123Greetings Studio Artist Community Blog

Author: 123Greetings Studio

Christine Calder (CC-50)
Christine finds a balance between her work life and her need for expressing her inner self by developing ecards for 123Greetings Studio.

For Christine, nice visuals speak more than a thousand words. It is music for the eyes, a feeling, an emotion, an expression of one’s inner thoughts, worries, solutions, rehabilitation, daily experiences, all depending on how one wants to interpret and read the creation.

Thanks, Christine, for enabling us to be a means of your expression 🙂

Profile link: http://www.123greetings.com/profile/cc-50/

Studio Artist since: Jul 23, 2011

Statistics:
- Ecards: 248
- Total ecards sent: 317,241
- Average rating per card: 4.40
- Average views per ecard: 7,500
- Followers: 245
April 3, 2014
Ashu Patodia
Ashu Patodia is a professionally qualified graphic and website designer, from India. Having won a number of awards for various animations produced by her, she’s got quite a few feathers on her cap.

Drawing her inspiration from nature / God’s creations, Ashu loves to provide expressions to human emotions through her creatives / ecards.

Thanks for sharing your passion and works with us, Ashu

Profile link: http://www.123greetings.com/profile/ashupatodia/

Statistics:

Studio Artist since: May 18, 2012

Statistics
- Ecards: 210
- Total ecards sent: 818,197
- Average rating per ecard: 4.41
- Average views per ecard: 13,043
- Followers: 60
April 3, 2014
Tool Review : Pixlr

A friend of mine, recently in one of his “Eureka” moments, went “Dude! You’ve got to check this out!”

Feigning interest, I turned to look at his screen. “Here’s another of his tech stuff… that’s so going over my head!” I thought to myself. But I was wrong.

Just a few minutes into it and it got me glued. Like completely! Within minutes I could transform my artwork and give it so many different and interesting shades. From changing the tones, effects, adding fancy borders and overlays, creating different types of collages, adding doodle to it, to giving my text a whole new dimension – all the tools so simple and well laid out!.

Sharing the link to the tool with u guys-

http://pixlr.com/express/

Hope you have as much fun, experimenting and creating some great stuff with it, as I did!

March 11, 2014
Resource Review: Ribbet

Ecard making just got a little more exciting! If you’re looking at adding some fun elements to an image of yours, then ribbet.com is your answer. This free website not just allows you to add different effects to your images but offers a “stickers” section which could be used to add the extra fun element to your ecard. They’ve also clubbed together various motifs under the “seasonal” category. So say, for instance, for a Mother’s Day ecard you wish to add some hearts, flowers and other such motifs to your image you could look in the “mother’s day” section under “seasonal” for those elements. Try your hand at it and share your creations with us! 🙂 http://www.ribbet.com/

March 10, 2014
Top Five Ecard Design Fundamentals

Tip #1. Understand the Relationship between the Sender and Receiver

Most people tend not to go outside the “established boundaries” of their relations. A card must respect that. Example: A “Father’s Day” card from a daughter would convey love in a casual and fun way.
“Sending Father’s Day wishes your way…No amount of pampering can ever equal your love. Proud to be a ‘daddy’s girl’, and I know your proud to be my ‘daddy’ too! “
A “Father’s Day” card from a son, on the other hand, might be more respectful, slightly formal and convey a sense of gratitude.
“Thanks for being someone I look up to, Dad. Happy Father’s Day! ”

Tip #2. Address the Need of the Receiver

Every individual, irrespective of gender, age or position, has in him/her a deep-seated (yet rarely expressed) need to be loved, appreciated, understood and respected.
A card must address this need.
Example: “Thank you…You light up my life.”

Tip #3. Try and Use Humor

It’s a fact – humor works. Be sure to test it with a few people around you to check if it is generating the intended effect.

Tip #4. Appreciate the Challenges the Internet Poses

Designs that are heavy in size take time to load on a large number of people sending that card. Too much small character text might not read well on many smaller devices.

Tip #5. Visuals Attract, Copy Sells

Ensure your visuals are attractive. At the end of the day we all have weak spots for great aesthetics. Ensure that the font is appropriate and the text is legible.
While all these might lead to people viewing your card, it is ultimately the copy that decides whether the Send Now button is clicked or not.

February 15, 2014
5 Tips on Popularizing Your Card Designs

Tip #1

Build an active social media network of fans and followers
Social media can be powerful tool to promote your creative’s. As you are probably aware, Facebook has over 1 billion users globally. You can include your Studio Profile URL in your FB profile, and also regularly market your creations on your Wall for your friends and their networks to see and share. Read more on optimal Facebook strategies at http://bit.ly/123S_FB1.

Tip #2

Establish connections with fellow artists to cross-promote your cards
You can find links to social media profiles of other artists on their Studio Profile page. Offer to promote their work on your networks, and request them to return the favor to you. This can work wonderfully for everyone.

