Business Card Research

I've left researching the business card until last because I wanted it to be based on the design of my album cover. However I am unsure of how to lay out all of the elements - logo, band name, details etc - so I thought I'd create a mood board just to get a general idea.

I've never really heard of a music band having a business card, but I suppose that they would need one to connect with their clients or even people they want to employ to do work such as designing, audio, or even gigs. From this I'm guessing that I'd probably need to know their main website and email for people to use to contact them.

Mood Boards

Resources: http://www.behance.net/gallery/David-Petro-book-and-paper-restorer-corporate-identity/4096623 http://www.flickr.com/photos/25538071@N04/3880798962/in/pool-62669472@N00/ http://creattica.com/business-cards/vinom-identity/39249 http://creattica.com/business-cards/t-t-business-cards/37550 http://www.flickr.com/photos/mokermaakt/2858388013/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/themandatepress/2398586965/ http://www.noupe.com/design/50-beautiful-business-card-designs.html http://loc0.deviantart.com/art/Muymra-business-cards-52405045 http://naldzgraphics.net/inspirations/60-most-beautiful-and-creative-business-cards-design/ http://inspirationfeed.com/inspiration/95-beautiful-business-card-designs/ http://static.splashnology.com/articles/100-fresh-creative-business-cards/39.jpg http://designsidea.com/business-card-design-examples/

This is the first design I want to pick out because I just love the overall appearance of it; it’s bold and all of the necessary information is on it without it looking too busy.

This is because the information is located on the bottom left-hand corner, leaving sufficient breathing space. The type of “Vinom” matches the one on the front of the card, which shows consistency in the design. It’s quite interesting as it immediately makes the viewer look straight at it because of its bold, black colour compared to the thin sans-serif type next to it. The rest of the type is in a soft grey so that it isn’t overpowering, and creates a soothing effect because the boldness of the Vinom is enough to attract our attention and so our gaze could easily “flow” along the other words.

I like how they have separated each piece of information out with a black capital letter because I feel that if they had used an icon it would’ve been too much because of the faded icon in the background. It’s a simple and effective feature that works well with the rest of the type because of their different in colour and thickness.

I like how they have taken the V and enlarged it before reducing its opacity, because it doesn’t make it look plain.

Conclusion: I really like the simplicity in this design and how they have made the two sides in different colours.

I’ve noticed that the type on this business card is also located on the lower left-hand corner (could this possibly be a new trend?), so that there is plenty of room for the card to breathe. Everything is in uppercase although the name seems to be slightly bolder so that it’s the first piece of information the viewer sees. I’m not too sure whether it’s the angle but the type does look a bit wonky? Like some of the letters look as if they have been thrown there and quickly adjusted, as it’s not exactly “sitting on the line” or they’re slightly tilted. It’s quite an interesting, subtle effect, although slightly childish because it reminds me of magnetic letters you have on the fridge when you’re a child. I’m glad they had used sans-serif because if the letters had serifs then it would’ve been harder to read at such a small size.

The logo on the front is at the perfect size because although there is a circle around it, it is still surrounded by the black background. I love how the type in the logo has been joined to form one shape. Even at a distance the viewer would be able to see each individual letter as they have only been joined at the very edges.

The contrast between black and white isn’t as striking because of the texture of the paper, but it still stands out. I actually like the texture because it gives off the impression that the designer had taken time to pick out not just any old paper, but expensive, thick paper. Because of this it gives a professional finish.

Conclusion: I like the way they have chosen textured paper for this, because it shows that they have experimented with different kinds and it produces a professional finish.

What I like about this is the “Graphic Design” being spread across the page with the edges cutting it up slightly, with the rest of the type at the bottom corner to form around these two words. It’s interesting because I haven’t really seen this kind of design before where the typefaces are pointing at different angles (the Graphic Design horizontal and the other type vertical), and I actually turned my head without thinking.

I love the typeface they used in Graphic Design; it’s nice and thick, with a rather large x-height and small width that makes it look slightly elongated. The only thing is that I find the counter on the A is extremely small that it almost looks filled in, and the spine in the S is very close to it’s spur. The spur on the G is pretty close to it’s body so that it looks closed.

The grungy effect on the type reminds me of what I had done before the shattered glass effect, and I really like this because it creates an identity for the designer. From this I gather that the designer is quite outgoing and daring, possibly interested in rock music… But these are just the connotations I receive from this, and might not go the same for everyone else.

Once again they have used the black and white combination like many of the designs I have gathered, and there seems to be a trend in using contrasting colours to make the business card bold and stand out from the rest on a client’s desk. It makes it more likely that someone would pick it up and look at it if it’s bold and if the elements are arranged unusually like this card.

The other type is a sans serif because sans serifs are just easier to read at a smaller scale.

Conclusion: I really like the grungy effect and also the layout of the type. I hope to use bold colours after realising that they’ll catch the client’s eye a lot more.

Compared to the other designs I have analysed this is more “calming” because the colours on it aren’t as bold but still very unusual.

The swirls on the back of the card is very calming because of it the smooth “flow” from one shape to the other, and it reminds me of dipping ink into water. As soon as I saw the illustration I immediately felt at ease as if it was some form of soothing exercise. For some strange reason I think of marble when I look at them (the pink and cream one in particular) which then leads me to think of high-end spas and other luxurious places.

The type on the other side is well spread out which makes it easier for the viewer to just pick out the pieces of information they need to look at to contact the original owner of this card, and it’s also easier to read as each section flows easily to the other. Each section is in “bite-size” pieces so that there’s not too much information on it.

However because of how spread out the sections are, this leads the last section to be very close to the edge. If there was a problem with printing this section would probably be cut off because it’s so close, so I would’ve raised this up a bit. They are also in sans-serif to make it easier to read.

I find that the kerning in PACT is quite large but at the same time if it had been any smaller then I think it wouldn’t have the same calming effect.

The logo has a simplistic form that relates to the overall relaxed and soothing expression of the card.

Conclusion: I really like the illustration being printing onto the back of the card with all of the information on the other side. The lack of information on the illustration side makes the viewer curious to find out who the card represented.

The most interesting thing about this design is that all of the elements are restricted to the boxes they have been placed into, and the thick borders of each box fills the design but I find that each element looks slightly suffocated.

I do however like the idea of having boxes around each piece of information on the back because it gives off the image of each section being some form of button, or like those names written next to a bell for a flat.

The boxes also restrict the amount of information in each box, as they are all the same size. This means that the type would have to be reduced to the very minimum and the designer would have to experiment with different pt. sizes so that everything looks the same. By making everything in uppercase only makes the information look even more restricted.

Combined with the box around the logo reminds makes the stretched B look like prison bars. I think this is because the “crossbar” (makes it easier for me to explain if I called it a crossbar) is rather thick and the space between the logo and the box is very small.

Conclusion: I do like the idea of having little rectangles of all the same size around each piece of contact information, although I can see a problem with it as this means that I would have to find the right typeface and size for everything to look similar.

Overall conclusion:

What I have noticed about all of these designs is that they either use an unusual combination of colours or they're very contrasting, like black against white. The designs are quite minimalist as is the type, and they all use a sans-serif typeface.

For my business card I would like to use contrasting colours - maybe black and white to reflect the album cover - and I shall definitely have the logo placed on it. I would just need to contact my client to see what they would like on it.

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Thursday, 24 January 2013

Business Card Research

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