Biz Cards

[lefteyewilly]

I said I was going to post my business card for a critique in Jwin's business card thread...so, here it is...Tear it up!

i'm debating on keeping this a 2 sided card or not
and the website isn't up yet so don't waste your time

[Natsia]

wow, I dont know Lefteye, its really busy.

You've got so many fonts on there, my eyes dont know where to stop and read, there are varying font sizes in your address which just looks wrong, Bring the logo and "lefteye designs" closer together. ... Im not keen on your colour choices, I kinda feel like you could loose the background all together and focus on the colours of your logo : yellow and black.
Allow me to rape and destroy it a little?

Edit:
This is what I came up with, its rather simplified, I really like the colour of your logo so I played with that...
I dont think your card really needs to be a back to back deal, you have enough to play with and space to list your services.
Personally Im not too keen on saying "see my pricing" it makes me feel like youre trying to "whore" yourself a little.
Youre a design company, the logo and look of your card should pimp you as far as "snagging" clients.
Anyway, my two cents and a layout and colour suggestion.
Dont hit me.

[Jujumon]

I think when you design your business card you want it to represent yourself and the way you work. So please allow me to say to you what i think your design says about you. (perhaps it is the way you want people to see you or perhaps not, but it is only from my own interpretation)


This is the feeling i get from looking at your card: id say you are a local independent designer(perhaps just graduated) who offers small design package at an affordable price. The people who will use your service could most likely be from local neighborhood shops who has small budget. Your projects would probable range from menu, some bizcards, some small website for shop...etc. Because I(client) pay small price, I think you can do it fairly quickly with no fuss. Although I, as a client, would be cautious using your service because your design represents you as a graduate so i think you might not have a lot of experience working on a project or dealing with client, and such. Also your design targets more of somewhat 'younger' independent clients, not big corporates.

...Yes, i think this is what i see in you from your card, some people may think differently, but at least for now you got one true opinion from a complete stranger.

Now about your design: i never like to put the same logo on 2 sides coz i dont think its neccessary for logo to repeat itself. Perhaps you can just place a logo and contact details on one side and other details on the back. Id also like to make the block patterns into a single colum and move it closer to the right edge.
Everything else looks fine, but have you experimented with different color or pattern for the logo texts "lefteye designs"? or do you prefer black?

i might have left one or two things out but i think i wrote a lot and usually tends to confuse myself :P so let me know if you dont understand someting

ps, agree with nat, a lot of type fonts arent good idea

[JWin]

First off the logo is really cool, but I think it might look a little more slick if you keep the head centered in the orange box but include the text next to it similar to the front.

Also you got this really crisp cool feel and then a blob of gradiented beveled stuff in the lower left corner.

If I use multiple fonts, I tend to stick with one serif and one sans-serif to make it interesting but not too much to take in (I'm obviously no font master so maybe gerbs can send you some suggestions).

How well are 1px diagnol lines going to translate to print?

I think nat is kind of onto something, but if you are going to do simple I think you gotta make it be so bad arse that people know you don't HAVE to say anything else. If it's gonna be busy it's gotta be structured and cohesive and something that people will like to explore.

My 2 bits, now its quesadilla time!

[lefteyewilly]

After a sharp Ego decrease from the above comments, i'm back for another round

Seriously, i agree with all of your posts. It took some serious thought to come to agree that a promotion on a business card looks cheap and whoreish. My marketing sense says "Telling is not selling"...so i really wanted the card to be more than just another card, but a sales tool. That's where i was coming from, but i understand the reason to keep it off.

Well, here is the new version....much less busy, i think, and the fonts are cleaned up. I also ditched the vertical idea...don't konw why i ever wanted that (btw, the first version was last touched about 4 months ago).

This will be on a nice gloss front wiht a flat matte on the back on a nice thick stock...i will possibly do a gloss varnish on the logo...

[JWin]

yeh willy! I think that's the card you set out to make in the first place but got wrapped up in bs.

*Raises hand* Question, what is gloss varnish?

[lefteyewilly]

sorry, meant to say spot varnish...gives a little extra pop to a cerain element on the card...similar to embossing text, but not quite as much as effect.

thanks, jwin, that helps...

please more comments if possible too

[Natsia]

Uv varnish would look good on that because of all the colours...
And I have to say I like this layout a lot more but dont see the point of having a backtoback card if youre not going to list any of your services, also the logo on the back is a little lost, bump it up in size some.
Much better.

EDIT EDIT EDIT: Take owner out and replace it with "principal" ...
Owner... *shudder*

[chrismitchell]

Hi lefteye,

just my idea for your business card... feel free to tell me how crappy it is lol

Christopher Mitchell

[chrismitchell]

personally i think that it looks best with a nice matt finish and with as little tampering with embossing or laminating or anything like that.. but thats just me....

Christopher Mitchell

[lefteyewilly]

not bad chris, i like that idea, nice and clean but modern as well.

