If you’re reading this you’re perhaps already producing some cards yourself or are thinking about it. I would suggest a good place to begin is to have a think about what sort of greeting cards you want to produce?
I do a mix of art cards and occasion cards, I started with Art Cards, this is just reproducing my paintings onto greeting cards, then I started to think about the main occasions and distracted myself somewhere in the middle with a collection of general humour cards. There’s no right or wrong way to start, but don’t feel like you have to do them all or everything at once, having a starting point can be very helpful in moving from thinking about it to doing it.
What Categories?
Art Cards - these are your artworks reproduced onto greeting cards, your target market is most likely galleries, garden centres and independent card and gift shops, plus your own online shop or marketplace (think Etsy), with the aim of attracting a new audience for your work
Everyday Cards - often general humour, niche interest or generic slogan cards, your market here are people who send cards to others on not only the main occasions but also ‘just because’, you know, those people who have a carrier bag or dedicated drawer of cards so they always have something in for the right occasion. My Mum used to have a drawer full to the brim of cards, for ‘just in case’ moments.
Occasion cards - All your main events, Birthdays, Anniversaries, Congratulations, Sympathy, this list is huge but Birthday card sales outstrip all others
There are other categories like handmade cards, hand finished and die cut cards but I wanted to start with the basics, plus I’m no expert. Experienced, yes, but do I know absolutely everything there is to know? No I don’t.
Do you want to work in a niche?
I work in the niche world of dog lovers, with some cats allowed. A niche has helped me contain my imagination and provide some welcome boundaries for my busy brain.
I didn’t start like this though, in the beginning I did all animals and a bit of everything, the niche happened after a few years but it’s something you might find useful and it’s certainly helped me with a few business decisions going forward (more on these in future posts), keep it in mind
What size?
It’s generally good practice to pick one size of card and stick with it, it’ll be easier for you to manage in the long run, and should you have stockists that regularly order they will not be so happy if you keep changing your card dimensions.
As you can see I chose square, a lot of my artwork is also square, I am drawn to square artwork in general.
There’s a but coming…pick a size that suits your work and that you like, a square is not a good size if you want to target the US at some point, a square card is classed as a non-standard shape in the US and it costs more to post, whereas in the UK it’s within the standard postage range.
These are the most commonly used standard greeting card card sizes (in the UK)
105 x 150 mm landscape or portrait
120 x 170 mm landscape or portrait
125 x 125 mm square
127 x 177 mm landscape or portrait
150 x 150 mm square (this is the size I use)
Specialist greeting card printers will support all these sizes and general printers like Vistaprint or Printed.com will have most of these too.
What colour envelope?
Do give some thought to what colour envelopes you will use, is your work in a mainly blue palette and a yellow or orange envelope will really make the card pop when displayed on a shelf or in a spinner?
This is an important consideration if you are thinking you will end up doing trade fairs, anything that will help attract a buyer to your stand is worth making a note of and envelopes can be a useful tool in attracting their eyes to your work.
An envelope can really frame a card image, this is an older range where I made use of coloured envelopes. Do you have a brand colour you’d like to incorporate? Currently, I use a dark grey envelope for all my ranges, and I’ve reverted back to plain white for my colorful cards.
What Board?
There’s a lot of choice out there of different textures and weight of card to have your designs printed on. Even with Vistaprint you have choices.
When you come to choose a printer to work with they will be able to provide you with sample cards and more importantly provide proof prints of your designs on different boards so you can see what works best.
I work with The Imaging Centre in Kent, but I started with Printed.com and this year I used Vistaprint for some last minute Easter cards and the quality was excellent.
If you’d like a comprehensive sample book you can buy these from G. F Smith, one of the main suppliers of different boards in the UK, for £40 and they have a free sample service if you want to pick just a few to see what they look and feel like.
Naked or Wrapped?
If you are very much into sustainability then there’s no question your cards will be naked which means they do not come in a cello bag.
Instead, you can use sticker clips, sometimes referred to as card clasps (be careful with these, they can leave residue and sometimes damage the card when removing), paper bands or card corners to keep envelope and card together.
There is no doubt that there is more chance of damage to your cards when shipping so extra care is needed when packing up cards to send. Some stockists are still not 100% happy about naked cards because of, wait for it, dust!
“When they discover a cure for dust, then I’ll be happy to go naked!”
Cards don’t sell out immediately, they are sold in packs of 6 and can hang around for weeks, sometimes months, a cello bag is the perfect way to protect your cards.
So, what do I use? Whilst I’m all for going naked, I have 2 very loyal stockists that I‘ve been supplying for 8-10 years. They have issues with dust and do not order from companies who do naked-only cards, so I use compostable cello bags that can go in the food bin and will naturally degrade, if a stockist requests naked cards, I can offer that, so there are options.
I hope you’ve found this useful, please like and share, next week I’ll be covering some research tips and a whole list of resources, before moving onto pricing.
My time is a bit limited which is why all comments and the Greeting Card Chat thread, are behind the paywall, if you upgrade to paid you’ll be able to access me directly and I can answer any questions you might have.
I am publishing my own cards and I have sold many hundreds to customers directly at markets etc but none wholesale as yet.
Since I discovered your blog, which was through The Design Trust emails I think it lead me here. I have learned so many interesting and helpful things.
I design botanically inspired cards and wrapping paper. Your posts are very timely for me I feel so grateful that you are writing about what nobody else is!
It also gives me a very good impression about the friendliness of the industry in general.