Aviation Holiday Cards: Designing the Magic

When you head to the store this fall and winter, you will see rows of stunning holiday cards with gold foil words gleaming “Happy Holidays” and joyous images of little winter critters. It can be a difficult decision to choose the best one; do you go with the full Douglas fir or the penguin on a sled?

For our Graphic Designer, Melanie, card design is important to her—choosing the correct font, the right message, and the best scenery cannot be overlooked. Why is it so important to her? Because Melanie is the lovely individual behind AOPA’s Pilot Gear Holiday Cards. For the past two years, she has helped develop and design the aviation-themed holiday cards that grace the walls of families come December.

We wanted to get an inside look at designing the magical holiday cards that are an annual tradition for many. So, we sat down with her to get insight into her creative process, inspiration, and tools she uses during the development stages.

AOPA: Describe the research process when beginning a new card? 

Some of this process is based on what has been successful in past years. Ensuring that the cards are a keepsake our customers find worthy of sharing with their loved ones is very important. Depending on the chosen style, a lot of consideration goes into finding the right tools for execution, the right setting for the scene, the right model of plane, and so forth. This process usually starts with a concept and moves on to mood boards to help with inspiration, sketches, and finally the painting itself.

AOPA: What is your process for developing cards and has that changed over the years?

I feel like every year the inspiration for the designs change. Sometimes they’re light and fun. This year I wanted to make something that felt nostalgic for home. This year has been more than a little taxing on families everywhere and that’s a sentiment many at AOPA can empathize with. While the holidays will undoubtedly look different this year, I wanted these cards to send a message of familiarity and peace with a traditional painting approach. Each new style means using different brushes, inspirational material, and printing decisions. So yes, the process definitely does change, depending on the intended message!

AOPA: What artistic tools do you value most when working on the holiday cards for AOPA?

My toolset has varied drastically over the last few years as technology has improved and tools have become more accessible and portable. In school, I was primarily a traditional-media illustrator with ink and paint and some experience with using a Wacom Intuos tablet. Out of school, I invested in a Wacom Cintiq pen display that was far more ergonomic and comfortable to work with but kept me desk-bound. In the last year, I have started using an iPad paired with the Apple Pencil, which were my tools of choice when beginning this project. I still love traditional media and always will, but the portability and versatility of an iPad really can’t be beaten.

AOPA: Do trends in the artistic community provide any inspiration for you?

Absolutely! I try to stay current with the graphic design and fantasy artwork communities by attending art conventions and keeping a close eye on artists that inspire me. Trends within both communities tend to change all the time, redefining acceptable practices both in a technical and stylistic lens. With a vast amount of today’s work being done on computers, the tools we work with are constantly being updated, to great effect of how a new project is approached.

AOPA: If you had to pick a favorite set of cards, which one would it be? Why?

I think my favorite of the pair is the Silent Night card. It is the first one that I worked on, so from an artist’s perspective it’s the one that taught me the most about how to proceed with the second.

AOPA: Random. Who is your biggest creative inspiration? Living or dead, and why?

In media, I think I draw a lot of inspiration from Hayao Miyazaki films and Tomm Moore’s work on The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea. But In all honesty, my greatest inspiration comes from artists I follow more exclusively on social media. Some of those people are friends and instructors, like Danielle Corsetto who headed the illustration course I took in college and has continued to inspire me with how she captures the beauty of her hometown through her comics. Or Bruce Brenneise, an incredible fantasy landscape artist with whom I had the opportunity to chat and exchanged social handles at Illuxcon in 2016. And some of those are currently up and coming artists I’ve never met like Lois van Baarle (Screen name Loish), who was probably the largest inspiration for me to get into digital painting early on and is notable for her concept artwork in the video game Horizon Zero Dawn among other accomplishments. There are so many more names I could mention here, and so many more artists that I regrettably don’t know by name. Our world is saturated with so many wonderful artists who teach through example.