DIY Greeting Card Design Ideas

The greeting card industry has long been defined by stable sales and a few short-lived trends, but the rise of custom greeting cards is changing that. New providers of custom greeting cards are springing up all the time to deliver unique greeting card messages to customers worldwide. What's behind the custom greeting cards trend?

Small, innovative greeting card companies can more quickly branch out into custom greeting cards. Many of the larger, more staid greeting card companies are unable to quickly respond to market trends, so the kinds of cards they make in 2008 are roughly the same cards they would have made in 1998 or 1958. There's certainly nothing wrong with catering to stable demand, but it provided a great opportunity for the makers of custom greeting cards to begin selling their own unique products.

Big companies have problems that go past even the issue of large bureaucracies and stodgy policies. Many of them are part of large, multinational conglomerates with little or no relation to the greeting card industry, so it's hard for their managers to pay close attention to their specific business. In fact, one multi-million dollar card company, Gibsons Greetings, lost millions of dollars playing the derivatives market. A smaller card company is simply less likely to get involved in such dangerous pursuits.

These small companies are also better able to respond to customers' specific needs. If you're interesting in finding a card, who do you prefer -- the big company that can give you a dozen versions that are all not-quite-right in a different way, or the small company that can respond to your needs and get you exactly what you want. Customizing your cards is much easier when you can work with individual people rather than a giant company.

The rise of online shopping has made it easier to find original and unusual greeting cards. Many greeting cards are still bought through stores and other traditional venues, but a large and growing number of cards are bought online. Online sellers of custom greeting cards are able to cater perfectly to a small market instead of imperfectly serving a larger group. This has been a common feature of many recent online ventures, so it was only a matter of time before it would be applied to custom greeting cards.

Customers have become more demanding. Whether it's because of the new products available, or because of changing tastes, customers in the market for these cards are likely to prefer custom greeting cards. These more affluent, more selective customers are looking for specific kinds of cards which will really impress their recipients, and custom greeting cards are far superior to standard designs in this regard.

Online greeting cards have changed the market. When the only choice was a physical card, there was less variety in greeting cards. Now that physical cards need to compete with e-cards, custom greeting cards are becoming more popular -- by emphasizing the unique aspects of the physical card, great greeting cards with custom designs are able to amaze people even though they don't have the same interactive features as electronic cards. Electronic cards can feature anything from musical jingles to flash animations to recordings of the sender's voice. But they can't match the feel of good material, the aesthetic appeal of perfect calligraphy, or the simple joy of getting a cad card in the mail. Although online cards have changed the market, the biggest change that they've caused is an increasing appreciation for physical cards.

People are becoming more aware of good design. The rise of well-designed consumer products like the iPod has made consumers better able to appreciate good design. Custom greeting cards often demonstrate more skill than traditional cards, since they are individually crafted for specific needs rather than designed to appeal to a wide audience.