Behind the Scenes: Designing the MSLK Holiday Card
Like many companies, our holiday card is our number one opportunity to connect with our busy clients on a more personal and emotional level. Traditionally, we like to create a design that is also a mini gift, something everyone can either use or hang on to. This year, we were invited by the non-for-profit group, Robin Hood Foundation, to create a customizable, limited edition design that companies and individuals can purchase online and use as their own holiday card. In the spirit of giving, 100% of the proceeds goes directly to fighting poverty in New York City.
The Challenge
The challenge for this year’s card was to create a simple, festive, non-denominational card that appealed to a wide target audience. Sounds easy, but for designers who are met with the same staid seasonal imagery and themes year after year, the trick is to stay inspired. See how our idea was informed by experimenting with simple shapes.
Inspiration
Our inspiration started with capturing the spirit of New Year’s Eve at midnight. There’s so much imagery that lends itself to this idea of celebration, hope and excitement, but we needed something that could uniquely work in this situation and didn’t feel too cliché.
We were drawn to the simple idea of streamers. They can be quite beautiful and graphic, and the simplicity of the form could give us the flexibility to work in a message. We started exploring the form to see what more we could find.
We used paper to simulate streamers. We particularly liked the opportunity for each streamer to create a form.
Perhaps a form that carried a message.
With that in mind, we returned to the drawing board to see if we could put it on paper.
From there, we developed a solid pencil sketch that would serve as the basis for our design.
Once the idea and the general form were set, the rest was really just pulling the form together and working on details to get everything just right. And… voila! A holiday card is made.
The cards will be available soon on the Robin Hood website for purchase. Stay tuned for details.
MSLK team, This is wonderful, beautiful and for a great cause. I can’t wait to buy my set. (Although it’s hard to think about winter so soon.) Cheers!
By: Jennifer on August 28, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Thanks Jennifer, we like everyone are thinking about our “environmental” impacts locally this year and no one does a better job of caring for New Yorkers in need than the Robin Hood foundation. As soon as the link to purchase is live, Ellen will post it here.
By: sheri on August 28, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Great work guys, I absolutely love it! It only seems like yesterday that I was working with you all on last years Holiday Card – can’t believe that’s a year ago already. I’ll certainly be buying some when they’re ready. Hope you’re all well! I miss you all.
By: Kirsty Moyser on August 30, 2009 at 11:01 pm
I really like these! Love how festive they are. Great job
By: Yaritsa Arenas on October 20, 2009 at 5:27 am
Thanks Yaritsa!
By: ellen on October 20, 2009 at 7:30 am
[...] For a behind-the-scenes as to how MSLK created the design, click here. [...]
By: Holiday Cards by MSLK Now on Sale at Robin Hood Foundation! on November 23, 2009 at 3:04 pm