Custom Christmas (Holiday) Cards

Custom designed and photographed card(s) for the Monterey Bay Academy (MBA) Alumni and Development Office.

December, 2021

Graphic Design, Photography, Print Design

Since 2008, the Alumni and Development Office has produced a customized, annual Christmas card for the purpose of thanking donors for their contribution to the school. Until 2013, the front of the cards utilized vintage photographs from the school's archives. Since then, the card fronts have been focused on using a Christmas-at-the-beach theme, due to the school's location. The 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2017 covers were photographed by Benjamin Designs/Kent Cabreira Photography, as described below.

Other Credits:
Photography (2013, 2015, 2016, 2017) — Kent Cabreira Photography
Commercial Printing — Bay Photo Lab

2021 Christmas Card — The alumni and development director provided an example of a Bible verse (Isaiah 9:6) that was typographically set to act like a beam of light coming from a star in the sky. The idea was to do something similar—but tree-shaped over the reflection of the setting sun on the ocean, with the sun depicting the "star" at the top of the tree. Several iterations of font choices, as well as length and version of the Bible verse, finally ended with the final outer design.

To further emphasize the outer text layout, the inside text was dramatically altered from previous years' designs to match.

The principal's card only altered the inside bottom panel, removing the "Alumni and Development Office of Monterey Bay Academy," to provide more room for personal notes and signature.

2020 Christmas Card — This year, the school's alumni and development director setup a manger on the beach bluff and caught a nice highlight on the ground below. To further add emphasis, I used frequency separation to modify the direction of the sun's reflection on the ocean to point at the manger, instead of original angle that naturally pointed at the camera (a few degrees to the left, just at the edge of the leafed bush.

The principal's card used the same outside design, but used different text of the inside bottom panel and blank top panel for personal notes to the recipient.

2019 Christmas Card — The 2019 card offered a challenge: merge two photos, taken by the alumni and development director, at the school's beach—one of an incoming wave , the other of a carefully laid out Christmas tree shape consisting of starfish, sand dollars, and smaller shells found on that beach, mixed with bauble ornaments.

2019 Christmas Card — The final card design and layout.

The principal's card (not shown) used a photo of a simple grouping of the same ornaments, taken at a low angle across the beach, with the inner panels modified to provide space for notes to the recipients.

2018 Christmas Card — Re-purposing a photo from the school's marketing department fit the theme of gathering together. Students routinely gather around the "senior circle" for to study, as well as school functions when the fire pit is roaring with a warm blazing fire.

As with previous years, the inside of card design was modified (not shown) for additional spacing for the principal to utilize for handwritten notes to his recipients.

2017 Christmas Card — The director for the school's Alumni and Development department wanted to create a “warm” themed card that incorporated the idea of sitting at the beach and watching one of the infamous sunsets that the school's location is know for. As shown, adirondak chairs were chosen for their notoriety to denote outdoor relaxation. Additional changes to the card's preceding design was to change both the interior and exterior script font to more a beach-themed font, and pull a warm, orange color from the final sunset photo.

2017 Facebook Cover Photo and Principal's Christmas Card (interior) — The final photo (left) was cropped for the school's Facebook cover page, and text was added—using the same fonts and colors as the card.

Since 2014, the school's principal has requested an additional set of cards with an alternate interior (right). The interior was modified with an inspirational message and room for the principal to write a private message for each recipient.

2016 Concepts — The Director of Alumni and Development sought out a local company to etch the school's seal onto a clear ornament (bauble) to be used as a centerpiece for each concept, surrounded by silver/gray and blue ornaments (the school's official colors).

The initial idea was to integrate the ornaments amongst naturally-growing plants (which we improperly labeled "seagrass") on the beach. The end of high tide provided a lake-like background, instead of a common blanket of beach sand. The school's physical location is home to the Monterey cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa) tree, which provided the basis for the next concept: the "cypress bough." We intentionally did not use the silver/gray ornaments to reduce glare/brightness, and photographed two (2) options—with and without the twine inside the clear ornament, with the twine winning out for its added interest and better readability of the school's seal. And finally, a driftwood option, which was not chosen for use this year, because of its simplicity, but may lend itself to future use as a meme.

The "cypress bough" concept (top right) was chosen for the for the card cover, and the "seagrass" concept (top left) was designed to be used as the school's Facebook cover page (bottom left).

2016 Christmas Card — The final card design and layout was press-printed on a pearl metallic paper.

2015 Christmas Card — The final card design and layout was press-printed on a pearl metallic paper.

Original concept: Have a Christmas tree on the beach. While discussing the concept with the client, I suggested having the shoot at sunset/golden hour (instead of daylight hours) and add lights to the tree. This, in turn, spurred the idea of having a small campfire (why have a lone tree on the beach?). The school has a very long history of having bonfires on the beach for a variety of events. We knew that this would spark fond memories for donors who attended the school. At the time of the shoot, seating was added to provide a more plausible scenario.

Weather was closely monitored, including cloud patterns, to ensure a classic sunset beach scene. The client received several questions as to the authenticity of the final image, especially in regards to the Christmas tree being lit. Everything in the final image is authentic: the Christmas tree lights were powered by a portable electric generator, the overall lighting is blended from shots taken throughout the golden hour (highlighting the sand around the tree, as well as the light falling on the bluffs), and the sky is from the opposite angle of the tree, then flipped to have the sun setting in the correct direction.

Card cover cropped and used as the school's December 2015 Facebook cover page.

2014 and 2013 Christmas Cards — The final card design and layout was press-printed on a pearl metallic paper.

The 2014 card (left) featured a snowman on the MBA beach, built and photographed by the client. The 2013 card (right) was inspired by from another card design, but featured studio photography of personally-owned shells from the MBA beach, as well as a photograph of the Monterey Bay taken in Pacific Grove, CA already in the Benjamin Design/Kent Cabreira Photography library.