One year later...

Last year, I posted a sneak peek of some of the artwork that I purchased at the Surtex Show for the company I work for.

After each show, I like to hang the artwork up in my office, and then we gradually decide what art will go on which products. We never know at this point which piece of art will be a "winner", and which things will fall by the wayside. Everyone in the office likes to come in, and tell me their favorites, and make predictions about which will become the next big seller. Here are a few closer up views of that shot:

The following three pieces were purchased with a customer in mind who had a theme, "Everything is Coming Up Roses". At the time, we didn't have much direction from them, so we took a bit of a gamble:

It turns out the "rose" they had in mind, was actually an orchid. They wanted it big, and pink. So, with this art, by talented artist Lauren Wan:

We focused on this area:

So, that became all this:

It has turned out to be a great collection to our line, and the original customer was very pleased with it.
But, the true winner of that season, was a last minute purchase, that I had to convince a few peeps about. Turns out, customers love this bird art:

We started doing a few products, but got such favorable reviews, that it's turned into all this!

Looking for holiday images is always a challenge, it's hard to come up with something NEW! DIFFERENT! EXCITING! each year, because the holidays are seeped in traditions, and it seems that people don't necessarily want NEW! EXCITING! But, we try!

The following is an example of how we sometimes buy art as inspiration, and change it dramatically. We really liked the idea of this art, but no way would our customers go for the pink background. We also prefer horizontal images. And, no type on the front of the card. So...this...

Became this:

It's printed with gold ink, and the branches are highlighted with silver foil.

We embellish a lot of the designs with foil, gloss highlights, glitter, and debossing. This can really bring a flat piece of art to life.