Assignment 2: Thinking of you
Keywords in brief
Create a range of cards for sentiments or events that are worthy of a greetings card, but are currently not catered for by card manufactures.
The cards could be linked to other calendar events, obscure Saints days, sporting calendars or any other happening that is worth celebrating or commiserating. You may wish to explore some of life’s other landmarks that currently don’t feature in greetings cards, like getting your first grey hairs, being released from prison or any other personal landmark someone might want to share.
My understanding
I need to design at least 3 cards which is not currently the norm to be found in card/gift shops. The event or sentiments on the card need to be important enough so that someone would buy a card for someone else. I need to explore life’s major milestones and use events that are worth celebrating or commiserating for. Sending and receiving cards is generally about sharing an event in life so it should appeal to both sender and receiver.
Communication issues and design problems
An immediate issue that I can see is picking an obscure event, this means that the customer generally would not be intentionally looking for such a card or the market for it would be small. I think a major life event that generally happens to all people would be the route I take. A greeting card is generally stacked amongst many so therefore a striking and dynamic design would be needed to catch the person’s attention. The design also needs to be able to communicate instantly the message it is trying to share so the person can understand and refer to this greeting card if the life event occurred to somebody they knew. I must be aware of cultural sensitivities and making sure the sentiments expressed is clear and concise.
Target audience
I can define my own target audience but generally a greeting card is to express sentiments for a particular event and or sharing an event.
