Business Card Critique

ferrettank

Hello all!

I am going to the Game Developers Conference and made a new business card design for the event. I would love some input on them. 

My target is to get hard surface modeling jobs, either freelance or full time positions.

My uniqueness comes from my background in rebuilding cars, should I make my card focus on that, or would it be to narrow?

As we all know, we need to stand out in the industry, does this card have enough pop ad professionalism to it, or should  I try something different?

With previous freelance jobs, I've been hired because I use Blender, should I put that on the card?


Here is my design:

Back: 

Front: 

ysalex

I think you'll get less of "critique" and more personal opinion, which is fine.

so personally I say get rid of the blue AO squares on the back, it's not helping me read your render and it's not showing anything interesting.

for the front, get rid of the weird font and go with something clean, roboto is a decent choice, but something sans-serif and no little frills or cuts or trying to be "digital".

The random graphic on the right is strange since I can't see how it connects to 3D, and it's a little ugly, I would just take it off and let the text speak for itself. 

Like I said though, it's just personal opinion. To me, it's a business card, in the end all that matters is that it's simple and that it has a decent image that people will remember you by hopefully.

good luck with it.

ysalex

Sorry about the double post, wanted to add: bring those bottom two lines into alignment with everything else, and consider desaturating that blue, it's a little powerful.

Eric Chadwick

Make sure to have some kind of white space. I often write notes on business cards I receive, like where I met the person, some url they mentioned, etc.

Since you're looking for hardsurface modeling work, I think it would help to push that with your image. Maybe two images side by side, a slick render next to a subd wireframe of the same. That would reinforce this is your specialty.

Equanim

On the Back:
Switching the black background to white and the text to black and taking out the cube would address both YSAlex's and Eric's comments.  A white background without the cube would leave room for notes.  The blue text can probably stay blue.
Call yourself a "Hard Surface Artist" (because you can texture) instead of a 3D artist.

On the front:
Instead of the blue squares, what about squares that "exposed" wire frames of the same shot?  It would save you the space of having two side by side renders and still flash your modeling skills.  Don't bother with squares on the side of the building, but the roof could give you some balance.

(Really great composition on that shot by the way.)

huffer

Is the card a standard 9x5cm? The text might be too small in that case .

garcellano

Equanim said:

On the Back:
Switching the black background to white and the text to black and taking out the cube would address both YSAlex's and Eric's comments.  A white background without the cube would leave room for notes.  The blue text can probably stay blue.
Call yourself a "Hard Surface Artist" (because you can texture) instead of a 3D artist.

On the front:
Instead of the blue squares, what about squares that "exposed" wire frames of the same shot?  It would save you the space of having two side by side renders and still flash your modeling skills.  Don't bother with squares on the side of the building, but the roof could give you some balance.

(Really great composition on that shot by the way.)

Yeah, similar to what @equanim mentioned. White background on the back, the white text being black. If the blue is too light, maybe a darkened blue might work. "Hard Surface Artist" works. Sometimes, too, if someone doesn't have a card, they might ask if they can write their contact on one of your cards. IMO, you could probably remove the cube, or have it very transparent, just for more space to write on it. On the other perspective, if someone gets your card and like 30+ other cards on one day during GDC, it kind of helps to write down on the card by the end of the day when they met you, what topics you talked about and such just to refresh their memory after GDC week.

ferrettank

Great critiques everyone, they are all amazing ideas!  Thank you for taking the time to respond and for the compliments

 Here is what the card looks like with everyone's input. I am working on the wire frame/full render side now. 

I am using the Roboto font here, it looks pretty good. Is there anything more I can do to it?

Eric Chadwick

I would get rid of the icons,  and tighten up the space between lines.

Imho one portfolio link is enough... either use your own site, or the Artstation.

The box graphic is poorly made, either redo or remove. Like, why don't the left and right uprights match their spacing? Why is the top left diagonal so close to the line below it? My designer spidey sense is cringing a bit, looking at that logo. And that's not a good thing for potential employers to be feeling.

My 2 cents though, it's up to you how you represent yourself of course.