To start my initial research I have visited five card shops and drawn some comparisons. Starting with Paperchase I then made my way around to Parchment, Clintons, M&S and Waterstones. All the outlets sold the generic list of cards from Happy Birthday to Merry Christmas, with a few specifics in-between such as anniversaries or age related birthday cards.
From my visits I would say that Paperchase is the most adventurous when it comes to specific titled cards, these included; Just for you; Hi; Sorry it’s late; Happy Anniversary; Miss you; Thank you; Thinking of you; Congratulations; Fingers crossed; as well as Specific age for birthdays. M&S had specific collections too: ‘For Her’ and ‘For Him’ which featured friendship and birthday related cards, which I found interesting because they were gender specific in colours and imagery. Throughout the M&S range the same themes cropped up in their selection as paperchase including Anniversary related cards; Wedding; Engagement; and New Baby. Thank You, Well Done, New Home, Just to Say, Warm Thoughts, Retirement, Sorry, Hope you’re Feeling Better.Parchment was much the same as the above shops featuring Mr. & Mrs., New Baby, Thank You, Hugs, and New Job; Nothing particularly new or outstanding in terms of topics.Clintons again only featured a small range of topics including Sympathy, Milestones, and you’ve moved. But these seemed a poorer selection in comparison to the above shops. Waterstones however sold only cards that came from artists such as MATT, Quentin Blake or the V&A amongst others. These seemed to give an intellectual status to their audience but at the same time the majority would be able to relate to them in some way whether it be through a book illustration that’s featured on the card, or a famous piece of artwork. This reflects the shops audience of course.
All of the shops sold blank cards and to me these seemed most interesting / appealing because the artwork is so free; it doesn’t have to relate to a specific generic card topic such as an anniversary or a thought.
If I were to pick out a favourite theme from a card that I have seen in these shops it would most likely be ‘I Miss You’, this I liked because I can relate to it and it seemed a bit of a niche topic. This could be a good factor because it could always be expanded. Or it could be a bad one, however, because it is relating to a niche audience for a card range.
Looking at the more physical aspect of the card ranges art work, I found it was again paperchase who seemed out in front being the most experimental. Their cards ranged from featuring Paper stencil to Hand Painted, Collage to Classic illustrated cartoons, Vintage photos to Lino printed, and typographic fronts. All of these gave the cards a new dimension and will definitely be considered when I create my own range.
If I were to pick out a physical type of card that I liked it would be a strong quality paper/card with a hand painted aspect. This is because it appeals to me and it’s something that I can achieve myself and is therefore influential.
I noticed that all of the shops I looked into sold a selection of notecards, mainly in packets of 4, 6 or 8 featuring either a series of relating images or just one image that appeared across all of the cards. Notably these were all blank inside which meant that in terms of artwork appearing on the ranges, it allowed a freedom that meant it just had to appeal or relate to a series of works. I know that in my brief I am designing and creating a card range that rules out notecards, but potentially in the future this would be something to consider.
Reoccurring themes throughout the shops happened to not only be card topics, but messages inside. These were either the generic ‘Happy Birthday’ or ‘Merry Christmas’ depending on the gender of the card.
From this research I have realised that there are common themes that everyone is familiar and comfortable with, which makes me want to push the market place and pursue a new topic relating to and potentially capitalizing on an already made theme. This works well with the topic I have in mind – ‘I Wish You Were Here’ – which would be taken from the theme of ‘I Miss You’ as stated earlier.
‘I Wish You Were Here’ congers up images of warmth and homeliness when you’re apart from a loved one.
Hello Nathan,
Glad to hear you're interested in taking part in the
brief we set. Sorry
it's taken a while to reply, I've just had your email
forwarded on to me,
and I'll be happy to help with any queries you may
have.
The brief is still live, and the deadline for
submissions is 6pm on Thursday
14th March 2013, so you have plenty of time! See the
link below:
This brief has been set through the YCN, so any
submissions should be sent
through them.
However, if you did wish to submit any designs
unrelated to the brief, or
any unformatted artworks, there is a section on our
website, where, once
submitted, they get distributed to the creative
directors of each brand.
Hope that helps,
Enjoy the brief!
Catherine
--
Catherine Dodd
Creative Director Carlton
Tel +(0)1924 465200
Ext 2740
UK Greetings Ltd, Mill Street East, Dewsbury, West
Yorkshire WF12 9AW
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