GCU Forum - new promo for new users

Lisa_133761

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Re: new promo for new users
Reply #60 - Feb 10^th, 2009, 5:32am

I completely agree with Corrie. All of this branding is over the top. A much smaller GCU logo is required and a simple link to the artists storefront is all that is needed. I think we are eliminating a lot of possible sales by having all of this branding.

We have amazing artists here and it should be very easy to attract big clients looking for professional products. With all of this clutter. it makes it easier for them to say "no thanks". I think that the logos should be left on the cards that are made by individuals with their own images (create your own card customers), but the professional artists should have a clean, streamlined presentation.

Just my 2 cents

Lisa

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DENISE_132110 Gold Member artist Posts: 769	Re: new promo for new users Reply #61 - Feb 10^th, 2009, 5:57am unzipping my mouth for one last thing i personally do not like all the different colors. i know the GCU logo is colorful but i would prefer the boc to be all one color, preferably black. that will aid in things looking less busy as well. okee dokee back to my previous state
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Pamela_135500

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Posts: 1945

Re: new promo for new users
Reply #62 - Feb 10^th, 2009, 6:05am

I agree with Tom in that the back has too blocks of things that don't seem to blend together and looks amateurish. My observations/suggestions;

I find my eye is immediately drawn to the 'mixed sources' logo first, my suggestion would be this needs to be much, much smaller and on the lower right of the back of the card. Those interested will look closely and recognize what it is.

I like the logo/photo feature BUT as Tom pointed out many are not good promotions of their store or GCU. Not sure how you approve/reject photos/logos without ruffling artistic sensibilities. Hence Corries suggestion of no photo, whilst made it me cry Nooooo! at first, could be the answer.

I think the GCU logo could remain in the middle but be smaller with the artist credits underneath, eg,

Card created by PamJArts
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/pamjarts

I would like to see the artist promoted distinctly as each artist needs repeat business or to gain a 'following' to be successful and for this to not be a tiny, lost credit note under the GCU logo. However, it has to coordinate with the logo in some way to be unobtrusive. Perhaps just a space or two below the logo would be sufficient, in the same color as the GCU URL?

My overall suggestion is keep all info in two areas of the card only- Center Back and lower right.

Look forward to seeing others suggestions,

Pamela

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Tom_133317

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Posts: 2169

Re: new promo for new users
Reply #63 - Feb 10^th, 2009, 7:26am

OK, gang. I bought a bunch of Retail cards a year ago, as I was getting started here at GCU, to check out how they designed certain things and what they charged. These make some good examples to study/discuss relative to the back of the card. Some of these cards have pen markings indicating where I bought them locally, so sorry for that.

The purpose is to study placement, sizing, spacing, and so forth of the various “parts”. These are 700 pixel wide examples that you can right-click save-as if you want to play around with an example to repost.

If other people have a card that they think has a unique aspect to it, scan it at 150dpi and email it to me. I will then add it into this post. (Such as one from the Recycled Card Company).

CARD 1: Attic Salt Card

CARD 2: American Greetings Card - Interesting

CARD 3: Greeting Place Note Card

CARD 4: French card with note about the paper used

CARD 5: Red Tree Note Card

CARD 6: Shade Tree Card ; Now this is a GOOD model to shoot for. Looks classy.

CARD 7: Northern Exposure in Landscape; kinda a large logo too.

CARD 8: Banter Card with small Recycled Paper stamp (no reason we can’t say that. Doesn’t need to be 100% recycled I don’t think.)

CARD 9: Carlton Card sold at Target

I frankly like Card 6 as a Model, and with the right approach, we can capture the GCU logo and the Artist info, but do it in a clean and classy way. Since the GCU motto is “Connecting Artists to Card Buyers, “ I would think something more than a URL is needed. Yes?

