Holiday Greetings

Looking Back

I design an email greeting annually, usually for New Year’s. I send it to clients, colleagues, friends, and family. As the latest holiday season has just ended, I felt like it was a good time to review greetings from past years. I copied images from project archives into a new folder. Seeing them displayed as a gallery gave me pause for thought.

They seem to get more elaborate each year. Have I strayed too far from my usually clean styling? Do intricate illustrations work for me? By viewing them as a group, I have concluded that the simplest executions are the most successful.

I look forward to this project each year. The artwork that I designed for 2013 had a magical quality that I would like to revive in the future. Although Chinese New Year does not coincide with the Gregorian calendar’s new year, I integrate animals from the Chinese calendar into my designs.

Of course, I have no idea where my head will be at the end of this year. Trends take off out of nowhere. And designers can be so fickle.