In the past 3 years I have been making Christmas greeting cards for my mum's company, which has clients from Germany, Italy and United State. 

This year (2021), I wanted to experiment with embossed printing, and had this idea of using embossed texture on the scarf of a minimalism snowman, to have this emphasize on the warmth of the scarf in a cold winter setup. 

幫家裡的公司做聖誕賀卡已經第三年了。今年想要嘗試打凹/打凸，想說用打凸的方法去強調一個極簡雪人圍巾部分的材質，讓寒冬和溫暖的圍巾做出對比。

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Time spent: 1.5 months

時長：1.5個月
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Cost: NTD8400 ≈ GBP230 for 100+ sheets

花費：台幣8400，100+張卡
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Concept: Stay simple with the shapes, use bold colour, and experiment with embossed texture.

理念：維持簡單的形狀、使用大膽的顏色，且實驗打凹/凸。
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Process: Make draft using Illustrator, confirm with printing company the budget and technical limitations, finish the draft, render preview, send for test print, adjust the draft, print.

過程：用Illustrator做初稿，向印刷公司確認預算和技術限制，完成稿件，電腦渲染預覽，試印，根據試印結果調整稿件，打印。
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Afterthoughts: Due to budget limitations, I had to go with CMYK printing instead of using special coloured inks. I wanted to go with a more desaturated colour, but I realised it was not possible with the CMYK printing after seeing the test print. The embossed texture came out to be more regular and repetitive than it looked on the computer. I wish I had spent more time making each little ">" shape different instead of scattering four identical shapes. Overall I'm satisfied.

反思：因預算限制，只能用數位印刷的方式進行。原本想要用特殊色墨水營造出比較日式的顏色，比較接近電腦png版本的感覺。但受印刷公司數位印刷的墨水和紙材限制，降低墨水飽和度斑駁感變得很明顯，最終使用了飽和度高（CMYK很多都是到了100%）的設定進行印刷。打凸的圖案在電腦上看起來還好，但實際上出來看起來很重複很工業化。應該是因為我Illustrator中圖案是用四個微微變形的“>”隨機散佈而不是每個“>”都有自己獨特的變形的關係。總體來說還是挺滿意的。
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Printing company: @sensationsprint

Final Result (PNG): 成品的PNG版

Early drafts: 初稿

Computer rendered preview (Blender): 電腦渲染預覽

Test Print: 試印

Final Result (Photography continued): 成品繼續