If you are serious about creating a good layout that is worth sending to the greeting card printer, you will want to use images and graphics wisely.
Do not just plug in your images for custom greeting cards. If you are serious about creating a good and appealing layout that is worth sending to the greeting card printer, you will want to use your images and graphics wisely. In this lesson for designing greeting cards, we will go through some of the important points that you need to know in managing the size, position and of course ultimate use of your images for your greeting cards. Read each item one by one and learn exactly what you need to do with these images.
1. Choosing the right cover picture/graphic – For your greeting cards, the first step to wisely using images to use is of course to choose the right cover picture or graphic. Now, the choice or topic will depend on the main occasion or message of the greeting card. However, when it comes to the technicalities, you will need to be careful. The best pictures and graphics for your greeting cards must not only be appropriate for the message, but it must connect distinctly to your readers.
You have to remember that people have already seen tons of greeting cards already. So the typical greeting card with the typical cover images will just be “one of those” cards for them. You will need to design something unique and of course significantly touching to your readers to be effective at this. So make sure that you really connect and study your target market. The more you know about them, the better.
2. Using those supporting borders – Borders are part of the different types of graphics that you can use for greeting cards. Normally you will want to use borders in greeting cards that need some kind of order or emphasis. By framing your main message and greeting card design, you are adding focus and order to the layout.
This is great, especially for postcard or portrait designs where everything must be nice, neat and formal. If however this is not your idea of a good greeting card, then you may want to lose those borders altogether of course. Most modern themes actually like to play designs without borders.
3. Adding lead elements like arrows – Arrows and line elements can be of great help in greeting card designs. Not only do they direct the attention of people, but they can also manage the flow from one point of the greeting card to another. These arrow or lead type elements are how you manage to tell a story within your business cards.
You can lead people from the cover to the end of your greeting card message, carefully with the right pacing. This not only helps organize things, but it also makes readers anticipate and enjoy the journey of reading your greeting cards.
4. Adding identity elements like logos – Of course, it is important to also add some Identity elements. Identity elements in a greeting card are logos or certain graphic signatures that identify you or your firm as the author of the greeting card. The best place to put these kinds of images are at the back of your greeting card.
This is a good place since it does not bother the communication of the main message itself, while at the same time it marks or brands the greeting card, adding the authority that you or your company can bestow from that logo or special graphic signature.
5. Detailing and polishing elements – Finally, one of the things you can add in terms of graphics for your greeting cards are those detailing and polish elements. These are those small graphics that you add to add detail to the background of your cover image as well as the inside panels of your greeting card.
These can be just simple swirls, small logos, watermarks or whatever kind of small graphic that will support your theme. Lots of greeting card designers tend to forget these polishing elements only to discover that they are missing something with their designs. So make sure that you consider adding those detailing or polishing elements in your greeting cards.
Now you know exactly the specific image types and graphics that you will want to add and integrate into your own greeting cards. Be careful and manage these well before mass producing your greeting cards.