Art of the business card: Part 2

This is an update on a post I made back in April.

Once again, I’ve been assigned do create a business card as part of a visual identity project, but this time it must include our own logo.

I’m not sure if I feel more or less restricted by the logo requirement. After all, it’s an easy way to create a cohesive branding package (logo, business card, letterhead), but at the same time prevents tweaking things for different layouts.

I’m also finding it hard to design, or “brand”, myself. In another course we’re designing a logo for our own bar, cafe, or other trendy business and I’m having no trouble experimenting freely with colours, text, placement, etc.

But when it comes to developing something that represents you, there’s the added pressure of knowing that the choices you make with its design will reflect, or suggest things about you: your personality, how you work, and more.

Certain texts give a sense of weight or seperation, rhythm or continuity, while colours can suggest a whole range of moods and energy. Even arranging text and graphics in particular ways can imply movement or order, and put the focus of the logo on a specific element.

I tried not to overanalyse myself and just created a simple, basic logo that covers a wide range of “communications” – I’ll leave the specifics for when I actually get a job in the field!

Here's some that caught my eye while researching mine:

This person designed the typeface for his logo, which makes it much more personalized, and eliminates the problem of using a common font that someone else could use for their identity. I love the blocky text - but not for myself - very bold, and dare I say it, masculine.

I’ve noticed that some people solve the above problem of using widely available text by combining it with a graphic that relates to their business or field. I tried to do that with mine, as you’ll see below.

Another method is to tweak generic text to make it original, as I believe these two people did. It also helps if your name lends itself well to combine letters to make an interesting shape.

Owls are a very popular animal for logos, I see. I wonder what that means? I’m wise, cute, and googly eyed?

My logo with coordinating business card. It definitely needs an owl, though, now that I look at it.