Santa and Friends Christmas Card

Inspiration can hit anywhere and anytime.  You never know what will inspire your creativity or where or when it will hit you.  The top image, the flattened Cottage Lane Butterscotch Hard Candies box, was the inspiration for my 2016 Christmas card.  Like most folks who work in an office, during the month of December there is usually a deluge of holiday goodies at work.  I don’t know about your workplace, but beginning December 1^st, my workplace is inundated with holiday goodies and towers of treats on a daily basis.  It’s kind of unreal, but certainly appreciated.  Several years ago, that adorable snowman graced a box of Cottage Lane Butterscotch Hard Candies that was nestled in a holiday gift basket.  I was immediately drawn to the brightly colored box and I was enamored with the simplicity of the design.  I also liked the combination of a simple pattern, the tone on tone green awning stripe, used as a bottom border to frame the graphic and simplistic style of the snowman. 

The second image, the Comcast envelope, is me brainstorming.  I love the process of trial and error problem solving.  Based upon the popularity of square images in social media, I knew I wanted the format for each character to be square.  As I began to scribble my list of Christmas characters on the Comcast envelope, I realized they were all friends of Santa.  I very much liked the idea of each of these Christmas characters having a relationship or connection with Santa.  I especially liked the nature connection with Santa.  I have always been fond of Christmas cards, stories and illustrations that depict Santa with wildlife and nature.  So to include a reindeer, polar bear, penguin and cardinal was not a stretch for me.  The direction of this card wound up being less about Santa’s wildlife friends, but perhaps that will be the theme of a Christmas card for another year.  The cardinal made the cut because I love the male northern cardinal (see my 1994 Christmas card).  I always have.  And the reindeer was included because, well, it’s a reindeer.  Santa has to have his reindeers.  Frosty was obligatory much in the same way as the reindeer was obligatory.  Over the years, my mother has given me numerous nutcrackers, so including him was a necessity, from my point of view (see my 1998 Christmas card).  And the blonde-haired-blue-eyed gingerbread man was an homage or tip-of-the-hat to a kitchen towel I designed many years ago while working for Fieldcrest Cannon in New York City. 

The third image is a look into my creative process.  After the brainstorming session, I collect photographic reference and begin sketching.  My initial sketches are quick and sloppy.  I then refine them by erasing the pencil lines that are not necessary or just don’t work.  The final images were created using Adobe Illustrator.  I chose not to outline the images with black line work in order to achieve a clean graphic look, driven by shapes and color.  I wanted to emulate my inspiration.  While I wasn’t completely successful adding a simple pattern to each background, I do feel the design and execution of each character was very successful.  I am quite happy with the final design.

The fourth image is the printed 8.5” x 11” mechanical.  I know, not the greatest photo, but it does give you a sense of the printed mechanical before being cut along the black crop marks.  I cover the back of each 8.5” x 11” color copy with Twin Tack or Double Tack mounting film.  Double Tack is an 8.5” x 11” two sided permanent adhesive film, protected by two sheets of heavy release paper.  Think a large piece of double stick tape.  Once the back of the color copy is covered with the adhesive film, I use an X-Acto knife and ruler to cut each image from the page using the crop marks as my guide.  I then peel the protective backing (release paper) from the adhesive film, which is attached to the back of each image.  I then align the image with the face of the blank greeting card.  Once the image is correctly in place, I press the image to the face of the blank greeting card.  It’s a lot of steps and making over 1,000 knife cuts in one day really takes its toll, but the results are worth it.    

The fifth image is the final design.  This is the image that graced the cover of the 5” x 7” 2016 Christmas card.  Originally, I wanted to create eight characters, with four on the face and four on the back.  However, I was running out of time.  You can’t delay Christmas, you know…it’s always the same day each and every year.  So, I had to come up with an alternate design.  When laying out the face, six images fit nicely on the 5” x 7” card.  The dilemma: I had already created seven characters.  So, even though the partridge had been the most labor intensive of the seven characters, it seemed like the right one to let go.  When I did the “one of these things is not like the others” test, the partridge was the one that didn’t fit.  Sesame Street taught me well…or at least I think I made the right decision.  In my mind, the partridge seemed to have the weakest bond to Santa.  That being said, I do love the partridge.  I think it’s beautiful.  I love the sketch and I love the finish, but unfortunately, he was the one to go.  But, you get to see him here!