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Critique my business card

MacBoobsPro

MacBoobsPro

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jan 10, 2006
5,114
6
Been fiddling about with various card layouts and stuff but was getting a bit bored of the usual. I'm quite pleased with the layout of my website and as its the main point of contact for potential business I thought why not try and reflect my website in the card - not always a good idea but I think I've pulled it off, however there is a part of it I'm not sure about.

To understand the card I think you need to take a quick peek at my site (the first page will do) then come back and give me your thoughts on the card.

The bit I'm not sure about is the 'front' of the card. I have reversed it so when you open the card, what was reversed is now viewed correctly on the inside. This is to create a bit of intrigue to get people to open the card and also to make it stick in peoples minds - kind along the lines of "WTF...? *opens card* Oh yeh!!!! Thats clever" :)

The actual content is incomplete. The image and little line of text about design being about opinion will most likely change.

Just to explain what you see below is a folded card but obviously opened out into front/back and inside.

I will probably go to the printers on the weekend and have a chat with them and get their thoughts on it and choosing correct colours/stock etc.
 

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MacBoobsPro said:
Been fiddling about with various card layouts and stuff but was getting a bit bored of the usual. I'm quite pleased with the layout of my website and as its the main point of contact for potential business I thought why not try and reflect my website in the card - not always a good idea but I think I've pulled it off, however there is a part of it I'm not sure about.

To understand the card I think you need to take a quick peek at my site (the first page will do) then come back and give me your thoughts on the card.

The bit I'm not sure about is the 'front' of the card. I have reversed it so when you open the card, what was reversed is now viewed correctly on the inside. This is to create a bit of intrigue to get people to open the card and also to make it stick in peoples minds - kind along the lines of "WTF...? *opens card* Oh yeh!!!! Thats clever" :)

The actual content is incomplete. The image and little line of text about design being about opinion will most likely change.

Just to explain what you see below is a folded card but obviously opened out into front/back and inside.

I will probably go to the printers on the weekend and have a chat with them and get their thoughts on it and choosing correct colours/stock etc.
Click to expand...

dude.

the wave?

no.

please, for your sake.

start over.


also,

the grey & green gradient. ugh. that is very un-sexy & not-at-all elegant.

the text...is not unlike what you might see in a forum. plain-text whatevs.

no.
 
MacBoobsPro said:
If you read the post I said the image will change (it's a place holder).
Click to expand...

I don't see where you mentioned placeholder. In my opinion, at best..the entire layout you are working with is 'placeholder.'

I would start over, entirely.

this is _not_ a client-garnering card at any level, at this point. colours, no way. gradient, never. etc. in the immortal words of james joyce; finnegan, begin again
 
VictoriaStudent said:
I don't see where you mentioned placeholder. In my opinion, at best..the entire layout you are working with is 'placeholder.'

I would start over, entirely.

this is _not_ a client-garnering card at any level, at this point. colours, no way. gradient, never. etc. in the immortal words of james joyce; finnegan, begin again
Click to expand...

look, I don't want to seem like a jerk...so, I'm going to put this link here:

http://naldzgraphics.net/inspirations/60-most-beautiful-and-creative-business-cards-design/

there are some amazing business cards on that page.

you want my opinion?

since you are in the UK...go for something elegant.

simple font. very simple. clean.

business name. personal name. phone number. website. less is more in the UK, I think. respectable & elite. or risqué/cheeky yet still elegant.

since it seems you desire a little flare..then -> laser-cut business logo. or, maybe even a very small, simple embossed logo..but, imho, I think laser-cut is nice. forget all that colour crap.

edit: or even die-cut - the extra expense for the die is not that bad depending on your run #'s:

http://www.toxel.com/design/2010/06/30/24-creative-die-cut-business-cards/
 
Last edited:
VictoriaStudent said:
look, I don't want to seem like a jerk...so, I'm going to put this link here:

http://naldzgraphics.net/inspirations/60-most-beautiful-and-creative-business-cards-design/

there are some amazing business cards on that page.

you want my opinion?

since you are in the UK...go for something elegant.

simple font. very simple. clean.

business name. personal name. phone number. website. less is more in the UK, I think. respectable & elite. or risqué/cheeky yet still elegant.

since it seems you desire a little flare..then -> laser-cut business logo. or, maybe even a very small, simple embossed logo..but, imho, I think laser-cut is nice. forget all that colour crap.

edit: or even die-cut - the extra expense for the die is not that bad depending on your run #'s:

http://www.toxel.com/design/2010/06/30/24-creative-die-cut-business-cards/
Click to expand...

The card is to get people to go the website. The website will garner the clients.

