I agree with the email address suggestion. Personally, I would simplify the design a bit. I think it's a little style heavy. (Stroke, outerglow, drop shadows, etc) It's ultimately a matter of preference, but with graphic design stuff I prefer a clean minimalist look.
honestly i´d go as simple as possible.
there is a scene in american psycho where christian bale talks about business cards, and those are all extremely simple.
so i´d go with something like that.
it might not be super interesting or innovative, but it wont put anyone off either. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cISYzA36-ZY
I'm a big fan of the minimalistic look, personally, and the circuit pattern is much more evocative of engineer than artist, but if you want to keep it I would suggest darkening/lowering the saturation of the circuits, they're the most prominent part of your business card when it should be your name and info.
Personally I'd also remove the strokes from your name, e-mail and number, but that's me being a stroke-hater. Definitely consider making your name bigger.
As everyone is saying the circuitry adds nothing to the card accept annoying visual noise. Simple gradient background, maybe if you have a piece your really proud of it could be faintly in the background on one of the sides.
I have to be honest, the circuitry design is killing this for me. Looks like a Vistaprint default card as opposed to something that looks clean, succint, and speaks to you. If you have the time, I recommend thumbnails of the main card design, I think there's definitely a way for you to put everything on one side instead of 2.
Is there any way for you to sort of simplify everything and stick to a "graphic design" designed business card?
I'm noticing the back and front of your card seem to have two different styles even though you used similar circuit board texture. I'd suggest possibly rethinking the circuitry. The texture pulls your eyes away from the vital information which is your name and contact info.
Would you rather have people remember what your card looked like or the info that was on it?
Also there is a lot happening on the back of the card to even read your web address. It already a bit complex so you want to make it easy to read.
Change the gray background to white. Gray is a boring, depressing color, and white will make the text pop.
Remove the circuit graphics on the front and back. It's distracting, shitty, and dates the business card as something from the late 80s, early 90s.
A business card should be simple and clearly legible unless you can afford a more expensive gimmick card. I have a drawer full of business cards, and the only ones that stand out are the ones will the largest, clearest names I can glance at, see and remember.
Do your really need the icons? It's 2014 not 1994 everybody knows what an email address is (let alone a phone number).
Your business card is your PROFESSIONAL CALLING CARD. Anything that you do that brings to mind as GIMMICKY will in the end look bad on to you, aka unprofessional.
Especially if you are trying to market yourself as a Graphic Artist which with a business card will have to convey that you know the basics of design.
You are competing with hundreds of potential 3D artist and thousands of Graphic Artist for potential jobs. (Me included) Try to act the part.
*bf3ranger* makes you sound like a 12 year old that got his hands on a modding kit.
If you are absolutely adamant about keeping the circuit design, I would suggest dropping it from the front. (where are your pertinent info is displayed). Desaturate it in the back so it will add the SLIGHTEST bit of variance, but nothing more.
If you want more graphics than that, expel the effort to design a logo. Logo's are good, again if you are trying to peddle yourself as a graphic artist. They are simple, sweet, compact designs that sell a product, namely you.
If you cannot successfully create a logo for yourself, I would just play to your stregnths and remove 'Graphic Artist' from your card.
And for gods sakes man, mind the safe/bleed area of your designs.
There is alot of black here and alot of dark colours. Dark colours tend to print even darker and blend together. Unless you are designing this in CMYK, prepare for a shock! You can colour balance it for printing yourself, but also try asking you'r printer if they can help.
edit: I actually really like the idea of circuit board on the back now I think about it. Like the card itself is a PCB. But the heavy black needs to go!
I'm not a font nut like a lot of graphic designers but there's something about that font choice I don't like. I'm not feeling that fade either.
I know the advice is keep it simple and clean but I think if you're selling yourself as a graphic artist & web designer I'd expect to see superb design skills in your business card.
For a graphic artist/ web designer i would expect a better business card.
