When about to make a design, the student should endeavour to visualise the completed design before commencing work. If he cultivates this habit he will find it much better than worrying a design into existence—a method very often employed.
It is a good plan, when setting out to design, to ask oneself a series of questions: “How is it to be reproduced?” “What style of design is needed?” “What is the general taste of the buyers of this kind of thing?” etc. If one asks oneself a number of similar questions to these, it should, at any rate, be the means of ensuring that the design is suited to its purpose.
A very common fault in designing Christmas cards is making them too heavy in treatment. It is essential that the finish should be light and dainty.
Designs may be either for the complete card or merely for the outside cover. Several suggestions are shown in [Fig. 35]. Of course, it will be understood that these are only rough sketches. They do not pretend to be designs.
The one represented by (a) is for the general type of illuminated design. This is for the outside cover only: a short greeting with an illuminated initial and decoration. When selecting words for this purpose, one should be careful to choose something not too trite. On the other hand, it is as well to avoid using some copyright quotation.
The designer must be up-to-date: he must not expect to sell his designs if he gets his ideas from Christmas cards that were published twenty years ago.
There are no special sizes to work to, as cards of all shapes and sizes are produced. It is best, however, not to get them too large.
The style of card indicated in (b) is a very usual kind. The centre is left blank for a small picture, or a monogram, to be inserted.
If the artist is able to paint little landscapes or girls’ heads, he could insert them himself as shown in (c). He should, however, avoid getting these heavy or crude in colour.
