Spread the Joy was a campaign Michael Graves Architecture & Design created for their cards for the 2016 holiday season. I was fortunate enough to design the two card series and send them off to press. The company sent out about 120 pairs of cards, but to really spread the joy, they had to digitize it as well. Joy isn’t just for your family, friends, closest clients, and partners – it’s for everyone. By creating a digital version of the card and sending it out online, they were able to reach almost everyone. They could reach everyone on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, and even their personal email list.

I wanted to take the design from the parent card that was printed on brown craft paper and animate it so that it evokes more emotion than just sending a picture to people. There were a lot of great opportunities to add motion to the design with the Giotto Stars acting as snow, as well as all of the other patterns Michael Graves had created, that were incorporated into the design. For my animation, I created a simple loop of the Giotto Star Snow falling around the bird with a visible twinkle in his eye. I didn’t want to overbear the design with too much motion, and I felt like this was just subtle enough to enhance what was already done with it.

To create the GIF, I wanted to squeeze the most detail into it while still maintaining that it was small enough to incorporate into an email. That being said, I chose to use Adobe Animate, rather than Photoshop, because it gave me more control over the animation and how much detail ended up in the final product. Moreover, I felt like what I needed to do was too large for Photoshop, and the program would have trouble functioning.

I’m very proud of the final product, and I’m glad I could help Michael Graves Architecture & Design ‘Spread the Joy,’ during my time interning there.

Portfolio
Want to know more about this project?
To learn more about the print aspect of this project, and how the cards nest together, you can access my portfolio entry, “Spread the Joy Nesting Cards.”