Business cards

[JWar]

I'd like to know your opinions on this businesscard design

front:


back

[Vince Twelve]

The TYGRON side looks really neat but the name and address side has some flaws.  People are going to need to get up all close and squinty to read your email and address.

I think that making the backside white with black (or colored) lettering, rather than having the orange and blue background, will make your card look better and read better (and cost less to print).  Remember, simple is better.

The orange font doesn't stand out well enough against the blue. If you want to keep the fancy colored back, you're going to want to change the font color.  The text with a light-orange outline on the TYGRON side is very legible.  I'd use that lighter color for the main font color on this side.

Then there's the font itself.  The front has a nice wide font.  The back is a horizontally condensed font.  I'd stretch it out considerably, and use a larger size so people don't need a magnifying glass.

The front looks really cool though!

[Xellie]

First off, nice design, I like the vectorised tiger drawing. Since I'm a graphic designer by profession, I'll just give you a few comments. Use it / don't use it, just ideas. But looks nice already.

1.
I'd change the front to the back, as the front is the side that the client will see, and thus is the first impression, for the purpose of this post, I'll continue to use your front and back the way you posted it.

2.
Use either the serif font (used on the back) or the sans-serif (used on the front)... don't use both. Fonts create character in a design, and it should be consistent... I'd go for the front on the back, the serif font ( a serif is the little 'steps and corners' detail on the letters ) as they connect well with the interesting and active tiger design on the back.

3.
The text on the front should be a lot bigger, to be in balance with the 'full' area used on the front. Make your name on the back the biggest, and the other contact detail bigger than it is now, but still smaller than the name.

4.
I'd go for right aligning the text on the front, not lef-aligning, since the left side of the design is already taken up by the swish shape.

5.
Consider using a part of the design on the back on the front, in a very lighter shade of orange or blue, tilted a bit (maybe) as a watermark. It will make the front of the business card more interesting, and also connect it more with the back of the card.

6.
On the back, lose the orange bars at the top and bottom edges of the card.... the design is strong enough already, and doesn't need added detail to make it have more impact.

7.
Colours.
This might be too drastic, but consider that the ORANGE colour is very active, and the blue is a very 'dead' or passive colour, that doesn't jump out at you at all... it might be that the intensity value of these two colours are just TOO far apart... which creates quite a feeling of 'unrest' visually. It might be worth your while to experiment with changing either of these two colours. My preference would be to go for a goldish yellow in stead of the orange... blue and yellow are also compimentary. The feeling of more 'steadiness' that this can create might be easier to reconcile with the 'corporate' look that the card currently has.

Hope that helps, would like to see your reworks.

[MadReizka]

I like the tiger, use it as a "watermark" in the front side too, behind the text, with a very low opacity, so it can be barely seen.
Looks good, and Xellie has some good points there.

[Ashen]

Why go for a two-sided card? I'll admit my experience with business cards is limited, but all the one's I've seen have been single side. It just seems a little excessive to me, especially if you're going with the full colour look you've got here. Why not try merging the sides, like this quick-and-nasty edit:



The blank space above and left of the name and detals could be used for other 'corporate' info (a slogan or 'mission statement' for example).

Otherwise, I agree with Xellie and MadReizka's points.

[Misj']

I'd like to know your opinions on this businesscard design

Well...I'm not too fond of the colours. But then again...I'm just not really into orange. So that could be the reason. Having that said, the design on the back - as people have pointed out - is very strong. I agree with Xellie that the bars on the bottom and top should be removed...they just don't add to the design. Also - as mentioned - a gold or sand colour for the foreground might make it a little less 'hard'. I tried to illustrate the idea in the image below (I had to substitute the font, didn't have yours). I also changed the location of the tagline. I think I like yours better, but I just had to try it...it failed. By the way, regarding the tagline. Personally I wouldn't use the word 'serious'; to me it just doesn't feel right.

The front I would change extensively. First of all, the blue is very hard, and a big blue blob is...well a hard big blue blob. Secondly, dark colours on light are more easy to read than light colours on dark. So rather than use the same colour-design, I would inverse them. The letters in dark blue (your name in the same font as Tygron, your personal information in the same font as the tagline), and the back in a sandish colour. I really liked those line, so I added them again on the back, and the tiger (without the bevel that I added on the front) is very faint on the background.



Anyway, your design has a very nice feel to it; and as such it was very nice to work with it. None of the changes that I made are really necessary (although some, and mainly those for the front, I really like).

Misj'

[JWar]

Thanks for the great replies everyone. I'm not doing these designs myself, as this is not the field where my talents lie. I put these great designs here to get some third-party opinions and have passed them on to the designer.

She has taken all your suggestions into account and we're looking at further tweakings in the design right now. I'll post further progress as we reach milestones.

Once again, thanks for the great replies.