GCU Forum - NEW - Custom Front Cards / Photo Cards & Text

Kathy_131728

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Re: NEW - Custom Front Cards / Photo Cards & Text
Reply #150 - Aug 31^st, 2011, 5:56am

I have not made any photo cards in a few days, but this a.m. I was trying to change the image on older photo cards and then update with text on front. It has been a nightmare just trying to do one. For some reason when I try to save the text, it does not save when I hit the save button. Eventually, I was able to convince the text to show up--even though it never looked like it saved it. Also, the generating preview is taking forever. Previously, this was not taking all that long. I have a high speed internet connection (using IE9 and a PC) and would expect it to load much quicker...I even just left in the middle because it was taking too long. I think I will abandon my efforts for now in the hopes that it will be quicker a little later in the day. Thanks for listening.
Kathy

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« Last Edit: Aug 31^st, 2011, 7:24am by Kathy_131728 »

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Kathleen_137290

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Posts: 498

Re: NEW - Custom Front Cards / Photo Cards & Text
Reply #151 - Aug 31^st, 2011, 7:14am

Hi Shaun,
Just tried to update a graduation photo card and I'm still getting the photo off from where I placed it after enlarging it. Card #598723. It looks fine until I "view card preview" where it shows up not centered in the card's photo frame as I had arranged it. I was sure to save at each step. The final version is also off.

All text was working fine.

Using Firefox 6.0 all (updated) on Mac 10.5.8

Thanks,
Kati

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Kathy_131728 Gold Member artist Posts: 610	Re: NEW - Custom Front Cards / Photo Cards & Text Reply #152 - Aug 31^st, 2011, 9:29am Just wanted to let you know it seems to be behaving better now.
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Lora_133020

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Posts: 19

Re: NEW - Custom Front Cards / Photo Cards & Text
Reply #153 - Aug 31^st, 2011, 12:13pm

Quote from Doreen_137017 on Aug 10^th, 2011, 1:07pm:

Sheryl,

Looks like this question was answered by Mindy on another thread, you might want to check it out.

http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/forum/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1312893916/5#5

My question is similar to this but regarding the year. Like "Happy 2011" . Can we put "Happy 20XX" instead? This way the customer can customize it, but it will not become obsolete in a year and need to be redone.

Whatcha think?
L

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Penny_134243

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Posts: 1337

Re: NEW - Custom Front Cards / Photo Cards & Text
Reply #154 - Aug 31^st, 2011, 12:33pm

Quote from Lora_133020 on Aug 31^st, 2011, 12:13pm:

Quote from Doreen_137017 on Aug 10^th, 2011, 1:07pm:

Sheryl,

Looks like this question was answered by Mindy on another thread, you might want to check it out.

http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/forum/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1312893916/5#5

My question is similar to this but regarding the year. Like "Happy 2011" . Can we put "Happy 20XX" instead? This way the customer can customize it, but it will not become obsolete in a year and need to be redone.

Whatcha think?
L

Lora, this is a great question. I've been wondering the same thing. I don't know about X's, but it is certainly a solution. I've made some cards with the date (wedding + baby announcements) and thought to myself, 'I'm going to have to remember to update these later.'

Nothing looks worse than going to browse the photo cards (or any cards for that matter) only to see that they're "years" old. (I looked at some photo cards on other sites and there was text from 2009!) It doesn't give the customer the impression that these are fresh designs, now does it?

Yes, what to do about this?

Again, thanks for bringing this up!

Penny

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Doreen_137017

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Re: NEW - Custom Front Cards / Photo Cards & Text
Reply #155 - Aug 31^st, 2011, 2:49pm

On Zazzle, I often use 2020. I started out like many do on Zazzle using the XX and Your Name Here, I've got to tell you customers are not drawn to that. I sell much better on personalized items using real information. The reason I use 2020 on Zazzle is because it looks better than 20XX and it's in the future rather than the past. The issue is that Zazzle does not allow you to change that type of information without deleting and creating a new card, so you lose the place its moved up to via sale and searches.

On GCU however, we can change the image each year without losing it's statistics, so here I use the real year for the same reason. People are much more likely to visual and purchase if its realistic.

That's what I do

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Mindy

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Re: NEW - Custom Front Cards / Photo Cards & Text
Reply #156 - Sep 1^st, 2011, 10:53am

Quote from Mindy on Aug 4^th, 2011, 3:35pm:

Today we are announcing a new card creation process that enables artists to create Custom Front Cards allowing shoppers to customize the front card images and text on their own! The first introduction of this process is Custom Photo Cards (with an option to customize text). Soon after we'll release a Custom Front for text only option.

Big benefits! This will take artists out of the loop of customizing photo cards and minimize wait time for shoppers. Also this will allow GCU to readily offer a collection of Photo Cards for 3rd party sales. It is clear that customizable cards is a fast growing trend for card shoppers and GCU needs to be a player in this space.

