Card commission

UK GREETINGS COLLECTION After entering their YCN competition for 503 with the High Five collection, I was offered a summer placement where I developed two new greetings card collections; one humour based and one friendship based. Afterwards, they comissioned a live brief where they wanted me to combine elements from all three collections.

During the placement I realised how much I enjoyed designing greetings cards. They encorporate written editorial which is a large part of my personality driven work,

illustrations are usually simple spot graphics and by nature the industry is commercial and trend lead which is the area I’m interested in working.

Last year I interviewed an illustrator for PPP who recommended always having a collection of greetings cards within a portfolio, ready to lisence. This project involves responding to art direction and learning new industry skills in greetings card design, and I hope to gain transferable skills as well as ready to lisence card designs.

COMMISSION EXTENDED

Polly Vadasz

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UK GREETINGS

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COLLECTIONS Displayed are three select designs from each collection. All new designs have been submitted in my 603 folder (summer placement and lisenced).

High Five competition submission

Each collection has a different design style and direction as I worked on the first for a competition, the second within UKG’s Humour department and the third in their core studios.

Humour

Core

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BRIEF For the final comission of 8 cards they wanted the High Five design style applied to the selected concepts, with an additional two new designs.

I began sketching new concepts and redesigning the cards, sending my progress to the director.

I then asked to design in house for a week to get real-time feedback and finish the collection.

Polly Vadasz

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UK GREETINGS

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PROCESS The original on the left was redesigned with the High Five collection’s style, and layouts changed until it worked best. This example shows how much a design was changed to fit the brief of UKG and what they thought was most sellable.

This change is interesting because they removed the ‘even though we live so far apart’ clause, which is what has made it so successful on my online shop. Many people on the internet have long distance friends or partners so buy the card for that niche. UKG wanted it to be as relatable as possible instead.

So apart from the visuals, there was back and forth with the editorial developemt too.

Polly Vadasz

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UK GREETINGS

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EXAMPLES PRE IN-HOUSE

Polly Vadasz

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Polly Vadasz

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THEMES Although I was asked for one new birthday and one new friendship design, after seeing the developing collection together they began to see two different tones of voice.

One ‘cutesy and friendly’ and one more ‘edgy humour’. I was encouraged to explore both further, but focus on ‘general birthday’ cards as that is their core focus in most greetings collections.

Polly Vadasz

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UK GREETINGS

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FINISHES

UKG’s mockups to show buyers

Digital gold foil mockups

I began mocking up the finishes, at first only considering gold foil as that is what I had used during the placement. However, when I arrived in house I saw the mocked up cards they had come up with.

They had used glitter to highlight the white clouds on the pale background, as well as raising elements. Finishes help eccentuate elements of the card as well as adding interest and value.

I spent a day experimenting with tools, advised by a member of the Humour department, learning how to mock up embossing and glittering. I had learned gold foil with a heat press previously.

Coloured glitter experiment

Proposed finishes for the final designs

Polly Vadasz

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UK GREETINGS

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COLOUR DEVELOPMENT The director was concerned that the collection’s colour scheme didn’t jump out enough. Greetings cards need to be seen amongst overwhelming competition on the shelves.

They provided their interpretation of the Pantone colour trend forcast for 2018, and I began updating the colour palette. This change surprised me as I had designed according to the High Five collection’s colour palette which was purposely subtle and feminine to compliment the ‘cutesy friendship’ theme.

Initial colour pallete followed by the new, bolder, Pantone inspired palette.

After viewing hundreds of their existing range in the showroom I felt the coloured background was too generic, even though bold alternate background colours would make the collection stand out.

Instead, I have proposed to keep the pale background, update the spot graphic colours according to the Pantone trends and add multiple finishes to create a refreshing feminine collection.

Polly Vadasz

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UK GREETINGS

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FINALS At this stage the final collection isn’t finished, as the cards will go through a further editing process before production. However, during the project so far I have produced 18 new card designs in response to UK Greeting’s art direction for their new ‘Kindred’ line.

I have finished each design with an emboss, raising improtant areas like major words and illustrations, used diamond glaze to add a gloss effect to major words and added glitter for excitement and added femininity.

Polly Vadasz

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Polly Vadasz

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Greetings cards harness visuals, writing and tactile finishes to affect viewers in specific ways. It is visual communication with commercial direction.

Through this project I was exposed to the numerous areas of consideration that go into greetings card development, and experienced working under a Creative Director as a freelance designer.

Editorial (writing humour driven content in accordance with pre determined themes) was key as they found I had a desirable tone of voice, (young, contemporary, funny truths) which will be curated into their new ‘Kindred’ line. From this I’ve gained confidence in my commercial ability/marketability, developing 18 approved cards.

However, it was sometimes surprising what they chose to cut out.

The ‘Far apart’ card was generalised, removing the concept of long distance friends/partners which made it niche, and resulted in a tame, cute, love card. Listing the designs on my online shop, I have been able to contrast UKG’s per-

Polly Vadasz

-spective with my best sellers. I’ve realised my writing style is better suited to smaller publishers who are willing to be more niche.

For example the final collection is much tamer than the initial Humour collection I designed over the summer, with jokes about waiting for inheritance money replaced with taunts about eating birthday cake, where my customers interact with the former much more. This understanding of where my practice sits within the industry will direct where I apply for future work; possibly to online retailers such as Ohh Deer.

I also found that my lack of experience lead my editorial to stray off theme into two areas: ‘cute friendship’ and ‘edgy humour’ as described by the CD. From seeing the way editorial is constantly rewritten and passed between departments and switched between illustrators depending on the target audience, I know that the ability to write editorial is a valuable skill within my practice to develop.

I should engage with the freelance

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humour briefs UKG emails out and learn to notice and self curate when ranges begin to stray.

Being shown the various developing lines by the CD taught me the importance of colour trends as a consideration. For example they noticed too many cards had white backgrounds so nothing popped out of the shelf. They showed me how the Pantone colours of the year could update ranges and how bold colours are often necessary in order to be picked up amongst competition. Similarly I got to experiment with the finishes available, and creating eye catching imagery by eventuating words or icons that were most important to the message, so that decorative elements became part of the communication.

I hope to continue developing my tone of voice to a point where it is distinctly my own, as that is where my interest in this field lies. The visuals will always be adapted according to trends but the underlaying concept is valuable.

UK GREETINGS

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