Well this seems like one for Mindy -
 
However it does seem like a connundrum - do you complain about the two that were turned down when one was approved and risk having the approved one pulled too? Or do you shut up?
 
Were there different reviewers?
 
 

Amanda,
 
I feel for you!  The inconsistency among the reviewers is frustrating to us as artists and though a select few bandwaggoners tout this system as working like a charm, I'm on the same page with most artists that it isn't exactly a perfect system.
 
As for this image, mind you, I'm only seeing your store image at one and a half times actual size on my 27" monitor, but I don't see the noise thing so much as I do see the yellow & brown at the fringes of the flower which tells me it's a mature bloom past it's prime.  
 
Probably not a good selection for a rose for birthdays 45 and under and for older birthdays 50s, 60s,  would see this more  in a humorous light if you presented it as such, for example, we're not what we once were, but the beauty of aging can still shine as a rose which has reached it's full cycle ...!  
 
Still doesn't explain the inconsistency unless the reviewer was thinking abstractly as I was relating a mature bloom as fitting for a person in their 50s.
 
Again, on the side of the review team, they have to look at a lot of designs every day and no system is perfect.  A large part of their job is subjective and being human each reviewer will see things differently.
I only hope that they really understand how hard we work to get just one design put together, then have to create it at GCU, endure two and three weeks of waiting to hopefully see the design through to our stores.  A lot of work down the drain and a huge 'knock your wind out' when we get that dreaded "DECLINED!"
 
It might really help if we actually knew who some of the reviewers were.  Not personally so much, but what background they have, what training they recieve, that they aren't fellow artists competing with us and such.  GCU pretty much keeps this a hush, which baffles me, but knowing what credentials each reviewer must have would make artists more secure in their decisions in that the review team was fully qualified to make sound decisions in regard to an artists business here.
 
As with most things in life, it's not skill, speed or knowledge which is the key to success or failure, it is consistency!
 
Best always, Randy
 

Thanks, Randall. That was a dilly wasn't it? But I appreciate all your help on it. I am learning,although it has taken a long time to happen. Now if the number of my sales would just rise.L didn't  mention the 2 that were put on hold... for whoever knows why? I am sure there is a good reason though because there always is...Did I do that ampersand right?  
 
Bettie

Quote from Amanda_136215 on Dec 2^nd, 2012, 5:36am:

 
I wouldn't delete it.  Either find another image of a rose that will fit younger birthdays and for this one , write some verse around the jist of the image.  Something to do with aging, reaching the prime of life or such and the beauty still in that.
 
I'm a firm believer in that you never know what people really will buy and have given up trying to second guess the market.  Just when you assume something is unsaleable, that's what sells.
 
Personally why I think some of GCU's guideliines are pure bs. If store buyers, greeting card sellers and anyone else who buys products for resale was smart enough to know exactly what customers were going to buy, they'd be the richest people on the face of the earth.  Though they are using somewhat of an educated approach, they are only guessing at best as to what customers want or don't want and a to what is marketable or not.
 
Rather than you do the deleteing, either make some changes or wait for the reviewers to decide.  In the meantime, it might just be the card someone is looking for.
 
Best alwyas, Randy