In our world, Christmas in July is a lovely reality—a time for
printing holiday card samples, wrapping gifts, and twirling up a
Christmas tree. This year, we want to let you in on the fun and pull
back the curtain on our year-long creative process that goes into
creating a collection we hope will inspire you to spread joy
throughout the season.
Without further ado, we are thrilled to (finally!) unveil the 2024
collection for you to enjoy and share with your nearest and dearest.
While you wait to stumble across the perfect card for you, here’s a
peek behind the scenes of Artifact Uprising’s North Pole.
As you begin to pack away the Christmas decorations and usher in the
new year, we begin dreaming up next year’s holiday cards. The
process commences with an internal trend forecast, where we look to
social media, fashion, interior design, year-end results, and our
own intuition to guide our predictions for the year’s most
noteworthy trends.
With a trend forecast and a mood board as the firm foundation, our
Creative Team dives into preliminary designs, following a
traditional upside-down triangle approach. We start with dozens of
mock-ups, and after two rounds of reviews, the best designs are
perfected and filtered down to shape the well-rounded collection you
see today.
“Our holiday card core DNA is unique photo layouts, beautiful
typography, and luxurious white space. We want to leave breathing
room for your photos to be the primary focus of your card.” –
Aslee Livingston, Creative Director
This year, Creative Director Aslee Livingston set the tone by
embracing key trends while remaining true to our high-design DNA.
She envisioned distinctive layouts featuring nostalgic collages and
layered compositions, “quiet luxury” elements such as elegant blind
debossing, and thoughtful details like stamps, stickers, and bows
(lots of bows!).
Aslee also noted her interest in using real lettered-by-hand
typography and serifs of all sorts. “I wanted the team to experiment
with vintage serifs. They read 1990s to me in a way that feels
really fresh right now.”
The result was everything she had imagined and more. Every element
of every card was thoughtfully curated to capture the joy and beauty
of the season in a way that feels both modern and timeless.
We sat down with the talented women behind the magic to dive into
their inspirations and favorite designs. Keep scrolling for an
inside look at their creative process—and a sneak peek at their top
picks for the 2024 holiday season!
“I hope the customer feels as though their card is so unique, it’s
like sending a little gift in the mail.” – Lauren Ruark, Associate
Art Director
Meet Artifact Uprising’s Associate Art Director, Lauren Ruark. One
of her favorite pastimes is tracking trends, and her go-to source is
wedding stationery. “Though usually more feminine and decorative
than our brand,” she says, “the elevated details inspire me to bring
that same level of sophistication to our designs.”
Exhibit A: The
Tied With a Bow Holiday Card, her favorite card to design this year. Its most sentimental
element is the foil-stamped “With Love” salutation in Lauren’s very
own handwriting. She wanted to balance the card’s elegant accents
with a candid photo of blurry, real-life moments — the perfect touch
of juxtaposition.
Next up: Senior Designer, Jenna Hebeler. She feels most inspired by
the world of interior design and enjoys incorporating trending style
elements into her designs. The new
Retro Checkerboard Holiday Card
is a testament to Jenna’s ability to channel her interior insights
into fresh and innovative product compositions.
Her favorite card to create was the
Photo Captions Holiday Card, featuring text call-outs on the front of the card. “A lot of
people send holiday cards as an annual update to keep their loved
ones in the loop. I thought it would be fun to highlight those
little updates alongside each photo, instead of saving it all for
the back of the card.”
“In my own personal art, I’m doing a lot of work with collage and
layering, and that was the main source of inspiration for me when
designing this card.” – Alaina Coote, Associate Designer
Last but certainly not least, meet Alaina Coote, our Associate
Designer. Call it a trend, but Alaina has always been attuned to
classic design styles with a nostalgic slant. Whether drawing
inspiration from unique coffee table books or pulling in concepts
from her own works of art, her flair for all things vintage is
portrayed often in her tasteful product designs.
It comes as no surprise that her favorite card to design was the
Mood Board Holiday Card, where she honed in on one of our key trends for 2024 (“The Return
of the Collage”) to create a dynamic, personalized design. It feels
like a pinboard filled with your favorite moments from the year—a
card that truly captures Alaina’s signature blend of modern
nostalgia.
