The brief was to create at least three cards for sentiments/events not currently catered for. The design needed to include the cover and message inside. The cards did not need to be linked but after looking at the cards currently available in a number of department stores I decided that a gap existed in regard to lifestyle changes and in particular healthy living.
I decided to brainstorm ideas and initially quitting smoking, stopping drinking and giving up drugs featured heavily. These all related to healthy/healthier living and were closely linked by the theme of giving up an addiction. I mind mapped ideas around each one (see upload).
Alcohol
For drinking, a lot of the best/most interesting images and themes surrounded drink itself or the condition of being drunk - yet I did not want the cards to be too negative: positive images were more likely to be purchased and would have a more positive effect on the recipient. One key positive that came out of the mind mapping was that giving up alcohol saved money.
As I played around with thumbnails and images of drinking, the idea of a pint glass filled with money suggested itself.
On its own the sketchings of this idea looked quite bare. I tried a hand thrusting the pint forward and then a beer towel. As the latter gave me the opportunity to add text I went with this idea, settling on the word 'Cheers' which was small enough to fill the width of the card and also communicated the right sentiment. I already had in mind the idea of using a typeface used on beer towels and decided on one of the most distinctive - Carlsberg. This was already, in turn, suggesting a message for the inside of the card. After failing to find a useable image of a Carlsberg beer towel I decided to order one.
I then realised that the money would look better if it resembled beer so I decided to go with a pint glass filled with coppers and then a 'froth' of silver coins on top. However, getting the right image proved to me the most difficult challenge. The glass in the first pint glass was too thick - preventing me from getting an image of the coins. After acquiring a pint glass with thinner glass I took a large number of photographs, finally settling on one.
I spent a large amount of time in Photoshop improving the image. When I had finished I added a photograph of the beer towel and used Photoshop to turn 'Carlsberg' into 'Cheers'. After playing around with a few backgrounds I decided to leave it blank and scale the pint glass up to fill as much of the area as possible.
After choosing the Carlsberg typeface I thought it would be fun to do something with their 'Probably the best lager in the world' tagline. I thought it was important to keep the wording as close to the original as possible and focused on removing the word 'lager' for obvious reasons. I settled on replacing it with 'decision' and tried to find an example of the typeface on the internet. After a fair amount of searching I failed to find a usable example and so decided to adapt an existing typeface. After trying a few out I decided that Rockwell bold was the closest I was going to find. I had found a sample of the Carlsberg typeface and adapted Rockwell to match it as closely as I could.
Although I'm pleased with the ideas I had for this card it is the one I'm leased pleased with in terms of execution. In retrospect I should have thought about using a plastic pint glass as this may have reduced the glare and increased the clarity of the coins. I also think that ensuring the photograph of the pint glass was taken on the beer towel would have looked far more professional than the 'floating' effect that resulted from positioning the beer glass on a layer above the beer towel. Overall, a good idea averagely executed.
Cigarettes
This was the card that seemed to produce the most ideas. I thought about a card covered with stubbed out cigarettes and also played around with cigarette packets as a possible focus for the cover.
As part of a brain storming session I googled 'cigarettes' and one of the images that came back was of a single, stubbed out cigarette. I was already thinking of making the card an anniversary of giving up smoking and, perhaps with in mind, I realised that the cigarette doubled as a '1'.
I started to sketch a few ideas with the cigarette representing a '1' as the central image. I had spoken to a number of ex-smokers about how they felt about smoking/cigarettes now they had given up smoking and two of the themes that kept recurring were how much they now hated the smell of cigarette smoke and ashtrays and how much money they'd saved. As I now had my central image it was important for me to include these two factors. I decided to fill the text above the cigarette with the image of a £20 note and filled the text below with ash.
I then worked on the inside message and typed out 'congratulations on your first year of not smoking'. I closed the image and thought nothing more about it. When I opened it the following evening the 'not smoking' jumped out at me as 'no smoking' and I immediately realised I had an interesting idea for the inside message.
I downloaded a no smoking sign and found the typeface on Photoshop that most closely resembled the type used (Arial) and by the end of the evening I had my inside message.
Overall I'm really pleased with this card. I feel the ideas I had were sound and well executed. I wanted to create cards that I might see and want to buy in a shop and I think I achieved it with this one.
Drugs
Initially I thought a card about coming off drugs would complement the other cards quite well. I mind mapped this theme but as the ideas came out a problem emerged. I wanted to keep in mind the commercial aspect yet it was unlikely that a card featuring needles, white powder, razors, mirrors or blackened spoons was going to make it to production. When I started to explore alternatives the only interesting images that were left were those of poppies and a sharps box. I decided to work on the idea of adapting a sharps box for someone who had given up drugs for a year. I tried a number of ideas but they all struck me as very 'messy'.
Weight
I decided to have a rethink. I was struggling to make the drugs card work because it was such a difficult sell: I couldn't envisage my best ideas and potential designs being purchased. In the back of my mind I was aware that I hadn't explored the theme of losing weight for the cards. I was keen for the three cards to work as a set and, although it wasn't as closely related to giving up smoking or drinking, losing weight certainly qualified as healthy living. I went through a few ideas, playing around with ideas of thinness with the two ls in 'hello'.
However, being liberated from the drugs card seemed to push me towards more humorous, playful ideas, and I kept thinking that I could probably do something with the phrase 'lard arse'. Although slightly offensive I think it would be popular with those who had lost weight - and therefore those buying cards for them.
I initially thought about warping and bending a block of lard into a bottom shape. However, the pictures of lard (wrapped and unwrapped) were very bland and uninviting. I had also downloaded pictures of large bottoms, which were obviously much more interesting. It was important that they were not too offensive, and one of these pictures in particular caught my attention.
I felt this was an arresting image that could work well. After the frustrations of the alcohol cover, and because I was after a more playful image, I decided to go for a more illustrative look and decided to create an illustration from the image. I was immediately pleased with the result and felt that the image powerfully represented the overweight person the recipient used to be. It seemed natural just to add 'goodbye' above the image. Again, I went for a typeface that was fairly light and fun and complemented the image (in style as well as colour). I added a black block below the illustration to balance the feel of the card and to add weight to the illustration.
The inside message then naturally suggested itself. As there was very little on the cover it was important - as with the alcohol card - to use the inside message to reinforce who the card was for (given that it is meant to be for a market not catered for). I had therefore decided on 'Well done on reaching your target weight' fairly early on. However, I also wanted to play on the hello/goodbye theme with the inside message responding to the cover. I decided on 'hello gorgeous' but wanted to avoid a picture of a shapely woman - partly because this would seem a bit leery and also because the person receiving it may not shapely at all (just a bit lighter) thereby reducing the likelihood it would be purchased for them! I then realised that I could solve the problem by using a pair of aesthetically pleasing lips which could 'speak' the words 'hello gorgeous'. I googled 'lips' and had almost decided on a pair when I came across the following image:
Immediately I was excited by the idea of putting the letters into the lips, resulting in the final image.
Overall I am very pleased with this card. It could ended up in poor taste but I think it stays just the right side of the line - helped by the playfulness of the images. I'm particularly pleased with how well the cover and inside message work with each other in terms of the ideas, typeface and colours used. Of all three cards this is the one I feel would be least out of place in a card shop.
