Tree Forest Wood Greetings Cards

Designs

Calligraphy Greeting CardBillions of cards are sent worldwide every year but especially at Christmas. Being a tree nowadays no longer insures a long fruiting life. When it’s time to be cropped, a tree’s in for the chop!

It is a risky time to be a saping, rooting, shooting, breathing living tree – especially if you live in the middle of a well matured forestry scheme.

So each time I am asked to design a greetings card, whether the illustration is a warm, friendly  and fuzzy, or decidedly ‘offbeat’, I spare a thought for the factory farmed trees.  They stand tall in rows amidst their own kind like a regiment on death row.  They grow in good faith and with the hope of surviving weather conditions, pests, drought and disease until the rip echo of chainsaw shortens and the call of harvest chimes in their rings.

Card subjects now deal with everything from tastebud preferences to software crashes.  Cards are becoming poor substitutes for writing letters, giving love and showing actual warmth.  Flat packed or box mounted, cards arrive – destined to dust gather in a lifestyle gap before the bin’s mouth opens and its recycling chin makes pulps of its memory.

Some suggest that the way we live is driven by consumer trends but it’s equally possible to suggest that lifestyles are ‘pushed’ by those requiring us to ditch the existing in preference for the fresh and purchasable.

We are all trying to keep a finger on the pulse of change but to get the world we want, we all need to be involved in setting and making the best pace possible. The best family life, the best wildlife, the best domesticated life and the best eco-life come at a price.

To get the best everything is going to be difficult but we can all aim for a better ‘new improved’ direction, be it when sending a greetings card or supporting a vital charity campaign. Some of the best modern cards we receive at the HoBB incorporate good editorial message – small bite-sized doses of psychotherapy or thoughtful expressions of concern, advice and support. One such handmade card produced for the charity ‘World of Water’ (pictured above) contained these fine words : “Tree, Forest, Wood, Table, Skip, Fire … air overload, Pollution.”

Do you design cards?
Anybody can send their card designs to a publisher, but once released they are helpless, unable to influence how their work will be used and any accompanying editorial content. There is a new breed of greetings card artists that self-publish their designs internationally and make them directly available online as e-cards for all occasions. Through personal links with their market, these artists are able to determine which visual styles and messages their buying public prefers – an interactive market testing.  Possibly a less wasteful way forward?

Do you buy cards?
The era of the eco-card, the ecard is here. This may save many more existing habitats. We all need to keep a finger on the pulse of change and work towards the world environment we want, so set the pace and send more e-cards this year. Set the standard and buy cards that contain very useful messages.

Waves ~~~~ and wishes for a fine festive future.
<+))))))))>< ~~~ Grant

Posted by Grant.

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Project: Publishing Dinophonics with Dinolad and Friends

Designs

IMAGENAMEHEREMany publishing projects arrive at the HoBB

“Publishing … is to make public – to send forth among the people – the words and pictures that creative minds have produced, that editors have worked over, that printers have reproduced … a formidable succession of activities no one of which can, by itself, be called publishing.”

(Chandler B. Grannis. Publishers’ Weekly, 1957)

Each project requires its own ‘diet’ to keep it healthy and fit.

Here’s a project that Rose Carr brought us in its infancy.  The star of the project is ‘Dinolad’:

His dinosaur friends enjoy a laugh and a bath:

His friends love to run to stay healthy:

Plus, you can place your Dinolad Plush Toy and Dinophonic storybooks into their own bag:

 

 

Do you have a publishing project?
Is your project so very wonderful that publishers should be clambering for your title?

The practice of developing publishing ideas alongside editors produces the most successful results. While general access to editors is limited, we occasionally arrange editorial meetings here at the HoBB for authors seeking to eat, sleep and dream their books together. These enthusiastic sessions are ideal for brilliant unknown authors and often for writers wishing to develop a better `live` style at book signings, festivals and events. Contact us for available dates.

Next year’s publishing projects are progressing well, Little People Books and their friends – librarians, teachers and parents, continue to do everything in their power to encourage innovation, culture `best solutions` and represent quality.

I hope that you attract attention to your next book idea from a publishing house of distinction whose list suits your title. The personality of the house, and in part, its editor, is important – a good match is pleasing, progressive and profitable.

As editor at LPB, I have three things in mind when reviewing publishing ideas: first, the ‘magic’ quality – does the idea excite me; second, topical value, and third, the wider picture and its ongoing potential. The only rule is that it must excite. (Grant 2010)

Posted by Grant.

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