But as a quasi-designer i'd feel like a thief for not actually creating the design myself.

I honestly appreciate your input and the time you spent on creating that idea for me

[chrismitchell]

lefteye, you can have the design if you want, I just like designing things like that. I have thousands of things like that all over the place... it only took a few minutes I don't mind at all.. If you want it then I will upload the ai file for you

Christopher Mitchell

[chrismitchell]

lefteye

just in case you want to butcher the file all to hell, i've attached the ai file If you cant open it for any reason let me know and i'll upload an eps

Christopher Mitchell

[blazes816]

Lefteye, you didnt' have to change you name, just because they didn't like it.

[lefteyewilly]

Lefteye, you didnt' have to change you name, just because they didn't like it.

the only thing that is correct on those cards is my email address ...gotta keep the stalkers at bay

[DaVulf]

Lefty, why not use 'President' instead of Owner? I think it might sound more professional..

Also, I'm liking the look of the second card. Nice work on that one .

[lefteyewilly]

yeah, I'll change it to something different. I didn't like owner either when i put it on the card.

[RUSHVision]

lefty ~

Hope it's not too late to chime in on this. I've been consumed with other matters for a few days.

I am feelin' that logo, man...I'm feelin' it deep. That's a sweet piece of work there, my friend. I definitely like it better when the head is centered in the middle of the square like you have it on the back, though.

And speaking of the back...I think that looks great. It's got a real secret agent/superhero-for-hire kinda feel to it.

I also really like the yellow you are using, but it's my perception that there are a couple of elements that are bringing down the overall quality level of your otherwise very slick design.
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On a side note, I just want to say that I think Juju did an excellent job of conveying his perceptions of your earlier design. I feel that kind of feedback is some of the most valuable a designer can get...to receive a detailed breakdown of how one's work is perceived by others. Good goin', dude!
________________________________....____

There is something about the blue you are using that is tickling my design sense. It's providing a nice contrast to the yellow, but it seems to be overpowering everything else with it's presence. Some things I might do to work with this would be to first try desaturating it a bit so it's maybe not quite as distracting with it's vibrancy. If that didn't look right I might think about doing some kind of vector design on a background of light grey using the same color or a close neighbor. I've seen you do some really cool things with your arena volleys that might look good as a background. Perhaps you could play up the whole 'design vigilante-for-hire' angle by doing some kind of Bond-esque type of thing.

Another thing that I think is preventing you from attaining true design excellence is the font that you are using. I'm getting a very 'collegiate' feel from what's going on there now. Moreso from the 'design' than the 'lefteye' part, but it's still influencing the entire presentation.

Everyone is going to have a different opinion on the fonts, but I think I would go with a clean sans serif font for the info text...maybe something with a slight techno edge. For your name I would be really tempted to try to stylize that in some fashion.

For that, there are a couple of directions I would want to explore. One would be to simply choose a font that had a more stylistic look to it and work with that. Again, I think the idea of pumping you up as some kind of covert design operative is the way to go. You've already got the magic super eye thing goin' on....which one more time...I just love.

The other direction I would explore at least in my head would be to do something with one of the letters in 'LEFTEYE'. What that might be would depend on the overall impression you were trying to make, but I've already said where I would go with it, so I would be thinking along the lines of something James Bond-ish. Either that, or just do something that accentuates either the 'LEFT' or the 'EYE'.

I would also highly recommend not using the diagonal yellow stripe with your site address on it. I think that would be more effectively displayed in another manner.

Another nit pick...I personally think it would increase your 'class' factor if you were to use just little squares instead of stars for your separators between your services. Perhaps just smaller versions of the box behind your logo head. With something that small you might want to use boxes with either less rounded corners or sharp corners.

To sum up, I do not think this latest design accurately enough represents the excellent designer that I know you to be. I think what you have happening with that head and the rounded box do, however. That right there is tight design. It's clean, fresh, stylistic and just plain...cool. That, in and of itself, is making a very powerful statement all on it's own.

I want you to breathe that in nice and deep...that's it, feel the minty coolness of those sweet eye-pleasing shapes...roll it around in there to extract all it's juicy design badassedness...oh yeah, that's good. Now take that and spread it all over the rest of the card.

[chrismitchell]

why not put captain instead

Christopher Mitchell

[lefteyewilly]

damn rush, amazing amazing critiques and ideas. I honestly appreciate your tact, attention to detail, and willingness to help in such a way .

I especially agree wiht the font used on my business name. I think i was just being lazy and used the .ai file which i created for my logo and never really paid attention to the font i used on it.

And anyone else who's given me great help with this, i appreciate it too and i have taken your crits into consideration too...now just to piece all of it together.

I'll try again and repost.

I want you to breathe that in nice and deep...that's it, feel the minty coolness of those sweet eye-pleasing shapes...roll it around in there to extract all it's juicy design badassedness...oh yeah, that's good. Now take that and spread it all over the rest of the card.

this has to be the best quote ever .