Invitations / Cards Question

[christinhebron]

Hello there,

I am new to Zazzle so I am still getting to know how the site works. I have a few questions to ask about designing greeting cards / invitations. I work in Procreate. Do you design in RGB or CMYK before uploading to Zazzle?

I noticed that some designers allow customization on the placement of the motifs on the greeting cards / invitations, meaning every piece of art can be moved around based on the customer's choice whereas some other designers create the greeting card / invitation as a whole piece and the only customization allowed is the text. Which of this is more favorable? 

If each motif can be move around, do you basically design each as a separate file, saved as PNG, and upload individually? 

Sorry for so many questions. Thank you. 

[Baylee]

RGB ...here's a link to a previous discussion about color profiles.

Personally, I create most of my designs using separate layers to create the whole. It has the added benefit of allowing me to tweak the arrangement if necessary whereas with a design uploaded as one unit you're stuck with the layout and would need to redesign and re-upload if you find changes are needed. I think it saves time in the long run. And yes, most are saved and uploaded as separate PNG files. 

The design loaded this way allows for greater flexibility for the customer as well. Instead of them contacting me to remove or move a certain portion of the design, they can do it themselves. Since customization is the key at Zazzle, I think giving customers the most opportunities to personalize their design layout is a great way to go. Other designers take a different approach and prefer that their design remain as they originally planned it. It's totally up to you.

[christinhebron]

Thanks for sharing! Do you also design in Procreate? I design in separate layers as well, but was just not too sure if I should save each element as separate PNG vs save the whole thing as a one single file. I was worried about keeping organize. Also, are there tutorials on how to upload invitations to Zazzle? Thank you. 

[Baylee]

Hi @christinhebron. No, I've never tried Procreate, I use Photoshop. You're right about organizing files, it can be daunting.

I've been doing this since 2011, so I've accumulated a massive amount of files. Luckily, I set up a decent filing system right from the beginning (at least it works for me) so I'm usually able to find what I'm looking for. I created a numbering system and keep a spreadsheet list by design name and number. Since each file in the design begins with the same number as part of the file name, it's easy to search for all files with that number

I don't know which tutorials are specifically for invitations but I'm sure you could find something on YouTube that  would help. Here's one example  'Making a Product on Zazzle'.

[Windy]

I learned how to make  invitations by opening another designer's invitation and looking at how they did it. 

[ColsCreations]

In addition to the benefits of creating with multiple elements instead of a flat file that@Baylee pointed out, if a customer (or you yourself) use Transfer this Design, there's a good chance they'll want or need to tweak size & placement of things to make it a better fit for the product they transferred it to. (You can look in you store settings, Advanced Settings tab, to find the option to allow or disallow Transfer this Design. It's a storewide setting so it's all or nothing, you can't allow it for some products but not others.)