Crap greeting card front cover.

Crap greeting card inside illustration.

This is another set of custom illustrations for Harland Clarke’s online card service. They had some interesting card design requests, which allowed me to branch out and draw things I don’t usually draw.

Scroll down to view a collection of creative holiday cards.

Glowing green christmas tree card.

Snap the mini glow stick inside of the card to light it up!

Clever pouring wine greeting card.

Thin, creatively cut and folded holiday cards.

Volkswagen's awesome pop-up snowflake holiday card.

Red bird punch-out ornament greeting card.

Closeup of bird ornament punched-out from greeting card.

Owl punch-out ornament greeting card.

Owl ornament punched-out from greeting card.

Here is a collection of beautiful typography and illustrations created with paper quilling. Scroll down to see all the images.

by Yulia Brodskaya

by Yulia Brodskaya

by Yulia Brodskaya

by Yulia Brodskaya

by Yulia Brodskaya

by Ann Martin

by Yulia Brodskaya

by Yulia Brodskaya

by Yulia Brodskaya

by Ann Martin

by Yulia Brodskaya

by Yulia Brodskaya

I’ve collected the logos below for inspiration because of their excellent use of negative space. Scroll down to see all the logos. They may inspire a few negative space designs of your own.

SmugMug needed a co-branded landing page to give potential customers information on all of SmugMug’s services. The details for all of SmugMug’s services needed to be accessible with very few clicks and without referencing any outside pages. This was quite a challenge since SmugMug’s Pro Account has a lot of features.

As a result, we created a very long page organized into sections of interest for potential customers. The only thing a user needs to do to learn all there is to know about SmugMug services is scroll down the page. The user may skip to different sections by clicking on links near the beginning of the page.

This page also includes two movies and an animated gallery of sample SmugMug websites.

Your company’s name
Your company’s logo
Your company’s value proposition

Michael Huggins describes corporate identity as the “collection of elements that help you control how you are thought of and identified in the marketplace.”^[1]

References

1. Huggins, Michael. Start & Run A Graphic Design Business. Self-Counsel Press Inc. 2009.

• All its marketing materials
• Its name
• Its business cards
• The attitude of its employees
• Its logo
• Its offices and signage
• …and more

Your company’s brand is influenced by everything your company is made of, but more importantly, it is principally affected by what people think about your company. The opinion outsiders hold of your company is so important that it can overshadow the company’s efforts to present itself in a different light.

As Michael Huggins states in Start & Run A Graphic Design Business, “…a brand is not what you say it is—it’s what other people say it is.”

Simply put, your brand is what people think of you. The word “brand” can be used to label the accumulation of opinions people have of your company. These opinions will be varied, and they may be steadfast or unfixed. The opinion of your company is constantly being added to, altered, and shaped. If your company isn’t active in communicating with outsiders, then it isn’t the one doing the shaping.

Many people also use the word “brand” to refer to the image your company displays. Since “brand” is used in so many different ways, it is often incorrectly used to describe your corporate identity. While your corporate identity is part of your brand, it is not, on its own, your entire brand.