If you’ve been a friend of Spindogs for a while, you’ll know we usually orchestrate an epic and amusing festive scene for the annual Christmas card.
See last year’s card here!
This year, we were faced with the dilemma of wanting to recreate the festive madness but being mindful of the ever-expanding team, remote workers, the physical size of the card and hours of photoshopping and design time to get everyone in!
After banging our heads against the desk for a few hours* trying to come up with a new concept, we were struck with the idea of turning tradition completely on its head and going minimal.
*days
“Well, that sounds like a cop out!” I hear you cry… but there’s a method to our madness.
The concept
This year saw the company turn 15 and in honour of this, we launched our 15 Charities for 15 Years campaign with an aim to raise as much money as possible for the incredible charities we selected. Each charity was put forward because it holds meaning to someone in the team, so it’s a cause very close to the heart of Spindogs.
We looked at previous year’s costs for double-gated cards (we just can’t all fit on one side anymore!) and from there, it was clear that if we kept the production costs for the 2019 card down, we’d have some money left to donate.
After meeting with our design team, we came away with some concepts to think about and finally landed on a simple line drawing of our beloved building, Pascoe House which has been our home for the majority of Spindogs history.
One of our super talented Graphic Designers, Clare Treverrow, doubles up as an illustrator in her spare time, so it was the perfect opportunity to showcase her skills whilst including everyone in the charity campaign AND we’d get a beautiful drawing of the HQ!
The design
We felt the drawing alone lent itself really well to a Christmas scene without needing too much adding to it, so a simple Spindogs red “Merry Christmas” and another cheeky flash of red on the inside and back tied everything together whilst fitting the festive but minimal brief.
The copy
We knew some of our longest-standing clients would be expecting the big Spindogs group photo card from previous years, so it was important to us that we explained our new approach properly.
We also wanted to showcase each of the charities, but with 15 of them and an explanation of what they do, that was going to be a lot of copy for one card!
So, with all of this in mind, we opted for some simple; clear copy with a link to take things digital and talk more about the charities via our website.
This is what we settled on:
Merry Christmas to everyone who has supported us in 2019!
This year we’ve decided to do things a little bit differently. We’ve kept our card simple and in honour of our 15 Charities for 15 Years campaign, we’ve donated the budget we would normally spend to the chosen charities to support those in need.
To see who you’ve supported by receiving this card, head to https://www.spindogs.co.uk/christmas-card-2019
Spindogs
With the money saved on the usual production of the card vs the minimalistic theme, we’re now able to donate the difference to the charity pot (which we will continue to donate to until August next year when it will be split between the 15 charities), and by receiving this card, you’ve played a little part in this too!
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