- 7 Reasons to Send a Greeting Card
- 5 Design Criteria for a Beautiful Greeting Card
- 4 Online Card Makers
Even in the digital age, people value postcards more than congratulations on social media as verified by 8 out of 10 respondents. To show your attention to business partners, customers, family, or friends, create a personalized greeting card. Read the article to learn how to do that.
7 Reasons to Send a Greeting Card
In business, greeting cards can be used to attract partners and customers, and in everyday life to congratulate the loved ones. The reasons may be different and range from public holidays (season-related occasions) to private celebrations (event-related occasions) like birthdays or weddings.
1. Birthday
The most popular event-based reason for sending a greeting card. The design of such cards leaves boundless room for imagination. Use any creative tools that the birthday person may like from dark jokes to romantic poems.
2. Mother’s Day
This international holiday is traditionally celebrated on the second Sunday of May. This is the day to pay attention to mothers, grandmothers, godparents, sisters, aunts, and other women you care about. As a rule, postcards are decorated in pastel colors, with floral patterns and script fonts.
3. Wedding
What’s interesting is that in the USA, nearly two-thirds of wedding cards are hand-delivered. Besides, their design is of particular importance. Traditionally, they are decorated in white, golden, and pink colors and personalized with the help of monograms (signs composed of several letters). Complicated types of monograms include intertwining letters, ornate decorations, and complex graphics).
4. Thanksgiving Day
One of the main holidays in the United States is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. Traditionally, postcards are decorated in warm autumn colors (yellow and orange) and often feature the symbols of Thanksgiving that are served for dinner on this day: a turkey and a pumpkin.
5. St. Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day cards are the second most popular. Of course, the main attribute of these cards is the heart, and the color is red.
6. Christmas
The most popular seasonal cards are decorated in various styles: with drawings and photos, animals and landscapes, Christmas trees and bells. The room for creativity is boundless. Green, red, silver and golden colors are most often used to design the Christmas and New Year greeting cards.
7. Halloween
All Hallows’ Eve is celebrated every year on October 31. Halloween cards are most often decorated in a humorous style featuring the popular holiday characters (vampires, witches, zombies, and black cats) or attributes (pumpkins, spider webs, and skulls). The traditional colors are orange and black.
5 Design Criteria for a Beautiful Greeting Card
Creating a personalized card allows total creative freedom from choosing the size to illustrations. Please note that all the design elements must convey the same message, i.e. stick to the same style. A humorous picture won’t look harmonious with a strict serif font as well as an official portrait with ornate patterns. Don’t t forget to consider beforehand what type of card you will need – an electronic or a printed one.
1. Size and Shape
The choice of the size depends on how many elements you want to place in the layout. They mustn’t be piled up. The style of congratulation will determine its shape: for example, a standard rectangular card will be suitable for business partners, a modern square-shaped one for a friend on his birthday, and a folded one for weddings.
2. Colors and Fonts
The card is created according to classic design rules: simplicity, minimalism, and consistency with the general style of the congratulation.
Avoid mixing more than three colors within a small area and make sure that they match each other. We advise you to use the Adobe color wheel for palette generation.
When choosing fonts opt for a maximum of two outlines, especially if you have no design experience. Remember that the font conveys the mood of the text: a serif font for serious and official purposes, a sans serif one for informal situations, a script one for creative and playful writing.
3. Logo
A logo is a must in any business communication, including holiday greetings for clients and partners. Start with locating it on the layout: the logo should be clearly visible, but not dominant in design. Consider the contrast so that the logo can be seen against the background. The ZenBusiness online generator will help create a logo from scratch and choose the right colors for it.
4. Images
Using photos, illustrations, graphics, or a combination of them is up to you. However, remember that any pictures must be of high quality, especially if you are going to print a card. Choose the images that match the overall color palette.
5. Text
No matter you are writing a long greeting or a short one or composing poems, be creative. Avoid cliches to make the text sincere. You can get inspired by other greeting cards, songs, books, or movies.
4 Online Card Makers
No ideas or experience in design? Online services will help you create a greeting card quickly and easily. Use the ready-made templates or design the layout from scratch – the whole process takes a few minutes.
Spark.Adobe
Start with the size: specify one of the scales offered by the service or enter your own parameters. Then select the desired template and personalize it. Upload a photo (from your computer or the Adobe stock collection), choose a professional font, and add graphics. Save the image and use it for any purpose: print it out or place it directly on your social media profile.
Canva
The service library contains thousands of professional templates for any holiday: choose one or create a layout from scratch. Then upload your own photo or use the Canva Library with over 2 million beautiful images.
You only need to add text (the service offers about 130 fonts to choose from), change the background and colors – and the card is ready. Canva allows you not only to download it to your computer but also to immediately order the professional printing of the card on the selected paper.
Greetingsisland
The toolset of the service is simple. Its users are offered to choose from various design solutions and add their text and photos. You can download the finished postcard in PDF or send it via e-mail.
Fotor
The service helps you create a greeting card in a few simple steps, and namely: choosing a theme or developing a layout from scratch, customizing the design, deciding on the format and size, and finally saving the file. Fotor’s toolset contains everything you need for creativity: a variety of fonts and graphics, photo effects and filters, and the ability to edit photos.
