New Dream Girl Cards Wave 2

As was mentioned in the last post, I'm working my way through a backlog of new additions to the Dream Girl custom set.  Here is the second wave of six cards.  

I noted that there's a few of the girls in the new additions that'll be featured on two cards with my inability to chose one photo over the other.  This time around it was Emma Watson.  My cards, my rules ;) 

Emma Watson, Just For Fun

I came upon a the above picture of Emma Watson in a bright red (my favorite color) floral lace dress and it gave me an idea for a the card you see above.  This is an original autograph card design of mine.  I title the files I've done in this style as "slim autograph cards".  Typically they're clean with a little stylizing and plenty of white space to make an autograph pop.  This one turned out the way I pictured it in my head so I was pretty pleased with the end result.

To the best of my knowledge Emma Watson doesn't do much signing, but if she ever does do a private signing or something and it isn't a budget breaker I'll have a card ready to go.

Emma Watson

Awhile back I was approached with a request to do a commissioned card of Emma Watson.  The subject line just read "Emma Watson card?".  My first thought was Harry Potter, and I really wasn't feeling like I'd be the right for that custom card.  I know nothing about Harry Potter.  Never read the books or seen the movies and I have no intention of doing either.  On top of that, I knew Harry Potter already had licensed cards produced.

Fortunately it wasn't a request for an Emma Watson Harry Potter custom card.  What the request was for was a card of Emma Watson from the 2013 movie she starred in called The Bling Ring, which I was equally unfamiliar with.  I explained this and how I didn't think I could do the card justice not knowing anything about the proposed card's subject.  When I make cards I prefer to be at least somewhat familiar with the card's subject and from there dive in-depth for details that make the card as good as I can make it.  For me, I feel better if the final result "makes sense" and isn't a picture plugged into a template.  I end up spending a lot of time on the cards I create, so it's important to me that they have an integrity to them.

Explaining this in a roundabout way left the requester unmoved.  For him, it was more about the image and he was leaving it up to me to make something that "looked cool".  Usually, that's something I hate honestly.  I know what looks cool to *me* but if it's a card for someone else I like some art direction as to what *they* envision and we can collaborate some ideas from there.

Although I was totally unfamiliar with The Bling Ring I was familiar with the image that the requester wanted used.  I'd seen the .gif of Emma Watson dancing provocatively hundreds of times.  Okay... I'll make the card.

The movie came out in 2013 and even though that's 8 years ago, relative to the timeframe of the vast majority of my cards emulate, 2013 is "ultra-modern"... to me anyways.  I just couldn't see this making sense on anything I'd done previously, and especially on a vintage cardboard stock.  So, I set out to step outside of my box a bit.  

I took this as opportunity to test my creativity.  What I came up with I think could best be described as  Topps' Allen & Ginter card in league with a Panini National Treasures' overall aesthetic. The card is the normal 3.5" height, but I thought it would be fun to bring in the width (approx. 2.09") which I thought worked better to highlight the image.  The back I think is pretty simple, but stylish enough to compliment the front.  

In the end the new owner was thrilled with the final result.  Based on his approval I got to thinking that maybe others might like this card as well?  I know that Emma Watson has a pretty big following, so I've decided to offer this card in my store and see what kind of reception it garners.