Business Cards I've Made

This is a two-sided card I made for a friend of mine. The guitar was custom made for him and he wanted it featured. Overall, he was looking for a sophisticated design that reflected his personality.

Based on a picture that the luthier who built the guitar sent over, I went to work on the front of the card. The "MDs" design was something I doodled because I thought the upper-left corner needed something to help balance the composition.




He hated the doodle, but loved the idea of having the guitar take up as much of the front as possible. Using that as guidance, I simply changed the angle of the guitar and added gradients on the corners. I love the way this design flows now.
To this day, it might be the one I'm most proud of. It's certainly the design that has earned me the most kudos.

I wanted the back of the card to match the tone of the front of the card. I found a great font called "Optimus Princeps" which essentially did all the work for me.

This is the first draft of the back of the card:

Several revisions were made over time, and I'll spare you all of them. 

Eventually, this is what we landed on:

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Another friend of mine saw the above card and mentioned in passing that he may want me to make one for him as well. Without any guidance from him, I made this which I thought reflected his playing style, which was a little more blue-collar and edgier than Michael's. 

He hated the design.

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Perry DID commission me to come up with a card for his band, Evolution. They were a 7-piece funk band who played mostly covers. He didn't offer much in terms of guidance at first, except to mention that he didn't want anyone's face on the front of the card. 

Here is the first draft of the front of the card: 

He liked where I was going and asked that the sky be more visible and that the text appear more metallic:

He then asked if we could replace the clouds in favor of a "spacier" background. He also asked if I could capitalize "EVOLUTION."

At first, the design looked too "campy science-fiction," so I added the "glowing earth" element, which we both agreed helped the composition. It also helped inform the lighting on the text. 

I added the glint on the letter 'T' because... well, because what the hell, right?

Once we settled on the front of the card, I went to work on designing the back.

He was adamant on including all seven band members' names and instruments. It was tricky getting it to not look cluttered, but staggering the names certainly helped. I used the same font that I used for the "EVOLUTION" on the front of the card. 

He didn't like the font in my original design for the back of the card. Someone in the band suggested a more script-like font. At first I thought it would look ridiculous, but once I toyed around with it a little while, I quickly saw how wrong I was.

This was the final version of the back: 

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Here are some ideas I've had for the front of a business card for myself: 

HW #1: Initials & Introspective

We had to create a piece that tells the audience a little bit about ourselves while using some of the devices of design. This is what I came up with. Look hard to see my initials.

HW #1: Design Journal Set-up and 1st entry

Why is it important for Communication majors to study design?
Why does good design matter?


I believe it is important for a Communication major to study design because, simply put, design is visual communication. For someone to become a well-rounded communication student, and eventually a well-rounded communicator, they must understand and be conversant (if you will) in written, verbal, and visual communication.
Furthermore, I believe that understanding one of these three major disciplines of communication aides in the understanding of the other two. For example, a piece of text may take on a different meaning in a more stylized font or if it is hand-written instead of being typed. Italicizing or bolding a section of text gives it a different meaning altogether once it is spoken. It is in this way that I believe design may be the most important of the three disciplines. In a way, the overall design of the project sets the context in which the verbal and/or written elements are later perceived.


This brings me to why good design is important. The purpose of any communication is to convey a message that can be easily understood by its intended receiver. One of the simple tenets of effective communication is "commonality of language", meaning that the message that is sent is done so in a "language" that both the sender and receiver understand. If a piece of design is going to be effective, commonality of language is very important. A designer must "speak the same language" as his or her intended audience in order for the work they do to have the desired effect. Otherwise, the message can be misinterpreted or even lost altogether.