TOM

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stacy_136134

Junior Member
artist

Posts: 97

Re: new promo for new users
Reply #64 - Feb 10^th, 2009, 7:47am

Hello again Tom...it's the neighborhood pest! I just can't find anywhere in the forum to "start a new thread" to ask a question!!! It's like there is no button, no option for doing it. so frustrating! I understand your concepts here and really like how you take things in hand to try and better things here. your ideas always seem well thought out. So sorry I had to tag my question on here, it seems very rude, again...sorry.

I am wondering, being pretty new here, what should i expect in the way of sales? it seems as if i get very few visits, am i doing something wrong here? I am having the same situation at cafe press.
Maybe my style just doesn't sell. I am used to doing children's books but after 20 years of that I am really tired of it. However, things are getting dire on this end and will most likely be trying to find work out side the home by the first of the month. none of my clients are giving me work, these sites are not selling anything and with the economy and being freelance for 20 some years now i will most likely be waiting tables at 45 just to get by. Hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do...
Just thought some of the members would have some advice for me on getting anything to move here.

thanks, and sorry again for being so rude!
stacy

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Tom_133317 Gold Member artist Posts: 2169	Re: new promo for new users Reply #65 - Feb 10^th, 2009, 7:58am Stacy - I will send you a Private message. Watch for it to come up near the top of this page under the wide dark blue banner line. TOM
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Michelle_134835 Junior Member artist Posts: 67	Re: new promo for new users Reply #66 - Feb 10^th, 2009, 9:17am would love to see that we use recycled - I had one customer that suggested that we show that on the back of the card - green can be the way to go.... I think
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Tom_133317

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Posts: 2169

Re: new promo for new users
Reply #67 - Feb 10^th, 2009, 2:46pm

For fun, I generated a view taking into account a smaller GCU logo, a centered Artist Credits/URL with matching color and font, a centered official FSC logo, a copyright and address block, and a place to add a Card # (so shoppers can easily find this same card). These took ideas from the various cards I posted earlier. Not included were UPC and prices as we don't support those.

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DENISE_132110

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Posts: 769

Re: new promo for new users
Reply #68 - Feb 10^th, 2009, 3:11pm

thanks for taking the time to do this Tom but it is still too busy to my eye.

i can do without having my picture on the back, all i would like is my name or store link.
i still would like to see the GCU logo in one color throughout.
i could live with the FSC logo as you have it if it is about an inch in size.
i don't think the card number or the big dates and address are needed.

we need simple and to the point, uncluttered in a professional looking size and layout. give credits to the artist, gcu and FSC.

it is almost like the back is in competition with the front of the card and that is a mistake. if we are good at what we do and the companies involved are as well we don't have to shout it out at people they will take notice and look for us.

if you don't mind i will borrow yours and put in my two cents..... or four ....or so. this isn't full size so the fsc logo looks blurred. it could be a tiny bit larger probably. I think all the artists credits need to be in the same font, not try to match each artists font in their store. the artist name and store name could be in black instead of the gray it shows here, for that matter the GCU logo could go a little darker. if we do add our store link you do not need to put the www at the first of it. when i design business cards , i was told it was unnecessary to add that front portion. i am sure things are not totally centered i just threw this together very quickly

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Jan_(Gracey)_135660

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Posts: 147

Re: new promo for new users
Reply #69 - Feb 10^th, 2009, 3:59pm

Quote from DENISE_132110 on Feb 10^th, 2009, 3:11pm:

thanks for taking the time to do this Tom but it is still too busy to my eye.

i can do without having my picture on the back, all i would like is my name or store link.
i still would like to see the GCU logo in one color throughout.
i could live with the FSC logo as you have it if it is about an inch in size.
i don't think the card number or the big dates and address are needed.

we need simple and to the point, uncluttered in a professional looking size and layout. give credits to the artist, gcu and FSC.

it is almost like the back is in competition with the front of the card and that is a mistake. if we are good at what we do and the companies involved are as well we don't have to shout it out at people they will take notice and look for us.

if you don't mind i will borrow yours and put in my two cents..... or four ....or so. this isn't full size so the fsc logo looks blurred. it could be a tiny bit larger probably. I think all the artists credits need to be in the same font, not try to match each artists font in their store. the artist name and store name could be in black instead of the gray it shows here and if we do add our store link you do not need to put the www at the first of it. when i design business cards , i was told it was unnecessary to add that front portion. i am sure things are not totally centered i just threw this together very quickly

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g51/holstonmtn/testcard.jpg

This is almost the same as I uploaded a page back, though I had the shop links on it. I could live without the shop name, but I definitely would like the link to my shop on my cards, otherwise nobody would find it.

