Steps to create your custom art

To navigate through our galleries, hover over the image and use the arrows to go to the next image. These little galleries show all of the awesome steps we take to create your art for holiday cards. This is the final art for the Alma College holiday cards for the President. He wanted to include some art by his budding artist children.

Click the arrow at the bottom of this image or click here to see how we got started and be amazed.

We started with a photo of the building at night. Yes it was not from the angle we wanted to use, but it was a good starting point. The key to the scene is the light. All colors of light.

Click here to another photo we used to put this project together.

In this scene... we got the correct angle of the building and even had snow in it. We worked on the lighting in the far window using other photos. We fuss over the view and use Photoshop to do our magic.

Click the arrow at the bottom of this image or here to preview another important piece of the final art.

Here we have a fantastic nativity scene by one of the young artists. Our mission was to include this scene in our art and to pull it all together.

See the next slide for how things started to shape up. Some characters came and went in the art before we were done.

Here, we are gathering people because our assignment was to have a crowd coming to hear the concert at Heritage Auditorium. Since Alma College is known for its pipers, it seemed logical to have them there serenading the crowd.

See the Next slide to see who else joined the crowd as we worked on this art.

In this scene, we made the snow start to fall, and things got a bit darker overall. In the distance, you can see some gremlins who are bright color on the steps, and Santa is by the blue tree on the right with his bag of goodies. The moon (drawn by the children) started to shine.

See the Next slide to see more people and brighter colors.

In this step we made quite a bit of headway, adding the crowd, and getting the colors closer to the final product. The gremlins have moved forward and are dancing around to the piper music.

See the Next slide -- the final card.

The final printed card is a little more serious in some ways. Santa moved up to the roof with his reindeer and there is smoke coming out of the chimney. The pipers and gremlins were a bit too much so they had to go. We wanted the glow of the warm interior of the Heritage Center to draw people in to see and hear the wonderful music. The texture of the Strathmore Pastelle paper that we offer shows up well in this scan of an actual card. The printed colors are always a bit more subdued than the colors on a computer screen. This was a fun project to work on for us.

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See some of the galleries of "Before" and "After" of the steps for our custom art cards.

This is the final art for the holiday cards for the Detroit RiverFront Conservancy, which was one of a series of five designs we did for them over five consecutive years.

Click the arrow at the bottom of this image or here see the first step as we turn this photo in a holiday card.

We started with this photo that was a nice view, although a little crooked. It was an artistic viewpoint type photo.

Click the arrow at the bottom of this image or click here to preview our first step in transforming this photo into art.

This was one of the first proofs so our client could decide to have this view for their cards. We added some clouds. We took leaves off the trees.

Click the arrow at the bottom of this image or here to preview the next step in the transformation.

Jumping forward a few steps, we started to add snow here in Photoshop. We were shooting for a frosty foggy look. We moved the stone sign forward and added a colorful swag.

Click the arrow at the bottom of this image or here to see how this card finished when printed.

Here is the final art. We had a bit of a sepia tone, and lots of frost. We added a little bird to the sign.

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One of the things we have noticed about our custom art for cards is that people love to get the big print of the art that we include with our package.

We've heard from a lot of people that frame our cards also. This art tends to become an heirloom as time goes by, unlike other types of holiday mailings.

Find out more.

Custom art holiday cards

Custom cards from Albion Design & Marketing make people smile and think well of the vision of your management and your business.

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This first image shows the final scene of the holiday cards for the Office of Admission at Albion College. The director also wanted to show the beautiful science complex behind the Admission Office. There were just a few little problems with using a photo as the image for special holiday cards.

Click the arrow at the bottom of this image or here to see the photo that we used as the basis for this art. See if you can see any little things that might distract from the view in the photo.

One thing that got in the way was the fire hydrant in front of the building, and the street sign. The leaves on the tree on the left also had to be removed. There was a power pole that was distracting. Oh, and yes, the power wires. They all had to go.

The next view shows how nice the building looks after a session with our artist in Photoshop. Click here..

Here, things look a bit surreal but it is cleaned up. This took some time to remove wires from in front of building, and also that street sign. But this is a good basis for art.

The next view shows things moving towards the sepia tones that the Director liked. Click here..

We started to develop lines in the art, and added trees with no leaves, and also a wreath. We changed the sky also and did some other adaptations. Still, something is missing here.

Click here to see some snow start to appear in the art.

The snow on the ground does change the feel of the scene quite a bit. To complete the art for the cards, we also wanted snow in the sky, and softer touches all over including mist.

Click here to see the final art again.

You can see from this slideshow that this process does take time. It creates a wonderful view though, that a photo just cannot capture.

If you would like more information on our Custom Art Holiday Card package, please contact us.

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Our custom card clients tend to care a great deal about their organization and they care a lot about the people they send cards to.

They want to have something that will tell the story of their business. They want to send something that will bring in compliments and positive feedback.

They want to send something that is unique and that will get people talking about the place, the people, and the business mentioned in the card.

Contact us about your custom cards & art

Custom designed art holiday cards
A gift that will be remembered...

Let people know how much you care about them.  This year, send a wonderfully designed custom art greeting cards. Your business will receive many compliments from the recipients of custom art holiday cards. 

Custom Art & Card Bundle

These artistic cards will be posted on the walls of your customers, and people will talk about them, and they will rave about your business.  People keep these cards. Some people even frame them. 

Steps for your custom art and cards

We work with you to create magical art from your ideas and photos. We show you proofs over the Internet, and oversee the printing.  We can work from a one photo basic view, or combine many photos and artistic touches to create something fanciful with wintery weather painted right into the picture! A picture really is worth a thousand words.   

Our cards can also have a story or mission on the back of the card. They can have a link to your web site. We can even add a QR card that will lead people with a smart phone right to a web page of your choosing.

Our basic holiday art & card bundle includes

• Your custom art - see the sidebar galleries. Just click on a little photo to see the before and after photos.
• 1000 full-color 5” x 7” note cards, printed on Finch Fine or Strathmore Pastelle 80# cover.
• Custom message from your business on the inside and also on the back if you wish. Some people choose to add a small message to the inside top flap of the card also.
• 1000 envelopes imprinted with the logo and return address of your business.
• 11 x 14” brilliant color Giclée print of your custom art hand-signed by the artist.
• Contact us and ask for the "Custom Art & Cards Bundle" flier with pricing!
  

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Steps to create your art

• Click through the galleries in the sidebar to see case studies of art.
• We get your ideas, photos, and goals and create a mockup for you.
• We get you a custom quote that includes the items above in our package.
• You can see your art in progress over the internet.
• We show you a printed proof also.
• We personally oversee the printing of your cards to assure the quality that we are known for.
• We send you your large hand signed Giclée after the holidays, as our thank-you gift to you.

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