Greeting Card Design

I've had the joy of illustrating a lot of children's greeting cards lately. Although I love drawing just about anything, children's art is one of my favorites. I really enjoy planning the idea of what I want to illustrate as well as actually creating the art. Here's a girls Valentine's Day card...(go figure with all the hearts, right)! that I recently made for Gartner Greetings. 

In this post, I thought I'd share some information that I've learned in my 10 years as a greeting card planner and designer. I hope this helps you on your journey into the fun world of greeting cards! 

©Gartner Greetings (greeting card rights)

Cover Art

With greeting cards you have to remember that you need to leave room for a title and maybe a subtitle on the cover art. It is always best when you can plan the words to fit well within the design of the card. Here on the cover art, I left room at the top middle to top right for a one line title, like 'Granddaughter' or ''Daughter', for example. I also planned space inside the big heart for a subtitle. I felt that that was a nice way to work the words into the design of the card. It's like the girl kitty painted the words inside the heart.

The reason why it is important to have a title at the top third of the card is because that is what the buyer will see when the card is sitting on a rack in a store. If the card is not seen, then it is not sold. And most of the time people look for cards they want to buy, by looking at the titles that they fall under. Like Mother, Husband, Birthday, etc.

©Gartner Greetings (greeting card rights)

Inside Art

Inside the card, I created spot art to go around the words that are on both pages 2 and 3. I left the background white because I felt that it was a nice contrast to the pink background on the cover and it also allows the words to be very legible. With greeting cards, the words are just as important if not more important than the art. Have you ever picked-up a greeting card because you loved the art, but then put it back because the message inside wasn't right for the person you wanted to send it to?! 

I hope to share with you more greeting card information in my up-coming blog posts. Good luck with your greeting card art!