I like your sizing better tho...the smaller the logo designs, the better I think.

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DENISE_132110 Gold Member artist Posts: 769	Re: new promo for new users Reply #70 - Feb 10^th, 2009, 4:01pm sorry gracey i didn't see it , i read through very quickly. i will go look also gracey they can go to the main page and put gracey in the search box and your cards will come up. not your homepage but cards that would link to it.
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Nasser_16

GCU Administrator
CEO

Posts: 152

Re: new promo for new users
Reply #71 - Feb 10^th, 2009, 5:10pm

This is pretty amazing and so powerful, it makes me proud that we have a community that works together so well and can hash out great ideas

Downside is it may be difficult to make everyone happy as the opinions and tastes vary, and there may not be a "perfect solution".

Here are some parameters to keep in mind for the back of the card. The right top and right bottom corners are used by our printing partner and are mandatory. This makes the middle top or middle bottom spoken for as well since we can't risk things flowing into the restricted areas. So this leaves the top left, bottom left and the center middle available to us.

My personal thoughts are as follows. We never received any complaints regarding the back of the card before introducing the "free card" promotion. A simple solution is to leave that area, top left, blank again and be done with it. However, we thought that it was a big plus to convey that we're doing our share to help with the environment. Chances that the FSC message is going to be received in a negative regard are slim.

As for the appearance, we have seen a multitude of different card backings. As Tom exhibits, they range from simple to busy. We prefer to keep the artist information the same since it gets the message across that these are everyday artists and we're doing something different than what the traditional card makers have done in the past. Agreed that some of the artist images need to be more professional. Currently those images do not go through a review process. It is left to each artist to use good taste and discretion. That image is your calling card so to speak so it is in your best interest to have an appealing profile image. All artists do have the option of suppressing the image from the BOC.

I'm suggesting that we leave the boc "as is" for a few weeks to see if we get any positive/negative feedback. It will also give most of you a chance to look at a real sample. We can then revisit if the FSC logo should be smaller, different color or totally removed. Since we are not directly the FSC approved party we do have to operate within certain limits in regard to their seal usage.

Thanks,
Nasser

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Catinka_133492

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Posts: 143

Re: new promo for new users
Reply #72 - Feb 10^th, 2009, 5:16pm

One thing that I think would add so much to the back of the card is a little blurb about the image or the artist, for instance a portion of the card's 'artist notes'. People love to know the narrative behind what they're buying. If these cards are also starting to end up in stores selling at a retail level, such stories would help sell the card. Especially if the cards have so many different stories, which they do because there are so many different artists. It would mean even more approval/editing though. I encourage people to consider such a possibility.

http://www.catinkacards.com

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Tom_133317 Gold Member artist Posts: 2169	Re: new promo for new users Reply #73 - Feb 13^th, 2009, 9:55am Found a Hallmark Card to add to the mix. Seems virtually all commercial cards have: 1. Centered Logo 2. Copyright label and Company Name 3. Made in USA 4. City, State, Zip 5. URL 6. Card Ref # 7. Price(s) 8. Space for UPC
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Kathy_135811

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Posts: 623

Re: new promo for new users
Reply #74 - Feb 13^th, 2009, 10:19am

I like Denise's image. It is simple and professional. And, while we may be "everyday" artists creating cards, we still want to look professional. If they want to know more about us, they can look at our store in GCU. But, I also like the part about the FSC. It appeals to the "green" side of so many people, including myself, nowadays.

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