Business Card Design and Research

I’ve created this design with all of my personal preferences in mind. Since the start of third year, I’ve been collecting business cards from various illustration fairs and art shows. I then picked out 7 out of the bunch - the ones I found most appealing to me and analyzed them. I then made up a list of my preferences and they’re as follows:

• Traditional format (85x55mm);

• Thicker paper-stock;

• Rounded edges;

• Textured matte or uncoated paper;

• Full art on front, info on back;

• Not too plain, not too busy in the back.

What I found interesting about this practice/research is that there’s a lot more that goes into your “perfect card” than just the visual aspect of it. Touch was an incredibly important factor too - the texture and edges in particular (for me at least). I found rounded edges and matte/uncoated paper cards more enjoyable to hold than those with sharp edges or glossy paper. The print quality I thought was also very important as a good business card could easily be used as a miniature print (that also being my reason for not having any text on the front).

I attempted to create an alternative version that would be horizontal in orientation to see how that would look, however, I personally prefer how the front looks more on the vertical one as it enables for more of the art to be featured. I will be archiving this version for now and maybe I'll come around to it at some point in the future. That's the good thing about alternate versions.

Overall, I'm very satisfied with the design I've been able to create - it encapsulates my practice, personality and work perfectly. The colours used on the back correlate to those I've used on my website and so does the piece I chose to feature on the card. I chose my Forget Me Not painting as it represents the turning point for me creatively (and generally I just really enjoy the look of it). I managed to discuss my options with some of the tutors and it was essentially unanimous.

I had considered other pieces too, though, most of them I felt were not as reflective of my more recent shift in practice or just didn't look the best as business cards. There were a few that I did quite the look of:

Although, in the end, the one I ended up going for was the one I enjoyed the look of the most. I would like to try and get a small variation printed in the future so that people have a choice of which business card they'd like to take away from my art booth - a few artists in the fairs I visited were practicing that.