When you give out a business card what you are effectively is presenting yourself and what you do all on a small piece of card so you need to push yourself to not only using it as a way to pass on contact details.
Looking at what you have now looks like anyone can produce with basic level of photoshop skills. You don't what to come across as 'basic' artist, you want people to think "bloody hell, this business card is imaginative, inspirational...maybe thats what his work is like"
Try doing a bunch of renditions of fronts and backs of the cards and posting it here, so people can have more choices and tell you what they like and don't like. Also, I agree with the font. Not a fan.
Not sure if someone covered this, but for business cards, simple is good. What may look awesome to you style wise may look terrible to someone else. This is sometimes enough for someone to cast judgement on your taste and design eye. Make it nice enough that it looks presentable and professional, and clear so it gets the information across.
The last design is ok, just the font is not nice at all.
All you need for a stylish card is a nice font and good spacing (and kerning ofc)
My take
Well not the best example of kerning and font usage but however, didnt
want to spend too much time
Edit: I hope the black border is where its gonna cut ?
Font i used now is typomoderno, but fonts with varied sizes are better obviously, that now is a 1 sized free font
Edit: wowowo
I dont know about your 3D skills, but you cannot write graphic (art?) design and webdesign on your card with such a website >.>
Your technical skills seem to be pretty decent, but your eye for aesthetics is really underdeveloped if you want my honest advice -
Bookmark http://abduzeedo.com/ and check out all their inspiration posts, see what others do, and with the time youll get a good sense for everything. dribble.com is also a really good platform where you only see top-notch work. (i know there are tons of sites) I guess you only hang in modding forums or such which is filled with bad art. Its really vital that you frequently check out the work from the really experienced people out there to improve your perception
Shrike: I like that orange! Instead of a gradient I think it would look cooler as a brush stroke. Flat with natural imperfections is the trend in graphic design these days. I'd paint it up but I have no way to load things up at work.
Hi Alex.
Im a graphic designer too and i think i have some feedback for you. I hope that helps a little bit.
Okay, first all the posts before were right. Less is more. I think your business card is fullfill with colors, symbols, pictures etc. Thats not so good. But in my opinion i dont like the second card (white orange) too.. I do some things on your card, i explain it in a second. (i hope you can see the picture)
1. (red) The red line is a border you dont cross with your fonts. (you dont see it in your print of course). When a company printing your cards, sometimes the edges dont cut exactly at the size. Ah i dont know how i can explain it, but i think you understand that.
2. (pink) you must put the text in one line (downwards). You can orientate that at the red border line. This makes a cleaner look. So put Your name (Alex G.) to the red line, and the mail,website,number too.
3. (yellow) YES make the mail and your website with YOUR name. People must remember your name, not your nickname.
4. (blue) delete that. The round mail and phone symbol..is unnecessary. And the strange thing in the front...mhh either you put a thing from your work on it or nothing. Make it clean. In the Back i would delete all. Maybe you can make a logo. Your logo, Nothing or maybe only your name.
5. The dark grey bars are nice, but i think you can do one of them and make it bigger. Like the orange bar on the second card you did here.
5. Use only one or two different fonts. I would say one and you can make your name in a green color, than your name is an eyecatcher and the card has a little bit color on it. Grey/black as the background is okay. For me, i like grey more than white. (Think about it, you dont do a white font color on a black background! graphidesigner know that)
So yay, i hope you understand that. Do your own style in it but make it clean. And a second tip, do a corporate design with all of your art. A same style of your business card, website, letters, etc. is a nice thing and easier to remember. And yeah i think work a little bit on your website too. Like i said, do your own style but do it clean.
I hope you know what i mean and sry for the bad english
I think the most important thing is that a buisness card should fit your work well.
Sometimes it might be a good idea to put all imporant informations onto one side of the card and a work you did onto the other one, that way people always can imagine right away what you're capable of (without checking your portfoliopage) or remember you more easily.
