🎯 Design
Christmas Card Prompt: Design Brief and Message Writer
Turn your style likes, print plan and recipient list into three Christmas card design directions, a print-ready spec, front art prompt and inside messages.
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Prompt
Act as a greeting card designer and copywriter who plans a family's or small business's Christmas card from start to mailbox. Give me design choices I can actually print and messages that sound like us, not like a store card. Inputs: - Names to sign the card with: [Sender] - Who gets cards, in groups with rough counts (family, friends, neighbors, clients): [Recipients] - Our news from this year, only what we are happy to share: [YearNews] - Styles, colors, and materials we like or dislike: [StyleLikes] - How we will print (home printer, local print shop, online printer), card size, budget, and whether foil is possible: [PrintPlan] - Tone (warm, funny, faith-based, simple): [Tone] - Photo use: a photo we took ourselves and have permission to use, or no photo: [PhotoUse] Rules: use only our news, no invented milestones. Do not copy existing card designs, brand characters, or song lyrics. Give colors as approximate hex values I can adjust. For print specs, tell me what to ask the printer (template, bleed, safe area, foil file setup) instead of guessing their numbers. If a photo shows other people's kids, remind me to ask their parents first. Generate: 1. Three Christmas card design directions: name, mood, front layout, palette with hex values, type pairing, paper and finish, envelope and extras. 2. Recommended direction: which one fits our PrintPlan and budget best, and why, in two sentences. 3. Card design spec for that direction: front, back, and inside layout, where text sits, and a list of print files I need. 4. Front art prompt: one paragraph for an image generator to create the front artwork with no text, matching the direction. 5. Front greeting: three short options. 6. Inside messages: one message per recipient group, in our Tone, using only YearNews, each under 50 words. 7. Printer questions: the five questions to ask before ordering. 8. Addressing and mailing checklist: steps from address list to mailbox, with a reminder to check the carrier's holiday shipping dates.
Instructions
Share only news you are happy for every recipient to read. Variation: set PhotoUse to a photo you took yourself and ask for a photo card layout. Tip: ask the printer for a proof, since thin foil lines can fill in.
Generated Output
This image was generated using the prompt above.
Examples
Example Input
Sender: Maya, Daniel and Biscuit the dog. Recipients: family (14), friends (20), neighbors on our street (8, hand-delivered). YearNews: moved into our first house in March; adopted Biscuit, a rescue beagle mix, in June; Daniel ran his first half marathon. StyleLikes: deep green, gold, natural kraft paper, botanical drawings, dried oranges and twine. Dislike: cartoon Santas, glitter. PrintPlan: local print shop, 5x7 inch folded cards, about 45 cards, budget around $120, foil possible on the front only. Tone: warm with a little humor. PhotoUse: no photo this year.
Example Output
1. DESIGN DIRECTIONS A. Foil Pine. Quiet and classic. One gold-foil pine branch with red berries running diagonally across a deep green front, lots of empty space. Palette: deep green #1F3D2B, gold foil, berry red #A3262A, cream inside #F5F0E6. Type: a classic serif for the greeting, a simple sans for small text. Paper: heavy uncoated card stock. Envelope: kraft. Extras for neighbors: twine bow and a dried orange slice. B. Snowy Village. Soft watercolor of snowy cottages at dusk on white textured paper, greeting in dark blue serif. Palette: snow white #FAFAF7, slate blue #5B6F8A, window gold #E3B04B. Envelope: dusty blue. C. Starry Navy. Navy front scattered with small gold-foil stars and one larger star. Palette: navy #1C2541, gold foil, white. Envelope: white or kraft. 2. RECOMMENDED A. Foil Pine. It uses your favorite colors and kraft, needs foil on the front only, which fits the print plan, and a single branch keeps foil area small for the $120 budget. 3. CARD DESIGN SPEC (5x7 folded) Front: pine branch from lower left to upper right, no text, or a small foil "Merry Christmas" lower right if you pick that greeting in section 5. Inside left: blank. Inside right: message centered, signed "Maya, Daniel and Biscuit". Back: small line "Maya, Daniel and Biscuit, Christmas 2026". Files: front art with foil as a separate layer, inside text file, back file. 4. FRONT ART PROMPT Flat front artwork for a folded Christmas card: a single elegant pine branch drawn in fine gold lines with clusters of small red berries, running diagonally across a deep green background, botanical illustration style, generous empty space, no text, no glitter, no characters. 5. FRONT GREETING "Merry Christmas" / "Peace and joy" / no text (let the branch speak). 6. INSIDE MESSAGES Family: "What a year! We bought our first house in March, and in June Biscuit moved in and took the best spot on the couch. Daniel even ran his first half marathon. Merry Christmas, with love from Maya, Daniel and Biscuit." Friends: "New house, new dog, one finished half marathon (Daniel's, not Biscuit's). Thank you for cheering us on this year. Merry Christmas!" Neighbors: "We loved our first year on this street. Merry Christmas from Maya, Daniel and Biscuit, the beagle who barks at the mail." 7. PRINTER QUESTIONS Can you send your 5x7 folded template with bleed and safe area? How should the foil layer be set up (vector, one solid color, file type)? What is the thinnest line your foil holds? Which uncoated stocks do you have in stock? Can we see a proof before the full run? 8. ADDRESSING AND MAILING Update the address list and split it into the three groups. Order 3 extra cards for mistakes. Print or hand-write envelopes, stamp the mailed ones, and tie twine and an orange slice on the 8 neighbor cards. Check your carrier's holiday shipping dates before you set a mailing day.