Get Your Commercial Head On

I have spent the past four days doing a work placement at The Great British Card Company in Gloucester. All year I have had people asking what I will do when I finish this summer and the thought terrifies me so this was an opportunity to learn more about the commercial world of illustration and how I can make my work more sale-able!

I spent my time working with In house illustrators Carly and Simon who quickly showed me that I have no clue about what is considered "commercial" by the general public... With their help I managed to create a range of cards with careful consideration about how to make them appealing to the masses whilst also still using my strengths and my own personal style.

It was a definite learning curve, and even if I don't go into this industry I feel a lot more knowledgable about commercial card design and the range of skills used. I also got to play around with the foiling machine and flitter (glitter) to add extra bits to my cards. However cringy and girly it sounds I did love doing it! (and the glitter is still all over me...) 

In the end I managed to make 4 card designs and 6 gift wrap designs, heres a few samples! The balloon is my favourite, hoping to make a couple of cards to go with that one, my eyes started to blur today from too much Photoshop so I didn't get to finish it. 

These both have glitter and foil but it is pretty impossible to photograph well...

Ballooooons!