Photography Student Victoria Kathryn Branding Live Brief - Design Development/ Business Card Design

After I had the logo design complete, I began to explore the design of business cards.

Although I had scrapped the mosaic idea earlier in the design process, the inspiration for this idea was quite strong. The mosaic idea was derived from the still life sustainability project that Victoria wants to base her career and branding around, so I decided to bring the mosaic experiments from the logo design stage into the business card designs stage. I did this so that I could continue with the mosaic concept, but simply start stripping back the use of excessive colour and shapes, so that the designs could visually become less juvenile and more clean, minimal and modern.

I started to extract only a limited amount of shapes and colours and start experimenting with those by placing them into the format of a square business card. In the initial discussion with my client Victoria she had mentioned that she specifically wants her business cards to be square. I thought that this was something that would be unique and interesting so I did not challenge this idea and actually encouraged it. The stereotypical business card is rectangular, so to make herself stand out within the industry, a square business card could be something that was memorable and visually engaging for her clients/target audience.

 I experimented with a variety of different approaches to the use of colour and the relationship between the front and back cover. I wanted the front of the business card to be quite visually pleasing and impressive, so I wanted to keep it quite simply by possibly only having the logo on it. The back cover of the business card I wanted to contain Victoria's contact information, but also have some sort of pleasing visual elements that could further represent Victoria's photography practice.

 The use of the colours and shapes from my mosaic idea were not proving to be successful. Even when attempting to strip back the use of colour and add more white space, the business card designs so far still felt quite juvenile and unprofessional. Although I was really clinging to the idea of using shapes/colours inspired by Victoria's photography, I realised that I need to let go of the idea completely because it was not allowing me to move on in my design process and development. The logo I had designed I felt was really strong, and the excessive and poor use of colour was proving to overwhelm and take attention away from the strong logo concept, which consequently made the logo design feel less successful also.

I decided to scrap the use of multiple colours and bring my attention to using only one or two colours maximum. The business card designs below I felt were a step in the right direction, because they were beginning to be a lot more edited, simple and minimal. The use of only one colour as a background for the logo was something that both I and my client Victoria had liked earlier on in the design process, so this was something that I was confident could be more successful.

At the beginning of the project, during my initial discussion with Victoria and my research stage, we had discussed that the use of her photography as a background within her business cards was something that could be an option. Knowing that my use of colour and 'mosaic' idea was not working, I decided to change the approach I was taking to the design of the business cards, and explore the use of photography. I asked Victoria which photo/photos she would want her business card to have if this was the approach we took, and she sent me 4 options.

I began to explore using the photographs within the design of the business cards, and how the photographs and her logo design could work together. I looked initially at having the icon design over-laid on top of the photographs. Although this looked quite clear and legible, I thought that doing this actually takes attention away from her logo design, and ruins the balance of her carefully art directed photographs. 

Next I decided to leave the photographs alone and not distract or disturb Victoria's work, and have them as simply one side of the business card. I then started looking at how the back cover of the business card would be, and how the information would be laid out. I wanted the front and back of the business card to have some sort of connection or cohesion, so I had the idea of taking one shape from the photograph on the front, and reflecting it onto the back. I realised that this idea actually referenced back to my 'mosaic' idea, as it took inspiration and derived the use of colour and shape from Victoria's photography, however, this time I believe I was doing it a lot more tastefully and in a more subtle and visually not over-powering way. I experimented with pulling different shapes and different colours from the photographs, to see which of them would not over-whelm the text/copy, and which would look the most visually appealing.

I felt that the direction that the design of the business cards was going in was much stronger now. The business cards are meant to promote the photographer, so including her photography on one side is more than appropriate. The subtle use of shape and colour extending from the photographs on one side, into the information on the other I thought was something that was very effective because it encompassed the idea/concept I've had all along, but simply did it in a more professional way.

At this point I sent the business card designs I had done so far for Victoria to review.

This was her feedback/response:

I was pleased to hear that Victoria was liking the direction and concept for the business cards. I was feeling confident in my progress and my designs because the feedback she gave was only some of the smaller details and smaller changes she wanted me to make. I went on to fade the colours of the shapes on the back cover of the business card just as she had asked, as well as tidy up slightly the positioning and hierarchy of the information.

At this point I also showed my progress during a tutor-led group feedback session.

The feedback I got was:
- Look at the hierarchy of information, the eye seems to be drawn to the contact details first. Is this what your client wants.
- Try the contact information not centred. Naturally your read left to right, maybe that is what is making your hierarchy feel a bit off balanced.
- The green plant business card doesn't work as well as the others, as there seems to be too much of just the one colour (green) and not enough contrast. Maybe try a different photo for that one.
- Overall think about what is most important to your client, should the logo or the contact information be bigger/more noticeable. Also, I think the 'photography' in the logo should be bigger.

