business card design
polycounter lvl 17
A friend of mine who makes digital music asked me to make a business card for him. The only stipulation he had was to have a drawing of him that matched a picture he gave me. I'm still roughing it out, so any feedback is appreciated!
Here's the picture and some of the rough drafts:
Here's the picture and some of the rough drafts:
Replies
Crits:
- Showing the lower teeth too much, even if that is the case in the photo, you can touch it up a bit. The lower teeth look like they don't actually turn into molars, they look like a bunt cake pan, one solid mass of tooth. You don't have to draw each tooth outlined in a thick black line but giving some indication that he actually has 32 teeth will make him seem more human. Giving him a gum line will help, if you look close the photo has a tiny hint at a gum line.
- What happened to his upper teeth?
- Why does his upper lip perfectly follow the lines of his lower teeth? it creates a gap where you would expect to see upper teeth.
- The lips shouldn't come down to fine little points at the corners of the mouth, his lips stay pretty thick and one folds under the other one.
- I'm not too hot on the font used for the name, it seems almost like a retarded kid made it in 1st grade, I half expect to see the R flipped over and a 3 where the E's should be.
- what happened to his eyebrows and the muscles behind them? Even if he shaves his eyebrows there are still cranial muscles you should hint at. Right now the shading lines you have running down the face give it a watermelon look.
- Draw the waveform so it matches the style you set for the face. Google image search > Copy > Paste = lame... especially since you went to all the trouble to draw out the head.
Quick Paint Over
I would try more radical variations of design, your fonts stay the same and layout is only shuffled slightly between each one.
Is there a message or feeling you're wanting to get across too? is he serious, or zany, or inventive etc, it might be nice to represent his musical style somehow in the design
edit: also, vector style shading would probably come off stronger/bolder on a card, I would consider illustrator or even flash to get some nice crisp lines and shading
When you deliver a logo to someone expect that if they like it they'll want to use it in other ways for other things.
i think its way to busy, and the fonts you used look like a cheap powerpoint presentation.
that drop shadow.. i wouldn't use it, or improve it
keep it simple, if you use a character in it, use just a couple colors to fill in the face or alot,
the lined background makes it look very nasty, also keep that simple.
maybe make it double sided? pic with name on the front, info on the back?
two examples:
I'm going to paint the face in more detail and fix the areas vig mentioned. Actually painting the waveform is another good idea I didn't really think of. It was a screen capture I took from my cooledit program, but I suppose just as lame as a google search nonetheless.
Thanks everyone for being honest about the logo. It sucks. I'm gonna go back to the drawing board and get some new ideas. Most of Augie's stuff has a fairly fast tempo with a lot of layered instruments. I would definitely call it inventive. His main tools are his synth and a software package called Reason. I'll take that all in and try to get a more unified logo and layout for the card!
It just needs to be iconic, instantly recognisable, and easily readable.
So simplify the picture as much as you can, and sort out the fonts so that it's professional, nicely aligned and legible.
I also don't like the fonts at all and I think having his name overlapping his face is bad.
But overall I think you have a decent basic layout.
I like the soundwaves in his shades.
Here is a quick paint over that shows what mean about placement of the graphic, pushing it back, and a change in font and text placement.
Alex
I spent 10 minutes and made something to kind of illustrate rhino and mops points more. Simple, elegant, and memorable.
He has a pretty memorable name, and a bit different from the normal "Steven Smith", so a readable font will suit you best.
it's pretty sloppy, but it's just to show a point.
I'd probably make the text a little bigger though, since that'll be tiny on a business card. Maybe just move the head up and shrink it a bit to make more room for the text. Bigger name definitely.
As for technodookie's. Go with the prior suggestions, but drop the current font for the person's name, and use a plain white background. Bolder font for the contact information as well.
The idea should be that if these things are given out at events, tradeshows, whatever, that if a person ends up with a stack of these, that the one your client gave them is the one that stands out as professional, and whose name sticks in the person's mind.
Edit: Also another thing to do is to check with whoever will be printing these and find out how much they charge per color used, and whether or not you have to use print safe colors, or if it costs more if you don't. Remember DPI as well. 300+ for good print quality.
clean and simple.
I'm out of town for the weekend, so no illustrator or photoshop handy. I do have a pencil, a scanner, and mspaint. Heres a rough idea that combines slums layout with a new logo design I'm kicking around. Sorry for the weird angle, paint only lets you rotate shit in 90 degree increments :P
To be honest, I'd rather use and edgy font than a simple one, because I think it reflects his attitude and music. Is this a professional artist no-no? OK, feel free to rip me a new one:
15 years old
poser
ad campaign developed by old people to target young people
douchebagginess
how edgy can you be with your own buisness card?
Anyway, I got back home and played with illustrator. I still want to fix up the photoshop portrait, if just for the practice.
it's getting better - still not wild about the A and R, as they don't immediately read, which goes against the entire point of the card. are you planning on keeping the head as an outline? a black or gray fill, as in Slum's, would go a long way.
The new card is definitely an improvement. The A and R don't really bother me. The contact info should go on top somewhere though, so it will look more balanced.
you could try some minor variations now on how you write his name, toning the waveform down a bit to improve legibility etc- maybe it'll look too weak, or maybe it'll still work fine
edit: contact info *could go on the back if you wanted to keep it nice and clean, but I guess that might also cost a bit extra printing both sides
It's come along way and its looking a lot more professional. Nice work!
Suggestions:
- Change the waveform to start before the A go flat under the A, underline his name and the pick the waveform back up after the O. I see what you want to do, by incorporating it into his name, thats a cool idea, But hard to do. The R looks weird and draws attention in a bad way since a wave form doesn't ever peak horiz. It might be smart to keep them as separate pieces and just tie them together instead.
- Make sure to leave yourself a good margin and try to keep your contact info from getting too close to the edges. Business cards don't always get cut exactly where they should and having a good design with that in mind can make things easier on everyone.
>Trying to fix the glasses so they dont look like cracked eggs. I put sawtooth and square waves in them to appeal to people who might know something about digital music.
>Playing with different tones including using dark gray instead of black for lines and the text.
>I'm also thinking that since his name isn't symetrical, it might help the balance to put his cell and email address in different corners. Maybe it makes the info too spread out...
Anyway, right now I'm digging the middle and top right cards for some reason. Of course, in the end it's up to the Augmeister to decide what he wants to go with. Thanks again for the help! I'm learning a lot!