And with a minimalistic look you can't be wrong, since it's always the right thing to do I guess. It's timeless.
do keep in mind that desighn is highly subjective. there are definately some good suggestions here, but at the end of the day just consider them and then do what you think is the best. you are after all, marketing your skills, which includes decision making and personal style.
Well I went to a career fair in Madison, WI, my ideal place to live and work. This was on Tues last week.
It was a crap shoot. TacoBell, SuperLube, the ARMY/Marines, laying sod, pouring construction concrete, bathing old folks, etc. Not any of my type of jobs at all. I was a little let down so i went straight to the companies in person I would like to work for: Filament Games, Raven, Data Dimensions, Epic Software Systems. I handed out my resume, was all dressed up in business formal attire and shook some hands and got a few numbers. Not much came of it so far. Anyways at Raven I gave the front desk secretary my resume and she told me there would be tour coming up in a few weeks of the facilities and i should try to get on board with that. I don't see how that helps in terms of GETTING A JOB there but OK sure. After all that I sat on one of the wall couches and looked up the address of another company i was going to visit on my phone and a group of guys came by and asked who i was waiting for. I said I was looking for a job and they took my resume and then I said I was designing a biz card and they said that was cool and i showed them the pic of it on my phone [since I am getting critiqued on it here OP]. There were 4 guys and they all said my card was nice but needed to look more "gamey and less plain jane." I said thanks and they said it would be better to have it printed. Yeah right? Really?
I dunno what to do with this damn card design. I mean some people say more ART more stuff and others say make it plain and simple without distracting graphics. I feel like everyone has a VERY important decision in mind for me. I have like the second card design but to leave the back blank so people can write notes on it.
My advice is to take what Shrike posted and get some printed. It's still your original design with bolder, easier to read font. If you don't like orange, pick something else. If you're looking for a game art job, a business card isn't all that important. That design is clean, simple, and easy to read, which importantly makes it easy to look at your portfolio, the real important piece of the puzzle.
2 of the companies you listed are game studios, and 2 of them are not. I would recommend seriously considering what type of job you want to do. Even the 2 game studios you've listed do vastly different types and styles of games. Your portfolio matches neither, so it's extremely unlikely you're going to land a job at either one. If you really want to work at Raven, create some finished assets that are at the level they are putting into their games. You want to work at Filament? Start working on your 2d skills and learn how to create polished, stylized, well designed interfaces, because that's the type of stuff they do. And until your portfolio proves you can do the work, you're not going to have any luck.
i agree with Pedro. Spend time doing cool art to add to your portfolio instead of wasting time with business cards and all that BS. Just do cool art and the jobs will come to you, that i can guarantee 100%
Replies
Minimalist style is very popular right now. (wallpaper, website, logo, cards, etc.) But that's your choice though. I'm quite fine with it.
Not sure if you should include City/State you operate in or not. Sometimes ppl include that too.
there is a scene in american psycho where christian bale talks about business cards, and those are all extremely simple.
so i´d go with something like that.
it might not be super interesting or innovative, but it wont put anyone off either.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cISYzA36-ZY
Personally I'd also remove the strokes from your name, e-mail and number, but that's me being a stroke-hater. Definitely consider making your name bigger.
And yeah, definitely try to nab alexgrenlie at gmail and a domain name if you can afford it, even if it's just registered through Blogger to link to your blog portfolio.
On a similar note, organize your best stuff onto a single page when you have time. Hopefully one of these tutorials will help: http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-to-make-free-website-in-less-than.html
http://joshiemoo.blogspot.com/2013/05/how-to-make-your-blogger-look-like.html
Quickie mock-up, sorry for not matching your font.:(
Is there any way for you to sort of simplify everything and stick to a "graphic design" designed business card?
Would you rather have people remember what your card looked like or the info that was on it?