From the tutor-led group feedback session, some of the feedback I got I found useful whilst others not so much. The hierarchy of information, for example, I think is as it should be. The logo design is clearly bigger and more on the top side of the business card design, which makes the viewer's eye fall to it first. This is what my client Victoria wanted and so I decided that I will not change this as otherwise I will end up questioning my decisions as a designer and therefore over-design or make the current design worse. The green plant business card comment I also disagreed with. I thought that there was not actually too much green in that business card design, and that there was enough contrast because there was a nice and vibrant blue plant pot in the photo. These four photos were also the photos that my client had chosen to be on her business cards, so I did not want to change them. During one of our discussions with my client, we also had discussed how having two photos of objects, and two photos of living plants creates a nice balance in her business card series, and would allow her to choose according to the persons she is talking to which business card to give them. To not ruin this possibility, I also decided that I will keep the green plant business card and focus on other design details instead.

The bit of feedback that I did respond to within my design development was looking at having the contact information not centrally aligned. As a designed I very often centrally align thinks because I like the balance that that gives a piece of design, so sometimes I do need someone to point out to me that that may not always be the best and most appropriate choice.

After trying this, I did not really like the result. I much preferred the centrally aligned contact information because as mentioned earlier, I think that gives the design a more balanced and clear composition. Nevertheless I decided to show this to my client to see her opinion about it.

Her feedback/response was:

She agreed with me about that the contact information being centrally aligned was better, and so I went back to that design.

The feedback earlier from my client Victoria also noted that she thought the typeface used for the contact information on the back of the business card was too 'curvy'. I understood where she was coming from, because the typeface, although the same typeface as the one used in her logo, when lower case looked a lot more rounded, and so visually my client saw an unbalance there. Later on in the feedback she metioned that she wanted the typeface to be like the word 'Photography' in her logo. The typeface I presented to her was the same typeface as that word.

 o try and fix this issue, I started looking a variety of different sans serif typefaces that could match the logo design and layout of the business cards.

I struggled quite a bit to find another typeface that would feel cohesive and connect with the logo design, so I decided to choose one typeface that 'kind of' worked, and present that along with the typeface I previously used to Victoria.

 Her feedback/response:

The typeface of the contact information seemed to be the very last little bit of design that was still not right, as the rest of the business card design my client and I were both really happy with. In the typeface feedback my client made the suggestion of either changing the colour of the type or making the type upper case. I told her that changing the colour of the type would make the design feel too confusing and chaotic, especially since there is already colour present in the shapes on the back cover design and in her photography on the front cover design. Making the contact information upper case, however, I thought was a good idea. The client liked the typeface that 'Photography' was written in within her logo design, so if she liked that, I could simply make the contact information upper case in the same typeface and see if that worked. I feared that the contact information being upper case would interfere with it's legibility, but nonetheless I gave it a go.

The result I thought was actually quite successful. The contact information now looked a lot more cohesive with the logo design, and the typefaces matched up. I sent this updated design to my client once again.

This was my clients response:

Although my client was now very happy with the business card design, I had told her my worries about the contact information not being very legible. To see if my speculation was right or whether I was just worried because that's the impression I got by looking at the design on a screen, I decided to do a mock up print of these business cards to see how the design would look in real life.

Victoria wanted to print the business cards with Moo printing company, so the square dimensions for the business card would be 65mm x 65mm.

I printed the business card designs as black and white mocks up to scale at 65mm x 65mm. I did this to check weather the contact information would be clear and legible in capital letters and in that size. I also did it so that I could check if the shapes on the back of the business card matched up right with the photographs on the front of the business cards.

The mock-up prints revealed that I had nothing to worry about. The contact information on the back of the business cards was legible and clear. The shapes on the back also lined up perfectly with the photographs on the front.

After I had finished the business card design and my client was happy with everything, I transferred the designs onto a 'Moo' template in InDesign, so that they were ready to be sent off and printed.

Final Business Card Design 1

Final Business Card Design 2

Final Business Card Design 3

Final Business Card Design 4

Issues with Print/Additional Design

As my client Victoria places a focus on sustainability, we agreed that she should print her business cards on recycled paper made from cotton t-shirts, that was an option available with 'Moo'. However, because that paper is quite expensive, she only wanted to print a first batch of around 50. What she soon realised was that 'Moo' does not allow for separate front and back cover designs, and that only the front design can be different. For this reason, she asked me if I could create a separate back cover design with her logo and contact information, that could fit all four of the photos.

To keep my client happy I agreed to this, and although I do not class it as a part of the final outcome for the business card design, it was still a part of my design process.

To make the universal back cover design, I decided to combine some of the shaped from all four of the back cover designs, so that the design could somewhat fit each image anyway. Victoria was happy with this and said that in the future she will use my original business card designs, but for now for the first batch she did not want to spend too much money which is understandable.