Christmas Card Design

Now I'm definitely on an Illustration course there is absolutely no escaping creating my Mothers Christmas card design.

Here's the development of my final image:

I went through quite a lot of tests and different drawings before I even got to this stage, it can be hard to decide what to do when you have such an open brief. I redrew and re-rendered the moose several times, I think that the final one is one of the better ones, and I'm pleased that for once I pushed myself to do this. My 'client' wasn't fond of my repetitive tree background, so I changed it in the end. Those designs weren't the nest for a number of reasons, they didn't quite work. The Moose was just sort of floating and the text didn't really stand out clearly enough in the red. I'm not overly fond of the background colour choice, but this could come down more to personal preference, the colour does work quite successfully with the card, although weather it speaks of Christmas is very debatable. I actually am quite please with the way the type, or image as type worked out. It reflects and adds to the general tone of voice of the card and its imagery, and probably looks a bit more professional (weirdly) than whatever font either me or my mother would have chosen - font is definitely something I have almost no experience with at all.

The Final Design

We generally corresponded over email, as I was putting the design together in photoshop I would take a screenshot of potential final artworks, or just the general development of the image, and then I would base my decisions on what changes I would make next from the feedback I received. Generally they were little requests or changes they would like made, I found this a relatively fast and easy way to work with a client, however it did take quite a long tome towards the end when it came to what format they wanted it sent in and file sizes. Production wise this project is very easy for me as she already has a company that she will use to print my artwork onto cards. This is probably the more practical and economic way, definitely with regards to my time, as she needs in excess of 100 cards, and this also gives my work such a professional finish which is exciting.

I also developed on the repetitive tree pattern on request for 'gift tags'. 

I tidied up the tree's and experimented with some textural backgrounds.

Coming back to this now after Christmas, it was nice to see my card in so many relatives and family friends homes, but I would say that it's certainly a design that does look better on screen. Perhaps in the future I will find a way to make them more impactfully textural.