INDIVIDUAL PROJECT - Artwork GUIDELINES
Bold and bright designs that fill the paper produce the best effect. Large areas of white background are less effective.
GET THE BEST RESULTS
Good RESULTS
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Pastels (chalk or oil)
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Paints (all techniques and media)
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Collage (including paper and fabric - ensure these are stuck well)
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Felt Tips
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Line drawings in ink
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Inks
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Printing
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Charcoal
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Glitter
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Same coloured media or material on the same coloured background
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Light coloured pencils or pencil drawings
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Pencils or coloured pencils onto coloured paper
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Metallic pens & paint
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Photos printed on glossy paper
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Reflective or shiny papers or materials
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Sellotape or transparent film
DO NOT USE
Complete artwork on A4 or A5 sized paper or card. The artwork can be either landscape or portrait.
Please attach artwork to the form with a glue Stick! Don't use staples, paperclips and sellotape as this will show on the card!
Try to keep designs unfolded and damage free as creases and marks will show on the final print.
Please circle the arrow on the order form which points to the top of the artwork so we print it correctly.
Keep important details such as text, border designs and/or important features at least 1cm away from the edge of the paper.
We cut the finished cards a couple of mm in from the edge so as to avoid white lines on the cards and we hate trimming off important details!
Please note anything extending beyond the A4 or A5 sheet will not appear on the finished card at all.
OH
NO!
If you wish to produce a card from a photograph, please send in a jpg file to our email address:
office@cauliflowercards.co.uk
PHOTOGRAPH GUIDELINES
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Your photo should be 'high' resolution (but not too high - so it can be sent via email). Ideally your image should be 150dpi at A4 size and no more than 10mb in size.
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Please provide us an email address on the order so we can send a proof PDF for sign off.
Please call 0800 043 2273 if you have any further enquiries or need to organise a bespoke job.
TIPS TO AVOID DISAPPOINTING RESULTS
Things close to the edge:
Problem:
Important elements of the design close to the edge of the paper in production of the card are trimmed off.
Solution:
Keep important features at least 1cm away from the edge of your A4/A5 design if you would prefer artwork printed without a border. We do our best to spot anything close to the edge and we will border with a white border to stop any important detail getting trimmed off.
Same coloured media on same coloured background:
Problem:
Same coloured media, such as cottonwool or white paint on white paper, may be clear on the artwork, but when the design is put through the artwork process it appears lighter and flatter. There is not enough contrast with the background to work well.
Solution:
Try to create as much contrast between the design/artwork and the background paper as possible. Cotton wool on white paper blends into the background; Try the cotton wool design onto coloured paper/material this works really well.
Lightly pressed colour pencils or graphite pencil
(white & coloured backgrounds):
Problem:
Coloured Pencils give variable results and If the artwork is faint on the paper it will not show on the printed card.
Onto Coloured Paper:
Colour and graphite pencils and some Biro pens do not print well on any brightly coloured papers such as Blue, Green, Red and Black. The contrast between the drawing and the background isn’t great enough and the printer will convert to nearest colour.
Solution:
To get a better result on coloured background: use a thicker black felt tip pen on the coloured background and this will print better.
Coloured Pencils and Graphite pencils need to be firmly applied onto white paper.
Reflective or shiny paper or materials:
Problem:
Reproduction techniques cause the colour to change due to reflection.
Solution:
To get a better result use different coloured matt paper or materials like sugar paper and tissue paper.
Sellotape or transparent film:
Problem:
Reproduction techniques cause the colour to change due to reflection.
Solution:
Try not to use use sellotape, and transparent film over your artwork as it produces unwanted reflection and spoils the look of the artwork! We try to catch things, but we cannot remove sellotape or it may ruin the artwork; if you don’t want these on the card please take them off before they come to us.
Problem:
Our artwork process causes Metallic paints to change colour due to reflection and reproduction techniques. Silver metallic pens disappear on white paper.
Solution:
Try to stick to non-metallic pens because the metallic effect doesn’t reproduce when printed. If you are going to use silver/gold/metallic pens try to use on black paper – and expect the colours to be printed lighter than on the original due to the reflection (silver often comes out white).
Silver pen on white:
Photos on glossy photo paper:
Problem:
Reproduction techniques cause the light to bounce off reflective paper.
Solution:
Try not to use glossy photo papers. Try to use a Matt finish paper so no reflection occurs.
Please stick things down firmly so pieces don't drop off (usually googly eyes!)
Keep work flat so that designs don't get folded or creased.
Please take a look at our art project gallery for some great ideas of artwork that have printed really well in previous years and produced the best results.