I was perusing some greeting card designs from other companies (fairly well known ones too) and observed that background replacements in landscapes are really in trend. No surprise there, but in my observational escapades I started noticing that the finalized backgrounds don't make any sense. As an example a deeply heavy snowy foreground with a bare brown dirt hill side background. The foreground looks like a picturesque New England scene and the background looks like the rolling hills in California during Autumn right before the East winds pick up and fire season starts.
 
Is it just me or does the "new trends" in greeting cards have lackluster designs? Anyone care to express their thoughts?
 

I feel there's an overall trend in lack luster designs, and trends get old pretty quickly.
Possibly the problem with the cards with background issues is that they are adhering to a concept, but the final product is not well thought out. It could even be a time issue with finding the right royalty free ( hopefully ) backgrounds that is causing the lack of attention to detail. I would imagine the majority of customers don't even notice.