There are a few things you may want to steer clear of when creating your line of greeting cards. Here are a few tips on what to avoid when designing and writing your greeting cards.

First of all, try to avoid designing horizontal cards. Yes, it is tempting to design greeting cards horizontally as they may be more aesthetically pleasing, however they take up more room in the card racks at retail locations. Every bit of space in a store is expensive retail space and costs money. Give vendors a choice if they want to show a few horizontal cards from your line but don’t create all horizontal cards or you risk not having any of your cards displayed due to space requirements.

As far as design is concerned, try not to design in all black and white. Black and white cards can get lost in the chaos that is the sea of cards on the shelf. Try using unusual patterns. Be creative. Try a splash of color or a unique texture. Vivid pops of color will stand out more than black and white cards.

This brings us to the actual greeting or message on your card. Many designers avoid the greeting because they are not “writers”. Some designs or images convey a message on their own. If your card communicates a message either visually or with text it is more likely to sell. Give your customers a reason to purchase your cards by creating greetings that offer up a clear and useful message.

Since we are on the subject of the words in the card, lease remember to spell check. This may seem redundant but some words are easily misspelled. If you are hand illustrating your text, make sure the words are spelled correctly before drawing or painting or else you will have a lot of correcting to do. This could mean the difference of your audience having a “phenomenal” day versus a “phenominal” day. A common misspelling on greeting cards to avoid is “stationary” versus “stationery”. Your cards are not standing still, unless you spell words wrong.