Behind the Design: How We Create Our British Art & Greeting Cards

Hi, I'm Jess, one of the artists here at Whistlefish, and I thought I'd take you behind the scenes of how one of our cards comes to life.

People often ask where our ideas come from and how a card goes from a blank page to something sitting on a shop shelf. The truth is, every design has its own journey, but they all start in a very similar way, with a little spark of inspiration.

 

Finding Inspiration

Inspiration is everywhere when you're looking for it.

It might be a walk through a garden full of flowers, a beautiful illustration in a book, a scroll through Pinterest, or even a piece of packaging that catches your eye. Sometimes it's something completely unexpected, like a colour combination on a stranger's outfit or a lovely shop display.

As artists, we're constantly collecting ideas. We take photos, save images, sketch things we spot and squirrel away little details that inspire us. You never quite know what might become the starting point for a future card.

Planning & Sketching

Once an idea starts to take shape, we gather together all our inspiration and create a mood board. This helps us explore the feeling we want the design to have and keeps everything moving in the same direction.

From there, the sketchbook comes out.

This is where we start experimenting with layouts, compositions and different ideas. Sometimes a design comes together quickly, while other times it takes lots of sketching and tweaking before it feels just right. It's a process of playing, refining and seeing where the idea wants to go.

Choosing a Colour Palette

Colour is one of my favourite parts of the design process.

Some of the best colour palettes have come from the most unexpected places. A friend's patterned trousers, a candle box, a bunch of flowers on the kitchen table or even a sunset on the drive home from work.

We're always noticing colours and imagining how they might work together on a card. The right palette can completely change the mood of a design, making it feel joyful, calming, romantic or playful.

 

Bringing the Design to Life

Once we're happy with the sketch, it's time to start adding colour and personality.

Depending on the design, this might mean painting with watercolours, drawing digitally, or combining both techniques. This is the stage where the artwork really starts to come alive and the original idea begins to feel like a finished card.

It's always exciting seeing those first colours appear and watching the illustration develop.

Adding All the Little Details

This is where we can happily lose hours.

We love adding the tiny details that make a design feel extra special. It might be a little bird tucked into the background, rosy cheeks on a character, delicate patterns on flower petals or small hidden touches that aren't obvious at first glance.

When you pick up a Whistlefish card, there's a good chance you're looking at hundreds of carefully considered details. Every flower, brushstroke and finishing touch has been chosen by an artist who genuinely cares about making something beautiful.

 

Adding the Magic

Once the artwork is finished, we start thinking about how to make it even more special.

This is where finishes like foil, embossing, spot UV and die-cuts come in. Gold foil catches the light beautifully, embossing adds texture you can feel beneath your fingertips, and spot UV creates gorgeous glossy highlights.

These finishing touches help turn an illustration into something that feels like a little keepsake. They're often the details that make someone pick up a card and say, "Oh, that's lovely."

 

Getting Print Ready

Before a design can be printed, there's a lot of behind-the-scenes work to do.

We carefully prepare the artwork, separating out the different layers for foil, embossing and special finishes. There are plenty of checks, tweaks and double-checks along the way to make sure every detail will print exactly as intended.

It's probably the most technical part of the process, but it's an important one.

 

Off to Production!

Once we're completely happy with every detail, the design is signed off and sent to production.

After that, it begins its journey to becoming a finished Whistlefish card, ready to sit on a shelf, be chosen by someone special and hopefully bring a smile to another person's face.

 

That's one of the things I love most about what we do. Every card starts as an idea on a sketchbook page, but it ends up helping people celebrate, connect, comfort, thank and show they care.

And that's a pretty wonderful thing to be a part of.