My Business card Final Design

 

Here is my final design for my graphic design business card and the first thing i would like to point out is that i chose the colour blue not just because it looks nicer and better than other colours but because it is my favourite colour and i would like the business card to show what I’m into and what is to come so showing my favourite colour is a big part of the design. As well as the pain splashes and the reason why this is on the design is because this gives a little preview to the people who have my business card of what i like as well as to tell them that i am quite artistic and thats if they don’t know what a graphic designer is.

Here are just some examples of the other colours i looked at that did not work for my designing needs. Yellow looked a little week and pink really suit the style i was going for. Plus i thought blue looked like a professional colour to pick to show that i am a graphic designer as well as being my favourite colour.

The type face that i used is called “nexa bold” and the reason i used this certain san-serif font is because as a business card, i would personally like to show people what type of font i normally like to use in my designs as well as i didn’t use a serif font at all is because it is sometimes hard to see on small designs and that i didn’t really want to use a font that is known for such history. Also nexa bold is the only font i used in this business card because it is a good font as it allows me to use different weights of the font (italics, bold, light, normal) as well as it is one of the only fonts that looks really clean when the lettering are both in caps and under case. Although i was considering using a calligraphy type of font for my name or the graphic designer bit on the front of the design to show that i am artistic but i personally thought it looked a little weird as i am trying to go for a professional type of layout for my own business card.

Here is the alternative design for the back of the business card and the reason i did not use this design is because i felt like the details themselves would confuse people in they were clipped in the blue rectangles. Also i thought using this layout with the rectangles slowly getting smaller gradually going down the line looked weird. To add another reason why i didn’t use this layout is because the spacing of the text didn’t look nice and for a business card, it would be hard for people to read text that has spacing in it so for the main and final design i chose not to use any spacing in my text so that people can read it easier.

Business Card Research

After looking at these business card designs for graphic designers, i feel like every design is unique and in a way shows off what they are into and what style of designing they have done. So as a idea i feel like making a business card with my face with a little preview of what i like (paint splashes) and with my favourite colours would be a ideal way to start designing my own personal business card.

Pretty much all of these business cards uses a san-serif font and so keeping with the trend i would use a specific san-serif font called “nexa bold” and the reason for this is san-serif fonts are easy to read and it makes the design look clean and simple. Also the reason i would use a san-serif font rather than a serif font is because for the business card, you are only just giving people the smallest preview of your work and what you like as well as some of your details so that they can check you out instead of showing history on the card which serif is mainly used for.

Some Graphic designer’s business cards normally show a design they have produced in the past that they like or something that indicates and portrays the designs that they are into and are good at designing. Also a little trend I have noticed on some business cards is that on the back of the business card, there is normally the contact details of the designer as well as the background colour is normally a dark colour with a light text colour. So for my business card i would most likely use a dark grey as the background and my favourite colour as the light colour of the design.

My Punctuation Mark

Here is the final design for my punctuation mark and after playing around with the sizing and getting my punctuation mark small enough to fit on a keyboard as well as making it look nice and not weird, i finally figured that this is the best way to portray my punctuation mark.

I initially got the idea from current voltage maps where you use the icons like these:

I thought that making a design like the switch icon would be ideal because the idea for my punctuation mark was to give people the idea that the sentence before is irrelevant to the next sentence.

Also when people want to say something or add something  to the sentence, people use the – but a longer one. Which mine in a concept is a broken long dash in which i could tie it in to making the sentence irrelevant.

Quick sketch and little development

Here is a simple sketch of what my punctuation mark would look like on the keyboard for the pc and a android mobile phone.

One little problem i have noticed with my punctuation mark is that it is a little too big and not just for the keyboards. But the way this punctuation mark would work  could be perfect because in a way my punctuation mark could potentially count to the end of a sentence like a full-stop or it could work as a comma depending on the way people portray their sentences.

Also this punctuation mark that i created would work with serif fonts as well as sans-serif because my mark is just pretty much straight lines and so for my mark for the serif fonts, i would just had the little detail on the ends of the mark.

