Card Design: Bold and Beautiful Greetings Cards
‘Tis the season for sending out greetings cards, welcoming in the festive period and the New Year. From creative corporate efforts to hand-crafted letterpress beauties, these are some of our picks of the best greetings card designs.
Be inspired to create your own unique card designs this year…
1. Vaspur New Year Cards
Russian visual marketing agency Vaspur reimagined the subject of their company logo, a pomegranate, to create a luscious-looking greetings card for their clients. The cards really do look good enough to eat, with raspberry envelopes to match and restrained white sans serif typography adding modern, elegant appeal.
Corporate greetings cards don’t have to be dull. Using full colour across the design, teamed with sensual photography, makes designs tactile and exciting, and ultimately memorable.
Design by Vaspur
2. ‘Audace’ Cards by LaPlanche Design
These fun cards from New York- and Paris-based agency LaPlanche demand to be played with. The design invites the recipient to connect the dots, revealing a New Year’s message. White and red combine to create a festive palette, but it’s the introduction of black that keeps the designs stylish and business-appropriate.
Design your own cards with function in mind – can the card have an additional function that will keep the recipient engaged for longer than it takes to open an envelope?
Design by LaPlanche Design
3. ‘The Hidden Word’ Cards by LaPlanche Design
Also from LaPlanche Design are these equally fun word search-themed cards. Rendered in muted primary colours these push the envelope (no pun intended…) without shouting. LaPlanche’s consistent brand look applied to their greetings cards each year makes them recognisable from the envelopes alone. Their clients must look forward to receiving these at the end of the year!
Design by LaPlanche Design
4. Chase Christmas Cards
UK-based creative consultancy The Chase created these oh-so-simple but oh-so-clever cards to send out to their clients for Christmas. The tree design, made up of stamps that equate to the cost of the card’s first-class postage, is finished with a few festive-red ‘bauble’ stamps.
Complex designs aren’t always necessary to make your cards stand out. A simple design executed in a clever way can give your cards a unique feel.
Design by The Chase
5. Mikel Cans Studio Christmas Cards
Based in Barcelona, Mikel Kans has produced some fantastic print work showing a strong visual identity and a leaning towards a mid-century minimalist aesthetic. These minimal cards, designed for the Coll·legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya, are loaded with coal-like texture and use airbrush-style silhouettes to create a stylish summary of the festive period.
Minimal designs and high-contrast monochrome can prove to be a winning choice for Christmas cards. They make a great antidote to the sickly sweet colours and styles of the majority of cards.
Design by Mikel Cans Studio for Coll·legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya
6. Sanna Annukka Greetings Cards
Brighton-based designer and illustrator Sanna Annukka was inspired by Finnish decorations and the nature of the Northern hemisphere when she created these beautiful greetings cards. Printed on recycled paper and with embossed gold foiling, the cards are tactile, sensual and have a textile-like appeal.
Why not try using collage-inspired patterns on your own cards to create a visually playful layout?
Design by Sanna Annukka
7. Atipus Light-Up Christmas Cards
Atipus, a graphic design studio based in Barcelona, created these Christmas greetings cards with an illuminating twist. Designed for a hotel, the cards light up from the inside, passing a green glow through a die cut tree, made up of various festive silhouettes.
Cards are meant to be fun! If budget is not so much of an issue, think of ways to make your own cards think outside the box and revise the traditional print card.
Design by Atipus
Have you spotted any bold and beautiful card designs we’ve not mentioned here? Please share them with us below. Find more design inspiration here.