Also there is a lot happening on the back of the card to even read your web address. It already a bit complex so you want to make it easy to read.
Remove the circuit graphics on the front and back. It's distracting, shitty, and dates the business card as something from the late 80s, early 90s.
A business card should be simple and clearly legible unless you can afford a more expensive gimmick card. I have a drawer full of business cards, and the only ones that stand out are the ones will the largest, clearest names I can glance at, see and remember.
Your business card is your PROFESSIONAL CALLING CARD. Anything that you do that brings to mind as GIMMICKY will in the end look bad on to you, aka unprofessional.
Especially if you are trying to market yourself as a Graphic Artist which with a business card will have to convey that you know the basics of design.
You are competing with hundreds of potential 3D artist and thousands of Graphic Artist for potential jobs. (Me included) Try to act the part.
*bf3ranger* makes you sound like a 12 year old that got his hands on a modding kit.
If you are absolutely adamant about keeping the circuit design, I would suggest dropping it from the front. (where are your pertinent info is displayed). Desaturate it in the back so it will add the SLIGHTEST bit of variance, but nothing more.
If you want more graphics than that, expel the effort to design a logo. Logo's are good, again if you are trying to peddle yourself as a graphic artist. They are simple, sweet, compact designs that sell a product, namely you.
If you cannot successfully create a logo for yourself, I would just play to your stregnths and remove 'Graphic Artist' from your card.
And for gods sakes man, mind the safe/bleed area of your designs.
There is alot of black here and alot of dark colours. Dark colours tend to print even darker and blend together. Unless you are designing this in CMYK, prepare for a shock! You can colour balance it for printing yourself, but also try asking you'r printer if they can help.
edit: I actually really like the idea of circuit board on the back now I think about it. Like the card itself is a PCB. But the heavy black needs to go!
but i don't want to look like a noob so i will make some simpler things
sure post em up Jade
edit: simpler
I know the advice is keep it simple and clean but I think if you're selling yourself as a graphic artist & web designer I'd expect to see superb design skills in your business card.
When you give out a business card what you are effectively is presenting yourself and what you do all on a small piece of card so you need to push yourself to not only using it as a way to pass on contact details.
Looking at what you have now looks like anyone can produce with basic level of photoshop skills. You don't what to come across as 'basic' artist, you want people to think "bloody hell, this business card is imaginative, inspirational...maybe thats what his work is like"
Not sure if someone covered this, but for business cards, simple is good. What may look awesome to you style wise may look terrible to someone else. This is sometimes enough for someone to cast judgement on your taste and design eye. Make it nice enough that it looks presentable and professional, and clear so it gets the information across.
All you need for a stylish card is a nice font and good spacing (and kerning ofc)
My take
Well not the best example of kerning and font usage but however, didnt
want to spend too much time
Edit: I hope the black border is where its gonna cut ?
Font i used now is typomoderno, but fonts with varied sizes are better obviously, that now is a 1 sized free font
Edit: wowowo
I dont know about your 3D skills, but you cannot write graphic (art?) design and webdesign on your card with such a website >.>
Your technical skills seem to be pretty decent, but your eye for aesthetics is really underdeveloped if you want my honest advice -
Bookmark http://abduzeedo.com/ and check out all their inspiration posts, see what others do, and with the time youll get a good sense for everything. dribble.com is also a really good platform where you only see top-notch work. (i know there are tons of sites) I guess you only hang in modding forums or such which is filled with bad art. Its really vital that you frequently check out the work from the really experienced people out there to improve your perception
True, the one web design on there seems ok, but if you are a web design guy, your portfolio website should be pretty cool.
I think your portfolio is not strong enough to warrant a biz card to be honest. Worrying about the wrong things.
Im a graphic designer too and i think i have some feedback for you. I hope that helps a little bit.
