Card Design

Challenge Components

• Saturated market
• Genuineness
• Focusing the message

The Universal Challenge with Card Design

Designing cards, especially thank you cards, has a universal challenge to it. A designer must balance the visual elements with the wording carefully. With too many visual elements, the card is hard to read. However, with too many words, no one wants to. It’s a delicate balance to consider in gift card design.

Industry Research

The gift and gratitude sectors are performing quite well and are expected to continue to do so. Both industries are vital necessities to how society functions, particularly in countries like the USA. We looked into some of the market trends surrounding the sectors and found that in recent years, simplicity is making a comeback.

Audience Research

Cbuy focuses on business customers. That choice narrowed the potential card audience considerably. We investigated the people selecting the thank you cards. These individuals were often managers at their respective companies. This gave us a series of demographics to work with. These demographics were then turned into preferred gift card design style considerations.

Card Research as a Custom Design Firm

We also dove specifically into the gift card design sector. We examined Cbuy’s competition and looked at trends within the card design for those companies. Then we looked at Cbuy’s historic card collection. These trends helped us stay true to the brand while we were producing the new thank you card design.

Bonus Challenge

The most significant challenge with thank you card design is providing wording that appears genuine. People already know they’re getting a mass-printed card. That does not diminish the desire for it to be honest and heartfelt. If we found the wrong balance, the card would not carry the message needed.

The Wording Problem

Gift card design is complicated by the wording that appears on the card. The correct balance must be struck between too many words and too few. Yet the words must all also appear genuine. Additionally, the words themselves must be balanced within the design. Otherwise, it is not aesthetically pleasing.

Brand Symbology

Cbuy uses a minimalist brand, which meant there was little image symbology. Instead, we focused on the fonts within the company logo. The company pairs a slab serif with a sans serif. The combination creates just enough contrast to draw the consumers’ eyes. The balance was also what we needed to evoke in the final card design.

Design Inspiration

Our primary inspiration came from the minimalist concept. We found many examples of practical stationery and the occasional thank you card design that used this principle. We also looked at different elements that would add uniqueness without contradicting the minimalist idea.

Element Decisions

Minimalist does not mean that the card is plain. Instead, we instructed the team to focus on simple elements, such as geometric shapes. These elements tend to be easy to add. The placement required significant attention so that it did not distract from the gift card design centerpiece. That centerpiece is the wording.

Color Choices

We looked at several color schemes that did not rely solely on white. We wanted to avoid white since it is often perceived as flat. Instead, we chose schemes for the team to work with soft colors. That way, the minimalist concept would be preserved, Meanwhile, the thank you design would be the centerpiece of the card.

Narrowing Down the Final Options

The Stan Agency design team produced several innovative concepts. Ultimately, we needed to narrow it down to one. We began by examining the designs for minimalist principles. Then we moved into checking against the brand guidelines and identifying closest matches. The last hurdle was finding the gift card design that best expressed genuine gratitude.

The Deliverable

The Final Package:

• One complete custom gift card design
• Separate package design elements for reuse

The final design was deceptively simple. We decided a salmon card with a white border emphasized the message best. The reverse side with the branding did have a few more accents, though nothing complicated. We enjoyed working with Cbuy, and cannot wait to work on more thank you card designs with the company.