I started creating some designs to print on greeting cards on Zazzle a few weeks ago. I'm doing this mostly to keep my portfolio fresh, and also because I miss designing cards. I don't really expect to make money, it's more for fun and experience.
Over the years I've toyed often with the idea of starting my own card company, but some major features of starting this kind of business dampened my enthusiasm: production, inventory and customer service. I love the idea of having my own business, but honestly, I don't want to deal with the actual "business" end of it. Ideally, I want to handle the creative end, and have a partner willing to handle all other practicalities. Kind of like how my situation was as an art director at Papyrus - I was lucky enough to be able to provide concepts and ideas, and the production team, buying department, etc. handled the rest.
With current print-on-demand technology available to anyone, you can now open a "shop" online featuring products you designed for free, and not have to deal with any costs or inventory. It's ideal for someone like me, and it can also give you a taste for whether you actually want to pursue this kind of business on your own, figuring out how much time you are willing to spend, and so forth. Sites such as Zazzle.com or CafePress allow you to upload your design to be printed on cards, t-shirts, stickers, mugs, even skateboards! They are printed only as they are ordered, so there is no wasted inventory sitting around unsold. In this way, it's also more eco-conscious in terms of card manufacturing.
I ordered some samples of my cards from Zazzle and received them yesterday. Overall, I'm pleased with the paper and print quality. My main gripe is that you have no choice between matte, glossy or uncoated stock - all cards are glossy. There were issues with some of the colors on my cards, too - they seem to have difficulty with softer, more muted hues, such as my hand logo in the oval featured on the right of this blog. The background color printed an unappealing lime green instead of yellow. Also, the design above with the cat and big flower - the background for this card should have printed a very pale tint of coral, and it came out an ugly grey. When colors are brighter, they print more cleanly and true to my original designs.
So far my designs are either type treatments, or based on historical clip art which I have a fondness for. Old fashioned printer's ornaments, engravings of people eating and drinking, quirky animals, flowers - I like taking these elements and treating them in a unique way with sophisticated type treatments and color palettes so they look fresh. Here are a couple of samples of cards from my Zazzle store.
I'd also looked into CafePress to print my cards, but they don't allow anything printed on the back, and I wanted to be able to print my logo. Also, you can't print full bleed inside CafePress cards, but you can on Zazzle.
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