I want to use my photography for greeting card designs. How do you get into something like that?

Answer 1

Check this out;
http://www.cafepress.com

Learn an image editing program, Photoshop is the best but you can use Paint.net at a pinch (its free)
http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/ -Paint.net Paint with layers.

You need to learn how to turn your photos into digital, then how to prepare them for print.
Card companies like Hallmark pay about £20 a print and you lose copywrite, so be careful.
Good luck!

Answer 2

My wife and I have started doing this. We live in a rural, tourist, area in the UK and found that there were very few cards of the area. So we started making greetings type cards with local views using our photographs. We purchased card blanks - A4 card with a marked frame to take a pic slightly less than 6x4 and with a pre scribed fold - although you can just use plain A4 card if you're good enough and straight lines etc! We put another, slightly cut down, sheet of A4 copy paper inside, sometimes with a printed message, sometimes just blank. You can buy clear envelopes in which they can be displayed - just like commercial cards. We found we could sell them through craft fairs, the local Tourist Information Centre was interested and local shops took some.

Answer 3

You could start off by making your own greeting cards for your friends using a template on FrontPage or some other desk top publisher (better yet, Photoshop, to edit your photographs). Get a good quality printer and decent paper.

I'm sure your friends would really appreciate your efforts, and positive feedback will really improve your confidence.

Answer 4

Look out for card companies, write a nice letter including some of your work and see what response you get. I suppose there are lot of people in on the game too so it can be difficult.

But if you think they look professional and good enough for people design you can always make your own and sell them. If you go to a site like Bonusprint you can buy single or in a bulk. They print your image directly, plus there is cafepress.com. :)

Answer 5

If you're looking for greeting card companies to submit to, go and buy or just look at Photographer's Market 2007 edition. Completely updated, along with several other places to submit your work to.

Answer 6

the proper way is to send a query letter to the Sr. Designer with the firm (Hallmark) and include some samples.

They sometimes hire or retain the same photogs over and over.

Answer 7

research on the internet for places that make cards, find an email address and email them asking if you could work with them, tell them what you want to do, show them one or two of your best designs (photographs) and see what happens