Gift Card Designing

T HERE is less satisfactory holiday hunting for greeting cards than for any other gift. Visit any shop where gift cards are in evidence and you will note how prospective purchasers go over and over the display, finding one here, discarding it later and at the end possibly making a hesitating and unsatisfied selection.
Publishers have stated to me that if there is one symbol of the holiday season that should be rejuvenated, it is the custom of sending gift cards. We can all recall how dear to our eyes were the lace-edged, isinglass, snow-encrusted gift cards, which had to be handled with finger tips, and the singing bird sentiments, which were so daintily revealed by a surprise opening of a flap. These cards, together with the horse-hair sofa and the wax flowers in a glass dome, were part of a certain evolution, and, of course, the only place now for such cards is way down at the bottom of some memory box.
Previous to the world war, America was flooded with cards of a gingerbread tinsel order of decorations turned out by the million in foreign countries. These, as well as postcards, were printed in huge editions by sweat-shop methods, which, together with certain “can’t-be-done-better” slogans, caused our own shops to fall back as competitors.
Now we all know that, no matter how perfect the printing may be, the design and idea must be the selling factor of the gift card. And again, the more the idea and wording meet with the personal or local trend of the community in which it is distributed, the better it will be accepted.
That possibly is the reason why you and I can’t find what we want when we look for a card to express our personal feeling, because it was expressed either in Dresden or London or Hoboken or Squashville. What we need are cards that are typical community expressions from the parts of the country from which they come. It is just as foolish for me to send you a card from California with a home-coming sleigh scene having snow-burdened roofs for a back-ground, as it would be for you to send a decoration unrelated to your environment. Let’s use motifs and scenes and wording which create the charm of our home section, and we will find that the card will be doubly welcomed by the recipient on that account.