For example looking at the difference between sans-serif and serif punctuation marks, my mark could potentially look like this:

With all the flicks, I must admit, it does look a little bit weird but it works cause my punctuation mark is pretty much 3 dashes connection to make a off related switch.

Text Messaging

When we text, we don’t really that we are doing it but we put soo much expression into our text messages. For example we all have put emotions in our text messages like 🙂 and XD. Additionally all of these makes a text message unique because you can show what you are feeling within the sentence you sent as well as using exclamation marks (although they are overused as well as the ellipses…)

One of the major problems with text messaging we get is that we tend to not look at what we have typed and create words that doesnt make the sentence clear or something along the lines for example here is a little conversation where a guy typed in a word and it came out wrong.

Ingnoring all this above. with my punctuation mark, i want to be able to create sentence and indicated if the sentence before the one in front is relevant or not because half the time we just text random stuff and we do it fast and without paying attention, people who is reading your text messages could get a little confused about what you are saying or trying to imply.

Digital Camera

Punctuation Mark Design – My idea

Here is a little idea i had for creating my own punctuation mark. i know that there is a punctuation mark that already exists for linking a sentence or two which is a dash “-” but i know there is not a punctuation mark that shows that the following sentence is irrelevant.

so i looked around and i searched up something that i knew i saw before in my childhood which is ‘electrical current and voltage’.

So i thought using the switch as the base icon for my punctuation mark design would be a good idea because it could mean something like the sentence is irrelevant like when the switch is off, nothing is going through and is going the completely different way.

A look at punctuation marks

While having a long look at these common punctuation marks, i came to realise that there is not anything that can tell if a sentence is irrelevant to the previous sentence except from putting that sentence into a new paragraph. So what ill be focusing on is that i will be trying to design a punctuation mark that represents whether the following sentence is irrelevant or links with the previous sentence.

New Assignment: End of year brief (Type portfolio 1)

For the end of year brief it says that i am allowed to choose 2 or 3 of the selected briefs that they have gave me and these are the ones i chose

End of Year Brief:

1:

Undertake any small typographic project that you think will show off your skills. You may use imagery but typography must be the significant part.

This could be anything you choose, such as: a simple layout, set a poem or lyric, a typographic poster, a logo. Please discuss your choice with a tutor before you start.

You will need to write out a very short brief to say what you intend to do. You will need series of posts in your blog to show your development.

2:

On the website of Jonathan Barnbrook is a brief written by him that asks students to invent a new punctuation mark (brief 02).

You can find this at: http://www.edu.barnbrook.net/studentbriefs.html . It is the second of the three briefs there.

So pretty much in the first sub-brief i have to show my skills in typography by creating any sort of imagery but i have to create something that will be focused on the type i use and for the second brief i have to create my own punctuation mark

Book cover inspiration

Here are two book covers done by the same author that i am inspired by. I am inspired by the way the grunge in background outlines the entire page by shows more at the bottom where the title is and where the objects are placed. I am inspired but the way the text is laid out as well and the way it is presented. By this i mean the use of grunge on the text to blend it in with the main design. Also in this book cover i like the way the designer portrayed the main images to do with the main title and i would most likely involve a large image that covers the entire book cover for example a mountain or something that indicates motivation.

Whole Book cover design Research

When looking at all of these covers for different books, i can say that every design for the spine is nearly the same with large text at the bottom or middle and with a authors name on it or a little logo indicating the book. Also when looking at the designs for the back cover, some are different from others. Like some books doesnt even have a blurb on the back and others do. But the books that have the blurb are normally placed differently like you got some blurbs that are aligned centred and you got others aligned on the left side. Another thing that u can sometimes see on the back cover is that you can normally see a paragraph and a picture about who the author is as well as you can normally see a barcode and the book manufactures. Sometimes on the back cover design to make it look a bit more interesting and not just bland, there is normally a background image that would slightly catch the audience’s eyes and sometimes there is a picture of the author behind the blurb.

Every design is completely different. You can hardly find a design that is normally exactly the same except if its a series of the same book types.