Starting September 1st, GCU will be:
1. Introducing a new shopper Custom Front interface allowing shoppers to customize these cards on their own
2. Taking down all “old style” photo cards and returning them to artists for edits. These are photo cards that have been created and uploaded to GCU to date. Please consider revising these existing photo cards (updating them with the new PNG format) and creating new ones for all occasions and holidays with this new process. We will provide specific instructions in a separate post on how to easily revise existing cards without having to go through the entire create a card process from scratch.
3. Moving all new style photo cards from Private to Public (*see below)

BEFORE September 1st:
We are currently working with a national photo retailer to feature GCU Photo Card content on their store kiosks. In order for your photo cards to be considered for this partner’s 2011 winter holiday sales we are putting a specific call out for new photo cards in the following categories that need to be created AND approved BEFORE 9/1. They will begin their selection process starting August 15th so hurry, the early bird catches the worm! * Up until 9/1 new Custom Front cards will be auto-set for Private and automatically get expedited review:
- Halloween
- Thanksgiving
- Christmas (religious and non religious)
- Season’s Greetings
- Hanukkah
- Kwanzaa
- New Year’s

Important Steps in the new process:
1. Create your card design with transparent areas (for photo insertion) and upload in PNG format (JPG is not accepted for Custom Front Cards)
2. In the Create a Card process note a new field, “Card Front” with options Standard and Custom. Choose Custom.
3. Next are 3 steps to define the Custom Front process:
a. define the transparent area(s) zone where the photo(s) should be placed
b. select and position a stock place holder image (from GCU’s provided collection)
c. define and create custom text (optional)
4. Until 9/1 all Custom Front cards will be auto-set to Private for expedited review & reside in Private Galleries until we introduce the Custom Front shopper interface scheduled for 9/1
5. Note: different than before, new card images with custom content (photos and/or text) that you upload to GCU should NOT have any place holder or instructional text like “contact artist” or “your photo here” on the image.

The following video from GCUWiki.com demonstrates the process for creating a Custom Front card: http://www.gcuwiki.com/gcuu.html

Please let us know if you have any questions and looking forward to your new creations!

And as usual please let us know if you notice any odd happenings or gremlins.

UPDATE: We are in the process of final testing of the shopper custom front interface that will allow shoppers to do the customization themselves on these new cards.

We have pushed the 9/1 date out to Wed, 9/7 at Noon PST.

New Custom Front cards will go live from Private to Public and old photo cards offline at that time.

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Oma_132016 Full Member artist Posts: 240	Re: NEW - Custom Front Cards / Photo Cards & Text Reply #157 - Sep 1^st, 2011, 6:27pm Thanks for the update Mindy!!!
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Cherie_131661

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Posts: 464

Re: NEW - Custom Front Cards / Photo Cards & Text
Reply #158 - Sep 3^rd, 2011, 9:44pm

"2. Taking down all “old style” photo cards and returning them to artists for edits. These are photo cards that have been created and uploaded to GCU to date. Please consider revising these existing photo cards (updating them with the new PNG format) and creating new ones for all occasions and holidays with this new process. We will provide specific instructions in a separate post on how to easily revise existing cards without having to go through the entire create a card process from scratch."

Do I need to make a list of the old style photo cards I'd like returned? I've been waiting for them to be returned, nothing yet! I've got quite a few and it sure would streamline things for me in reformatting/revising them to png files!

Thanks so much for your time,
Cherie

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Doreen_137017

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Posts: 5328

Re: NEW - Custom Front Cards / Photo Cards & Text
Reply #159 - Sep 4^th, 2011, 7:28am

Quote from Cherie_131661 on Sep 3^rd, 2011, 9:44pm:

"2. Taking down all “old style” photo cards and returning them to artists for edits. These are photo cards that have been created and uploaded to GCU to date. Please consider revising these existing photo cards (updating them with the new PNG format) and creating new ones for all occasions and holidays with this new process. We will provide specific instructions in a separate post on how to easily revise existing cards without having to go through the entire create a card process from scratch."

Do I need to make a list of the old style photo cards I'd like returned? I've been waiting for them to be returned, nothing yet! I've got quite a few and it sure would streamline things for me in reformatting/revising them to png files!

Thanks so much for your time,
Cherie

Hi Cherie, I already updated all mine ... I saw no reason to wait for them to be returned, I'd rather fix them and have them go live along with the new ones. Less work for the review team to just get going on revising them, the revised cards will automatically go into Private status along with the new ones.

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Cherie_131661

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Posts: 464

Re: NEW - Custom Front Cards / Photo Cards & Text
Reply #160 - Sep 5^th, 2011, 6:43am

Quote from Doreen_137017 on Sep 4^th, 2011, 7:28am:

Quote from Cherie_131661 on Sep 3^rd, 2011, 9:44pm:

"2. Taking down all “old style” photo cards and returning them to artists for edits. These are photo cards that have been created and uploaded to GCU to date. Please consider revising these existing photo cards (updating them with the new PNG format) and creating new ones for all occasions and holidays with this new process. We will provide specific instructions in a separate post on how to easily revise existing cards without having to go through the entire create a card process from scratch."