I am very much the minimalist and agree about the gradient. In the past I would of been "No friggin way, get that out of my office" but the green is part of my identity and forms a major part of the website as a contrasting colour to the greys.

The 'placeholder' I refer to I actually said 'its likely to change' which to be fair is not exactly saying it will change or that its a place holder but thats what I meant :D

In the past I would never do something this 'complex' on a card hence why I asked for the critique. Maybe you've opened my eyes to my erroneous ways :p

Maybe back to the drawing board (I can't find a good generic image for the card anyway). :rolleyes:

I take it you looked at the site though?
 
Card =/= Website, Simplify, Gray Text

Hi Stuart,

I'll try to be innovative here and consider both what you wrote as well as what your sketch looks like before responding. ;) I have three main points.

Card = Website?

I understand your reasons for trying to have your card reflect your website. However, I don't think you need to have your card look exactly like your website in every way. For one thing, black websites with color accents are common and quite readable on the screen, while white business cards are common because they are the most readable. So a black business card doesn't necessarily look like a website, it just looks extremely unusual. That's not necessarily a bad thing - you just have to consider if it's what you want. And even though I don't really like VictoriaStudent's critique style, I do agree that the green-to-gray gradient isn't working on the card. It has a totally different effect on your site - there, I see a green stripe with a shadow falling on it from the main image. I can read it that way because it's a common design on the web. On a card, though, it just reads like a green-to-gray gradient and looks kind of awful. I think a plain green stripe would actually look MORE like your website than this. Maybe you can pick and choose elements from your website - for example, the typefaces, the green color - while also thoughtfully designing differently for the different media of web and print.

Mirror flap

I get what you are trying to achieve with the mirrored image/logo and the flap, but I'm not sold on it. It seems like a lot of extra structure and expense for a relatively small "aha" (oh, I see, the same thing right way 'round...). I'm sure that when you design logos, you're used to trying to distill the essence of what you want to say into the most minimal, simple form. Maybe there's a simpler way to do this here, as well. For example, skip the flap and print the picture and logo right way up on the back of the card and put the mirror-image logo on the front of the card amongst your contact info and quote. Then you could find a quote the plays with this - like your business card is a window with a beautiful picture on the other side. Ok, so that's not brilliant yet, but I hope you get my point that a solution without the flap might be more elegant.

Dark gray type

Just my opinion - I find dark gray type on black really hard to read - both on your card and on your website. It looks nice but is hard on the eyes. I have a calibrated Apple cinema display so it's not my monitor. Maybe ask a couple friends to take a look and then consider lightening up the text on your site? Not every client has 20-year-old, eagle-sharp eyes and you don't want to turn them off...

Anyway, good luck! I find it harder to design for myself than for clients, so I know it's not easy to create your own business card. Hope you are able to come up with something that you're thrilled about.

Best,
L. @ the binary family
 
MacBoobsPro, I don't often get into the critiques here in the design forum because the upside usually isn't worth the potential downside. However, I figured I'd give it a go this time.

I really respect your work and have visited your site on multiple occasions. The site is very well designed. Simple, straight-forward, easy to navigate, good color choices. You're very talented.

I think this business card misses the mark, though, I'm sorry to say. Part of it, I'm sure, is my inherent bias against folds in business cards; they always seem clunky to me and are either superfluous or lead to too much information being presented.

I think yours is the former. Clearly all of your information could fit on the front or back of a normal sized card (or smaller). You're using the fold to be clever, but I'm sorry to say that I don't find the cleverness worth it.

I understand that you're using the card to draw traffic to the website, and that, perhaps, a straightforward approach (just simple contact information) might not fill that need. I don't have an immediate answer on how to accomplish that; my first thought would be to make the website oversized on the card, taking up most of the space, while using the colors to tie the two pieces together, but that is just an initial thought. It probably wouldn't even work. :)

I do like the colors, however, and you might look into using a darker stock and printing in fewer colors over the top of it. I'm sure before all is said and done, you'll have a top notch card. You're talented. Give it another go.
 
Look at this from a practical point of view. You want to be clever and set your card aside from all the other ones that roll out of the QuickPrint shops and that is good, but you are increasing your production costs by a factor of four - four plates to make this card instead of one or two at the most. There would be additional cutting and folding fees, too. So, is it worth that? If so, make it a real standout card that makes full use of those features.

Dale
 
Appreciate all the comments :)

I asked because I wasn't sure and it is very different to what I usually do (very clean and minimal) I guess I'll just go back to what Im best at and what people seem to like about my work.

Regarding extra plates though these days its almost negligible regarding difference in cost these days with digital printing and such. I hate digital printing though (you can't beat good offset litho).

I thought I'd put it to you guys though and now I see the response I'm glad I did.

Cheers. :)
 
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