Greeting Card Association Artist Guidelines

Tips for Artists

It’s hard to imagine a greeting card without any imagery, which is why good design is always in demand by the greeting card industry.

The ideal greeting card is a seamless marriage of art and verse. The successful card designer needs to create an image that’s eye-catching enough to capture the customer’s attention, yet reflects the tone and emotion of the card’s message.

Try to envision your design in terms of how it is likely to be displayed for sale. A vertical layout is most often used for greeting cards, and many cards are displayed in racks, where the bottom half of the card is not visible to the customer. Focus attention on the top half of your design, which is what the customer will see.

To get a better sense of greeting card design, spend time looking at cards. Visit a variety of card shops and retailers in your area and really look at the cards. Notice how the imagery and text work together with different types of cards.

Pay attention to different design styles and the publishers whose cards hold special appeal to you. The more you learn about card companies and greeting card design, the more successful you’ll be in determining what type of design you want to create, and the publishers most likely to be interested in your work.

If you haven’t created greeting card designs before, consider creating a collection of several designs in a certain look. This can help a publisher see your skills, style and how you carry out a theme. Be sure your submission will “match” the publisher; a traditional Christmas scene, for example, will not be of interest to a company that publishes only humorous everyday cards.

Most designers license their work either on a flat-fee basis, or for an advance against royalties. Licensing gives a company the right to reproduce your design for a certain use for a specific amount of time in a particular market, such as North America or worldwide. The artist retains ownership of the image and can continue to license it for other uses that don’t conflict. Under a flat-fee basis, ownership rights are typically turned over to the publisher. For greeting cards, a flat fee generally ranges between $275 and $500. An advance against a typical 4%-6% royalty may run from $150 to $300. Payments vary from publisher to publisher, as well as by type and complexity of the artwork.

Before you consider submitting any work, learn which greeting card companies accept outside submissions. Then obtain a copy of their submission guidelines. You can generally determine if a publisher accepts outside submissions by writing or phoning the company, or by locating a submission-guidelines page on their website. GCA-member publishers who accept outside submissions are indicated on this website by a “submission guidelines” link after their contact information. Only those with a “submission guidelines” link accept outside submissions.

Never send original artwork. Some companies may look at e-mail submissions, others prefer CDs and still others may request color photocopies. Whatever the format, make sure your name and contact information is included on each image, along with some sort of design identification or number and the copyright symbol.

If you wish the publisher to return your work, include an appropriately sized, self-addressed stamped envelope. Many art directors keep samples of styles they like on file, so if you don’t need your submission back, mention in your cover letter that they are welcome to keep the samples.

8 Ways to Improve Typography

Ran across this article from Smashing Magazine on typography.

Excerpt:

Many people, designers included, think that typography consists of only selecting a typeface, choosing a font size and whether it should be regular or bold. For most people it ends there.

But there is much more to achieving good typography and it’s in the details that designers often neglect.

These details give the designer total control, allowing them to create beautiful and consistent typography in their designs. While these details can be applied across different types of media, in this articles we’re going to focus on how to apply them to web design using CSS.

Here are 8 simple ways you can use CSS to improve your typography and hence the overall usability of your designs....Continued

Need Card Design Ideas?

Look around your house for colors, shape, texture and surface design.
Here are some photos I shot in 10 minutes walking around the house.

Some items may not be recognizable at first.
See if you can guess what they are before reading description:




Post it notes in a book


heater grate


Paint tubes


Raffia


Books on a shelf


Shower curtain


mardi gras necklace hanging from curtain


part of an old postcard


Paint tubes


Backdoor Screen


Paint brushes


Curtain


Painted boxes, full of clothes


"Spot" asleep on a blanket.

Art Licensing Group

Our Art Licensing Group met on Saturday to talk about what our latest updates were, and goals were in the last month. We saw some new art, talked about contracts, computer crashes, classes, agents and made plans to have a member give a talk about fabric design next month.

How to protect your assets in a licensing agreement

Found this article on Licensing Contracts on the Daily News Blog

Excerpt:
As fun and exciting as Art Licensing is, there are some things you should know before entering into any contractual agreement. First of all, there is a lot that you won’t know in the beginning of your licensing career and a ton that you will learn along the way, but you should have a good understanding of what the terms of your agreement will be before signing anything. If you are presented with a licensing contract - review it and understand that you are the one licensing the art and you have the power to negotiate your terms. Also, it’s always a good idea to have your own copyright attorney review the contract.
Before we discuss this topic further let's get familiar with a few terms, that is if you are not already familiar with them.

1. Licensor - You! 2. Licensee - the company you are licensing artwork to. 3. Royalty - The percentage you will be payed on the sales of your art. 4. Net Sales Price - the price for which the Licensee sells the Licensed Products 5. Licensed Design - shall mean those designs owned by Licensor and incorporated into one or more Licensed Products 6. Sell-off-period - A period of time used by the Licensee to clear out licensed product. This usually takes place at the end of a contract when the licensee needs to dispose of all of its existing inventory of Licensed Products on hand. During the Sell-off Period, no royalties shall be payable to Licensor for the sale of Licensed Products that must be liquidated (sold at or below cost).

....read more on the website