TOP 3 ELEMENTS OF A GREAT CHRISTMAS DESIGN

Happy New Year!

I hope you had a lovely festive season (even if ‘festive’ might not be quite the right word for the end of 2020). However you celebrated, I know you’re glad to put all that shopping, cooking, eating and drinking behind you for another year - but if you’re a commercial artist/designer you still need to be thinking about Christmas.

I remember feeling weird years ago, sitting under a tree, sheltered from a beating New York Summer sun, while hand-stitching snowmen for a group of appliqued designs. But I knew that buyers look for Christmas art all year round, working way in advance of the occasion - and Summer is a great time to sell.

So what makes a good Christmas design?

When you buy Christmas cards, gift wrap, napkins, table and kitchenware for the holiday season you want them to look ‘Christmassy’. Otherwise, you’d use the regular stuff you use all year round.

And when you’re choosing those products in the shops, you know whether they fit the bill or not and whether you want to part with your money - but when you’re designing you may be less certain.

What exactly is Christmassy?

Colour

This is the big one. You can paint Santa stood next to a Christmas tree - but if you get the colours wrong, it won’t say Christmas and you won’t be able to sell it. Christmas isn’t just red and green and sparkles - but there is a Christmas colour code and you need to know the ‘rules’ and how far you can go without breaking them.

Subject Matter

There are so many classic Christmas motifs. You’ve probably seen lists of them as prompts on Instagram in the lead up to Christmas - stockings, bells, a wreath, a bauble, a reindeer etc. They're symbolic of the Christmas period and it's important that you use them in your work to send a clear 'Christmassy 'message. The challenge is to design the same things over and over again - but in new and exciting ways.

Theme

This matters because by thinking in terms of themes you’ll find unique angles from which to approach your traditional motifs!

“But isn’t the theme...Christmas?” I hear you say.

Yes - but the Christmas traditions we know and love today come from so many sources - time periods, geographical locations, cultural influences, home-decor trends and so on and so on.

In my Create Christmas courses, I’ll show you three different exciting themes. You’ll be motivated and inspired to explore sides of Christmas you didn’t even know existed!

My latest Create Christmas course, with brand new themes, starts Jan 18th (next Monday). Join me and loads of talented artists of all levels to explore this important area of commercial design. Last chance to sign up so you don’t miss out. (Click the link at the top of the page to learn more and sign up.)

In the meantime, have a look at this stunning work from artists who’ve taken Create Christmas. Look at the variety of approaches, colour palettes and subject matter. Try and guess what the themes were!