Designs of gift cards for an apparel and furnishing brand embodied the beauty of the company’s creations as well as the spirit of gift giving.
Background and Requirement
Suvasa is a Jaipur (Rajasthan), India based apparel and furnishing company that creates ethnic contemporary textiles. The fashion house specialises in using natural fabrics that are printed using natural dyes with traditional block printed motifs, and fabricated in-house. Their wide and exciting product range — available online and at retail stores in major Indian cities — has a distinctive, beautiful style: a blend of traditional, modern and chic.
Suvasa’s stunning products make excellent gifts for both formal and informal occasions. In 2017, they commissioned the design of gift cards — in three denominations — which customers could purchase. Using them, recipients could buy gifts of their choice at Suvasa stores.
Design Rationale
Printing Method and Card Size
To begin with, the printing method was considered. Since the cards were not required in large quantities, conventional offset printing was ruled out and digital offset was chosen as the printing process. Working backwards from the size of 18 x 12 inches that the digital offset machine could accommodate, 6 inches (width) x 3 inches (height) was finalised as the card size so that 12 cards could print on a single sheet of paper.
Inspiration
The element of beauty is an intrinsic part of Suvasa’s creations. Their apparel and furnishing is not only impeccably crafted, it is also adorned with the most beautiful block printed natural / leafy / floral patterns — which provided inspiration for the design of the gift cards.
Gift Card Layout
In the given size, Suvasa logo with tagline, Suvasa crest and the denomination were placed in key areas (top left, bottom left and centre, respectively). Their colour (Maroon) and font (Georgia) followed Suvasa’s brand guidelines (see related article: Design of Brand Tags for Suvasa). A beautiful leafy, floral illustration or design adorned the remaining area, like on Suvasa’s fabrics.
The overall formal feel of the layout was based on the design of currency notes. To achieve a sense of balance in the layout, the illustration — scanned from a fabric — was carefully adjusted in an image editing software and optimised to print bright. To visually differentiate cards of the three denominations, three different colour schemes of the same illustration were chosen.
Back side of the cards consisted of terms and conditions, store and website / social media addresses, and space for official signature, stamp, date and bar code.
In Essence
Overall look of the gift cards related to and represented Suvasa’s beautiful creations. Colours and typeface used confirmed to the company’s brand identity style guide. Their formal and elegant feel also embodied the sentiment or spirit of gift giving.
Technical Details
The cards were printed in four colour digital offset, on Cordenon’s 300gsm paper, front and back. Envelopes of handmade paper (that the city of Jaipur is well known for) were also fabricated and given along with the cards.
Stay in Touch With Suvasa
If you’d like to stay updated with Suvasa’s beautiful creations and their ever evolving product range, you can follow them on FaceBook and Instagram.
Copyright Information
Suvasa logo, Suvasa crest, all product, fabric and gift card designs featured in this article are copyrighted and may not be copied or reproduced in any manner. © Copyright, Suvasa (Jaipur, Rajasthan, India). All Rights Reserved.
Photo Credits
- Photographs of Suvasa store, fabrics and products © Copyright, Suvasa
- Paper texture on card mockups courtesy Kues1 on Freepik.com
