Kate Harper's Blog: 6/20/10

The Handmade Card Business: Backcopy

Backcopy
by Kate Harper

Backcopy is the information that is on the back of the card, such as the card name, publisher, price, copyright symbol. Usually this information is pre-printed on the card, but when your first start your business, you may not be able to afford to pre-printed cards. Use a rubber stamp and then graduate to pre-printed labels. Other ways to put this information on the back is to use Xeroxed paper inserts that you can slip behind your card in the bag.

Most importantly, make sure your company name and address is on the back of your cards. I am surprised at the number of cards that exclude this information. How will anyone ever contact you if they want to order cards? Some retail stores have gotten a hold of me solely from using backcopy information. One card designer also adds a warning "Always have enough information on the back so that people can find you. Your store buyers will be reluctant to give out your name and address to competitors."

Sometimes store buyers got a hold of your card in unusual ways, such as picking it up while vacation. Remember, the back of your card is like your business card.

When you begin to print your company name on the back of your card consider including other information such as
1) The recycled symbol, if you are using recycled paper (see figure 61.0 recycled paper symbol).
2) The price of your card.
3) The code number, or order number of your card.
4) General information about you, as an artist or the art process you are using.
5) A Logo, that represents your business image.

Handmade Card Business Articles by Kate Harper

Backcopy:What to print on the back of your cards

The Handmade Card Business: Card Codes

The Handmade Card Business: All About Envelopes

Starting a Handmade Card Business: Manufacturing

How to Make a Living in the Handmade Card Business

Making Cards: Questions to Ask

Simplify Card Making for a Profit

How to Set Up a Handmade Card Factory

Paying People to Make Your Cards

The Handmade Card Business: Card Codes

Determining Card Codes

Codes are those numbers and letters you always see on the back of greeting cards. Since it is very difficult for you or a sales reps to take orders by writing down the description of the card, you really need to identify the cards with codes.

Everyone has their own coding system and you can create your own. It's helpful, when you have cards of the same style or of the same family, to prefix all of them with a similar code. That way, when you or your sales rep needs to take a fast order, she can just write one prefix, and a series of suffixes. For example, let's say you have ten Christmas cards and you have coded them like the following example:

36-GO Christmas Card Goose
23-TR Christmas Tree Card
47-CG Christmas Card Green
37-CR Christmas Card Red
39-BL Blank Christmas Card
55-BI Bird Christmas Card
88-WR Wreath Christmas Card
78-AN Angel Christmas Card
99-SA Santa Christmas Card
63-SN Snow Scene Christmas Card

This way of coding cards can be very difficult to write when taking an order, especially for reps who are often taking orders simultaneously for several different card lines. While the letters give you an abbreviated description of the card, the numbers are all over the map. It is also hard to rely solely on letters because you can run out of them pretty fast. A better way to code these same cards would be like the following example:

36-GO Christmas Card Goose
36-TR Christmas Tree Card
36-CG Christmas Card Green
36-CR Christmas Card Red
36-BL Blank Christmas Card
36-BI Bird Christmas Card
36-WR Wreath Christmas Card
36-AN Angel Christmas Card
36-SA Santa Christmas Card
36-SN Snow Scene Christmas Card

Notice that the only difference is that you have changed the prefix. Now when you or a rep takes an order, you can write it out like this:

One dozen each of the following:
36-TR, BL, AN, SN

On the invoice, these can be written out in long form later.

The main point is that you don't want to use complicated codes that are hard to record while you are making a sale.

Codes can also be organized by the time the cards were created. For example when you introduce a dozen new designs to a pre-existing line, you might prefix them all with the same number like the 100 series or the 6X series. Be creative and see what card codes you can come up with, that will help you remember what card it is by heart.

Handmade Card Business Articles by Kate Harper

Backcopy:What to print on the back of your cards

The Handmade Card Business: Card Codes

The Handmade Card Business: All About Envelopes

Starting a Handmade Card Business: Manufacturing

How to Make a Living in the Handmade Card Business

Making Cards: Questions to Ask

Simplify Card Making for a Profit

How to Set Up a Handmade Card Factory

Paying People to Make Your Cards

Copyright © 2010 Kate Harper

The Handmade Card Business: Envelopes

ENVELOPES

There are many things you need to consider when choosing envelopes for your card. In the greeting card business, here are some basic standards that are used in the industry.

Card and Envelope Sizes
The most common sizes for handmade cards are:

• 5 by 7 goes with an A7 envelope.
• 4 1/2 by 6 1/8 goes with an A6 envelope.
• 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 goes with an A2 envelope.

I've seen many hand-crafted cards that use other sizes, but be careful. Sometimes you may not be able to find envelopes for unusual sizes and you might have to special order them. One sales representative for northern California says that one of the biggest mistakes new card artists make is to create oversized cards that won't fit in a standard card rack.

Retail store managers have told me that that it's hard to sell handmade cards that are 4 1/4 by 5 1/2, because the they are so small. The only advantage of this size is that you can get two cards out of a standard 81/2 by 11 piece of paper. Compared to other cards on a card shelf though, your card is going to look quite small.

Handmade Card Business Articles by Kate Harper

Backcopy:What to print on the back of your cards

The Handmade Card Business: Card Codes

The Handmade Card Business: All About Envelopes

Starting a Handmade Card Business: Manufacturing

How to Make a Living in the Handmade Card Business

Making Cards: Questions to Ask

Simplify Card Making for a Profit

How to Set Up a Handmade Card Factory

Paying People to Make Your Cards

Mary Engelbreit Talks about Card Design Process

Here's a short article of Mary talking about getting card designs together quickly for Recycled Paper Greetings:

Exerpt:
"Here’s a little something you might be interested in. I’m doing a bunch of new Easter/spring cards for Papyrus-Recycled Greetings, which will be available this coming spring. I had the idea for one of them during one of our staff meetings in which we were discussing how many cards we needed to provide QUICKLY to PRG– the operative word here being QUICKLY. Here’s the doodle I did on our agenda:"

See entire article..

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