Greeting Cards for Special Holidays (when you don’t necessarily celebrate them)

Greeting Card designs by Advocate Art illustrators Liv Wan, Jane Ryder-Gray, Victoria Nelson, Debbie Edwards, Amanda Shufflebotham, and Aditi Kakade Beaufrand. 

Greeting Cards for Special Occasions (when you don’t necessarily celebrate them)
Teacher: ITSme Creative Director and Advocate Art Art Director Bhavi Patel

Having worked with a number of Greeting Card publishers over the years, I have seen the market become more diverse over time, with more publishers adding a variety of ranges, and occasions, to their publishing list.

It’s evident that the most popular occasions are Birthdays, and Mother’s & Father’s Day, along with seasonal holidays like Christmas and Easter. However, the key to having great success with the greeting card market is firstly having a consistent style. Clients love to create ranges, where they can see your style adapt across different subject matters and captions, but equally, it’s important to make sure your portfolio covers all of the bases, as publishers love to see a variety of occasions.

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, the market itself has moved into a more diverse space, with festivals from different cultures being celebrated globally. For this reason, introducing a range of special holiday cards into your portfolio is a great way to expand your reach with clients, as it can show your ability to be diverse as an artist too. These may not be holidays you celebrate yourself, but in a world where the demand for diversity is growing, such designs can also help break up your portfolio, and create points of focus and difference.

In recent years, some of the most popular occasions which publishers have introduced into their range, or commissioned for specific buyers are: Chinese New Year, Diwali, Hanukkah, Eid and Thanksgiving.

Each of these holidays are a great way to add in a variety of colour palettes, as well as subject matters and icons to your portfolio, so it’s definitely worth researching different cultures and starting to create mini ranges which bring the celebrations to a wider audience and community.

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