Tip #3

Choose your listing category carefully
Categories are listed in order of their priority to senders. Hence, categories listed higher up have greater visibility and send ability. However, because of this, competition in these categories is also high. Hence, if you have a powerful concept for a top category which is fresh, by all means select the top category and list it there. Else, it might be worthwhile spending time creating a specific category card which stands out. In all instances quality and send ability will be rewarded.

Tip #4

Choose your tags carefully
Tags increase your card’s search ability, and help you get those critical views, since there is no word limit on tags, you can put as many tags as you like, but do remember these should be relevant for your card. Check out tags in this link: http://bit.ly/123G_S_Tag. You can see a plethora of tags, but these all are relevant with the card. Include tags for the following – sender/receiver/emotions/expressed/related symbolism shown/mood of card/relevant card categories and sub-categories.

Tip #5

Give your cards a push at the start
Initially share your Studio cards URL with your family, friends, fans and networks. Request them to view it, comment on it and if they like it they can share it on their networks. Once your card starts getting viewed and sent by some people, it gets the automatic push from the 123Greetings system to mature into a top card.

February 9, 2014
5 Reasons Why People Choose One Design Over The Other To Express Their Emotions

Reason #1/5

Familiarity and Suitability of Imagery
Choice of visuals, color scheme and objects are very important in the design of an expression. Literature supports that people tend to like what they are familiar with. It is known as mere-exposure effect. Hence it might be a good idea to incorporate familiar objects, symbols, colors associated with a certain festival, emotion or occasion.

Reason #2/5

Music to set the mood
Choice of music is critical in setting the mood of the expression. Imagine what mood would be best suited to your expression concept. Choose music which helps you build and set that mood. It is easier said than done, though. Surprisingly, our experience suggests, when the music is right, you’ll know it. Until then, keep looking for it!

Reason #3/5

Vary the pace
Plan your expression storyboard in such a way that you have at least one high point. One standard and consistent storyline finds it difficult to capture attention and does not satisfy the needs of an ever-demanding and busy internet consumer. Reflect on the movies you watched and loved. Would you enjoy that movie, if it had no climax, or highs and lows?

Reason #4/5

Words
These are perhaps the most important direct communicators of the message/expression. Choose each of them carefully. Ensure they sufficiently and coherently communicate the emotion, and keep the storyline alive. Choose your font, size, color and stylization appropriately. Everything matters. Most definitely avoid abbreviations, spelling and grammar mistakes. Have a few friends and well wishers help you proof read your copy.

Reason #5/5

Design for the world
Lastly, test your storyboard for applicability across geographies. Your expression should transcend political, ethnic, religious, geographical, regional boundaries. Ensure everyone would under stand, appreciate and identify with the expression. Again, this too, is easier said than done. However, if you keep this aspect in mind while developing your concept, you’re likely to appeal to a wider audience base. Of Course, if you are designing for a festival or occasion particular to any community – by all means, appeal to only that community, without offending the audience in general.

February 2, 2014
123Greetings Music Bank for Studio Artists

123Greetings Studio now offers a new feature – its own selection of music – to make things simpler for you. With this new feature, selecting and adding music to enhance your ecards just gets easier.

Here are the highlights:
-Over 2,000 music clips to choose from
-Music clips carefully segregated to offer the most apt ones to suit the sentiment and content of the selected category.

More details, here:
http://studio.123greetings.com/wiki/index.php/Music

January 21, 2014
Top 5 Events in the US for sending E-Greeting Cards

Event #1/5

Christmas Day
This holiday is positioned at the top of the chart. Lives of people across the world jingle on the occasion of Christmas and they greet each other on this special day to enhance their joy by sending best wishes greetings.

Event #2/5

Easter
On the auspicious day of resurrection of Christ, our creations help people to resurrect the many warm feelings associated to this day. Easter is the Second most popular event in the United States.

Event #3/5

Valentine’s Day
Bringing a smile on the face of your loved one is the greatest pleasure in the world and we offer our assistance to millions to find the perfect expression that conveys their true feelings. Valentine’s Day is the third most popular occasion in the United States.

Event #4/5

Mother’s Day
No love in this world can be bigger than a mother’s love for her children and nobody will miss a chance to express affection and appreciation towards their mother, making it the fourth most popular event in the United States.

Event #5/5

Thanksgiving Day
The simplest yet the most valuable way of showing your gratitude to others for their contributions in your life, is by thanking them. Hence on this beautiful day we provide various visually delightful ways through which people can say Thank You. This is the fifth most popular event in the United States.

December 20, 2013
How To Create Great Ecards

Learn How To Create Great Ecards with 123Greetings Studio’s very own course on Udemy “ How To Create Great Ecards “course. What we aim to do through this course is to help bring out the latent talent in you, to help you discover the joy of expressing yourself through e-cards and for those who’ve already given wings to their talents, we’d like to take you a step further in helping you polish and improve your already existing set of skills, and maybe – just maybe, add to it.

December 5, 2013