Greeting Card Designer Job Description

Greeting card designers use their creative abilities and artistic skills to create cards, mugs, posters and novelty items which feature text, illustrations or images. These items are often sold in gift shops, specialty stores, or online.

Typical Job Duties

• Create ideas for text, illustrations or images for cards, mugs, poster and other gifts

• May involve the use of traditional drawing methods or the use of computer aided design applications

• Must select the type of materials to be used

• May collaborate with writers, illustrators or photographers to discuss content or positioning

• Discuss ideas with clients or managers to get a sense of consumer preferences

• May present drafts to managers or clients for final approval

Career Paths for Becoming a Greeting Card Designer

There are three main career paths an aspiring greeting card designer can choose to follow: permanent employment for an established company, freelance work, or starting a greeting card company.

If you are interested in pursuing a career with an established company, a great first step is to speak with your instructors and your school’s career counselors to see if there any available internship or work-study opportunities you can apply for. If there are, you should apply, as these are amazing opportunities to learn valuable on-the-job skills, as well as make industry contacts. You can also try to directly contact the hiring managers of established companies and inquire about any open entry level positions they may have. Getting your foot in the door with an established company can be a great long-term career move, as you will gain a lot of experience.

If the route of freelance work is your chosen path, you will need to build and maintain a marketing plan, which includes your portfolio. Submit your portfolio to the Creative Directors of various greeting card companies that hire freelancers. Freelance work can be highly unreliable, so maintaining another source of income is highly recommended. Each job you work will help you expand your contact base and portfolio, which will help you develop referral clientele and get jobs more consistently.

Do you have a signature style and you want to share your art with the world? If that describes you and you plan to start your own greeting card company, the first thing you should do is create a business plan. A proper business plan will help you outline what you will need, in terms of financing and in terms of action, to start your business.

Scholarships for Becoming a Greeting Card Designer

The Applicable Majors section below shows fields of study relevant to a career as a Greeting Card Designer. You can search for scholarships matched to those fields of study on our Fine Arts Scholarships and Graphic Design Scholarships pages.

Success Tip: Be sure to apply for any scholarships that you even barely qualify for, as there are millions of dollars of scholarships that go unused every year due to a lack of applicants!