• high quality 300 dpi RGB color
1 bouquet PNG as a gift ;
PNG files can be opened using most image editing programs.
It’s free at Creative Fabrica for another 2 days so you better make sure you don’t miss out!
This product comes with a complete commercial license.
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Rainbow Connection: Color Trends 2020/2021
Some Color Trends for 2020/2021 I found on Pinterest this week:
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Nuts and Bolts: July Design Challenge Deadline.
See July’s Design Challenge details. We look forward to seeing all of your submissions.
The difference is in the details.
GCU Community Manager
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For standard front designs, consider using Stock Card Creations to create new cards quickly. These cards are automatically set for expedited review so no need to Fast Track.
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Freebie Wednesday: Lovestory.
Freebie Wednesday:
Lovestory is a modern calligraphy font,
It is perfect for branding,logo, wedding invites, every other design which needs a handwritten romantic touch.
What you get?
-Loveyou.otf
-Loveuou.ttf
This beautiful freebie is brought to you by Nirmana Visual. Only available on the Hungry Jpeg site for a week!
This product comes with a complete commercial license.
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Original Image:
From the reviewer:
The card front text is not very legible against this background. Please adjust the background or text style. Please ensure there are no overlapping lines of text on the card front as seen in this image.
See the GCU Blog for explanation & examples:
https://gcucommunity.com/2013/06/03/dash-of-inspiration-typography-legibility/
Thank you to GCU artist, Linda Gladman Art, for her quick edits and receptive teamwork with our review team to create a submission that speaks volumes.
Here is another example of before and after improvement for cover text legibility by Angela Castillo of FairyGirlCards.
The difference is in the details.
GCU Community Manager
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For standard front designs, consider using Stock Card Creations to create new cards quickly. These cards are automatically set for expedited review so no need to Fast Track.
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Freebie Wednesday: Clareta Font.
Freebie Wednesday:
Clareta Font (by R. Studio) is a lovely calligraphy font. This is a beautiful combination of timeless elegance and authentic calligraphy. Clareta Font will add a romantic feeling to any design! It’s free at Creative Fabrica for the next 5 days so be sure to check it out.
This product comes with a complete commercial license.
