Kate Harper's Blog: 8/9/09

Disabled Card Designers Sought

Ran across this article today. If anyone has any experience with Courage Cards let me know:
Courage Cards Conducting Nationwide Art Search for 2010 Holiday Season.

Freebies

Here's a bunch of freebies I ran across. While most of them claim to be for commercial use, always check term details before using them for manufacturing designs.

Free Leaf Textures

Free Photoshop Swirl Brushes

Free Metal Textures

Photoshop Grunge Brushes

Greeting Card Licensing Information from the UK

Ran across this great site on card licensing. Here's are excerpts from 2 articles:

What is Licensing?

For licensors, the advantages include being able to enter new markets (product or geographical) which would be unfeasible with it's own resources or capabilities. It is a way to generate new revenue streams, often with little involvement or additional financial or other resource implications and can be an excellent earner.

Take, for example, a charity Christmas card licensing deal: the charity agrees to allow its name (brand) to be used on greeting cards in return for a percentage of the trade price. This way it raises its profile on the high street and earns additional income, without having to make any investment in product, or taking the risks involved in publishing the cards itself. In this case it is the publisher which is the licensee.

Greeting card publishers are becoming increasingly involved in the licensing market, both as licensees and licensors.
Article continued.....

Interesting Facts About the Greeting Card Industry in the UK

85% of all cards are bought by women!

The UK card industry is acknowledged to be ten years ahead of the rest of the world in terms of design.

There are approximately 800 publishers in the UK, most of which are small businesses with fewer than five employees. Out of the 400 members of the GCA over 280 are small/micro businesses.

It’s a creative industry with strong bases in London, Nottinghamshire and the North, especially Yorkshire and Lancashire, where it has replaced many of the heavy manufacturing industries as a major employers.

Greeting cards are stocked in more types of outlet than any other product – with one in six retailers stocking greeting cards.

No other country has such a tradition of card sending or card display in the home - the sending and receiving of cards is an important part of our culture.

The commercial Christmas card was invented in 1846 by Sir Henry Cole, the chief organiser of the Great Exhibition, pioneer of the penny post and founder of the V&A Museum.

One of Sir Henry’s first Christmas cards, sent to his Grandmother was recently sold at auction for £22,500.

Greeting card making is also the number one craft hobby, according to Crafts Beautiful, the top consumer craft magazine, which receives more enquiries about greeting cards than any other subject.
Article Continued....

More Great Color Resources

This is a follow up to my last posting on fantastic color resources. Just spotted more on the Design Magazine Website
.

Check My Color

Gray Bit

Contrast-A: Find Accessible Color Combinations

ColourLovers Copaso

Color Munki

Online color Palette Creator – Aviary Toucan

Easy RGB

Colr

Color Palette Generator

FireWheel Design color burn

Color Mod

ColorZilla For Firefox

Color fields Colr Pickr

Book Review: All About Color

I ran across Janice Lindsay's Book All About Colour when looking for resources on how to learn about color. Color is often taken for granted as something that comes natural or we just choose "what we like", but I find that sometimes if one of my card designs look weak, that just by changing one color, the whole card looks like a new design.

Until I found her book, I never actually thought of color as an academic subject. She carries us through the entire history of color, from the beginning, and her first section is called "Before Colour was Colour" and examines different basic colors, giving them special and equal attention.

A Canadian color designer, Janice runs a consulting company called "PINK". In her book she answers such questions as: Can changing a color change our experience of our space? Why is white the hardest color? What makes a color beautiful? Why do certain colors make us feel happy? and How are color trends born?

It's really great to be able to have a reference book on how color affects our lives, something we rarely think about, but after reading her data on color research, now I know it's true not just for me, or for artists, but for everyone.

BOOKS FOR THE CARD DESIGN

These are books I own and recommend. Some may be out of print, but used copies may be available. Check link.

Start & Run a Greeting Cards Business Book covers starting a card business in the UK. Good basic info, but financial/measurement info is in different monetary units.

Greeting Card Design Book that shows examples of professional card design.

Publishing Your Art as Cards How to make and sell your own cards for an extra income.

Pushing the Envelope How to work with greeting card sales reps.

Complete Guide to Greeting Card Design and Illustration Great Book on understanding the greeting card profession and how to develop a style.

1000 Handmade Greetings: creative cards and clever correspondence This is not a simple craft book for hobbyists,instead it is a picture book of professionally handmade cards by leading companies and designers.

By the Batch: Creative Cards, Postcards, Envelopes & More Book that addresses how to "manufacture" handmade greeting cards.

How to Write and Sell Greeting Cards, Bumper Stickers, Tshirts and Other Fun Stuff

Sell the Fun Stuff: Writers' and Artists' Market Guidelines for Greeting Cards, Posters, Rubber Stamps, T-Shirts, Aprons, Bumper Stickers, and More!

Writing Card Sentiments

Freelance Writing for Greeting Cards Another good book on how to write for cards professionally.

You Can Write Your Own Greeting Cards Clear guidelines on how to write card sentiments professionally.

Finding the Right Words One of many basic books of this series that tells you how to add words products, cards, etc.

Licensing Your Art to Companies

Licensing Art and Design

Licensing Art 101 Good beginners guide on the art licensing business.

2011 Artist's and Graphic Designer's Market List of greeting card companies, art licensees and agents.Detailed information on submission guidelines.

Gift and Product Design

Start with a Scan One of a kind book that tells you how to transform your art into a scan and what to do with it from there.

Design Your Own Repeat Patterns Simple book on learning repeats.

Twentieth-Century Pattern Design Great book for inspiration and creative approaches to designing patterns.

How to Break into Product Design Overview of product design in all industries.

Designing a Digital Portfolio Shows you how to put a digital portfolio together for the modern era.

Mary Engelbreit: The Art And The Artist Amazing story of how Mary ended up doing licensing.

Principles of Pattern Design Good info on pattern design

Imagery on Fabric Basic info on putting images onto fabric.

Graphic Artist's Guild Handbook of Pricing Yearly updated guidelines for pricing for people in art careers.

5,000 Years of Textiles Far East, Americas, Africa, Scandinavia, and Egyptian. Good for studying fabric design.

Abstract Design and How to Create It Over 380 illustrations, diagrams, designs, border patterns and textile patterns.

Creative Illustration Workshop Exercises for integrating illustration with other mixed-media techniques, and scan and layer your illustrations using a computer.

Print Workshop Hand-Printing Techniques for low budgets. Interesting ways to put imagery on products. Perhaps a good technique for putting our designs on model items to show what they would look like on real products.

Digital Alchemy Printmaking techniques for fine art and how to transfer images to a variety of surfaces. It includes decals and skins.

Critical Mass Cutting-edge developments in international printmaking. Since printmaking is fundamental in most surface design concepts, this book's goal is a modern approach on a traditional printmaking.

Tradeshows and Booth Design