Do I need to make a list of the old style photo cards I'd like returned? I've been waiting for them to be returned, nothing yet! I've got quite a few and it sure would streamline things for me in reformatting/revising them to png files!

Thanks so much for your time,
Cherie

Hi Cherie, I already updated all mine ... I saw no reason to wait for them to be returned, I'd rather fix them and have them go live along with the new ones. Less work for the review team to just get going on revising them, the revised cards will automatically go into Private status along with the new ones.

I saw no reason to wait either, I updated the ones that I could. Unfortunately, I don't have all of those files any longer, as the computer that had these designs on it crashed about a year ago.

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Mindy

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Community Manager

Posts: 6537
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Re: NEW - Custom Front Cards / Photo Cards & Text
Reply #161 - Sep 6^th, 2011, 4:18pm

Here are some recent clarifications and guidelines for Custom Front card creation:

We will allow photo cards and custom front cards to be created along the same guidelines as regular, non custom front, cards. This means that although shoppers can change the text on the cover of a custom front card and essentially make it into anything they want, artists can still create more than one version of that card to allow for good exposure within the related categories and search. This will give fair exposure to both custom front cards and traditional “fixed front” cards.

All of the same card submission guidelines apply however with these exceptions for Photo Cards:
1. Photo Cards will be allowed the same design in both orientation (horizontal & vertical) in addition to the 3x rules (often shoppers have a specific photo they want to work with).
2. Reviewers will be MORE stringent on making sure designs are appropriate for the occasion, age, gender, relation, etc. Not a one size fits all approach
3. Photo Cards must reside in at least 1 >> Photo Card / Your Picture Here category
4. A different placeholder photo does not make your design a different card, you must change something in the design or text

Note that creating multiple cards with custom fronts from the same basic design is easier than creating multiple cards with fixed fronts since you do not have to create and upload a new file but use the same file and just change the custom front text. However you are limited on design tools and fonts with custom fronts vs fixed front designs, so there’s a tradeoff.

Please also note these new Marketability Guidelines specific to Photo Cards. Designs should:

1. Be creative, compositions should use creative and appropriate framing/treatment around or enhancing the photo. Specifically: Photo area should serve as the focal point of the overall design. Compositional emphasis should be on the photo, not other elements on the card. In other words, the design shouldn’t look like the artist took an existing greeting card, and shoehorned a photo on it. Preferably, smaller photo areas should be framed in a way that makes sense with the rest of the design. Shape of photo area, if not generic (circle, square, rectangle) should be in keeping with the purpose of the card (for example, a Christmas tree shaped area on a Valentine’s Day card would be in error).

2. Maximize the photo size as the focal point. Specifically: Entire photo area (a single photo or multiple photos) should ideally use 1/3 to 1/2 of the card’s surface. Exceptions will be made for exceptional designs.

3. NOT a one size fits all approach. If design is used to create multiple cards, elements should vary and be appropriate by occasion, age, relation, gender

Please let us know if you have any questions.

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Oma_132016 Full Member artist Posts: 240	Re: NEW - Custom Front Cards / Photo Cards & Text Reply #162 - Sep 6^th, 2011, 5:30pm Thanks for new guidelines on the Custom Front Cards Mindy. Just one question for now... is the deadline date still on for tomorrow??? Because if it is, then I don't think that I have alot of time to adjust and add new cards to my Custom Front list. Oma.
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Joan_135833

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Posts: 591

Re: NEW - Custom Front Cards / Photo Cards & Text
Reply #163 - Sep 6^th, 2011, 5:30pm

Hi, Mindy,

I would like to ask if it would be considered a terrible imposition to submit a rather lengthy list of category modification requests at this particular moment. I have updated the several dozen old-style photo cards that I had and realized that they are all in photo card categories, which were the only ones permitted before. Now that we have the possibility of using one category in a more defined or descriptive fashion (which I happily applied to all the new photo cards I've made) but cannot make this change ourselves, may we request these adjustments? Or, should we perhaps wait until a more opportune time? And, what would the best procedure be? Any guidance on this point would be greatly appreciated.

I think it's remarkable, this brave new world that GCU is entering. The process has been incredible, the programmers and everybody have been doing wonderful magic - I find it all quite exciting and feel as if we're poised on the brink of something great! Wonderful to be a part of it.

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Mindy

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Posts: 6537
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Re: NEW - Custom Front Cards / Photo Cards & Text
Reply #164 - Sep 6^th, 2011, 5:34pm

Quote from Oma_132016 on Sep 6^th, 2011, 5:30pm:

Thanks for new guidelines on the Custom Front Cards Mindy.

Just one question for now... is the deadline date still on for tomorrow??? Because if it is, then I don't think that I have alot of time to adjust and add new cards to my Custom Front list.

Oma.

The move is still planned for 9/7 at noon however you can still submit custom front cards after that date.

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