Okay, first all the posts before were right. Less is more. I think your business card is fullfill with colors, symbols, pictures etc. Thats not so good. But in my opinion i dont like the second card (white orange) too.. I do some things on your card, i explain it in a second. (i hope you can see the picture)
1. (red) The red line is a border you dont cross with your fonts. (you dont see it in your print of course). When a company printing your cards, sometimes the edges dont cut exactly at the size. Ah i dont know how i can explain it, but i think you understand that.
2. (pink) you must put the text in one line (downwards). You can orientate that at the red border line. This makes a cleaner look. So put Your name (Alex G.) to the red line, and the mail,website,number too.
3. (yellow) YES make the mail and your website with YOUR name. People must remember your name, not your nickname.
4. (blue) delete that. The round mail and phone symbol..is unnecessary. And the strange thing in the front...mhh either you put a thing from your work on it or nothing. Make it clean. In the Back i would delete all. Maybe you can make a logo. Your logo, Nothing or maybe only your name.
5. The dark grey bars are nice, but i think you can do one of them and make it bigger. Like the orange bar on the second card you did here.
5. Use only one or two different fonts. I would say one and you can make your name in a green color, than your name is an eyecatcher and the card has a little bit color on it. Grey/black as the background is okay. For me, i like grey more than white. (Think about it, you dont do a white font color on a black background! graphidesigner know that)
So yay, i hope you understand that. Do your own style in it but make it clean. And a second tip, do a corporate design with all of your art. A same style of your business card, website, letters, etc. is a nice thing and easier to remember.
I hope you know what i mean and sry for the bad english
Sometimes it might be a good idea to put all imporant informations onto one side of the card and a work you did onto the other one, that way people always can imagine right away what you're capable of (without checking your portfoliopage) or remember you more easily.
And with a minimalistic look you can't be wrong, since it's always the right thing to do I guess. It's timeless.
QFT
i'm gonna shoot myself in the head now
It was a crap shoot. TacoBell, SuperLube, the ARMY/Marines, laying sod, pouring construction concrete, bathing old folks, etc. Not any of my type of jobs at all. I was a little let down so i went straight to the companies in person I would like to work for: Filament Games, Raven, Data Dimensions, Epic Software Systems. I handed out my resume, was all dressed up in business formal attire and shook some hands and got a few numbers. Not much came of it so far. Anyways at Raven I gave the front desk secretary my resume and she told me there would be tour coming up in a few weeks of the facilities and i should try to get on board with that. I don't see how that helps in terms of GETTING A JOB there but OK sure. After all that I sat on one of the wall couches and looked up the address of another company i was going to visit on my phone and a group of guys came by and asked who i was waiting for. I said I was looking for a job and they took my resume and then I said I was designing a biz card and they said that was cool and i showed them the pic of it on my phone [since I am getting critiqued on it here OP]. There were 4 guys and they all said my card was nice but needed to look more "gamey and less plain jane." I said thanks and they said it would be better to have it printed. Yeah right? Really?
I dunno what to do with this damn card design. I mean some people say more ART more stuff and others say make it plain and simple without distracting graphics. I feel like everyone has a VERY important decision in mind for me. I have like the second card design but to leave the back blank so people can write notes on it.
2 of the companies you listed are game studios, and 2 of them are not. I would recommend seriously considering what type of job you want to do. Even the 2 game studios you've listed do vastly different types and styles of games. Your portfolio matches neither, so it's extremely unlikely you're going to land a job at either one. If you really want to work at Raven, create some finished assets that are at the level they are putting into their games. You want to work at Filament? Start working on your 2d skills and learn how to create polished, stylized, well designed interfaces, because that's the type of stuff they do. And until your portfolio proves you can do the work, you're not going to have any luck.
Instead of wasting time making business cards.
............. Obviously I didn't watch that movie... But, all cards look the same with everyone's a Vice Pres ?
Yes it is good to get your name out there but the bottom line is this.
The portfolio speaks volumes more than any business card.. (Even if they have a watermark)