Business Card Help

[splat]

Hi. I'm working with my wife (a wedding photographer) to try and make

her a business card. Here is what I have come up with so far. I'm no

graphic designer by any means. Any suggestions?

 

I'm thinking of printing them on 4x6 photo paper but I'm not sure if

the "Kodak Paper" watermarked on the back would look bad. Your

thoughts on that would be appreciated as well.

 

Thanks<div></div>

[jaimie blue]

Balance, size, scale, a little off. The couple, are being completely overpowered by the intense type, soften the type up a bit. It seems like the couple background and type are fighting each other and there is not alot of harmony between the words and image. I would make the type smaller and softer and not leave that big gap between the sentence groupings...that is where I would start. I personally don't have a problem with Kodak's watermark, but do not really like Kodak paper.

[bdp]

For me, there's a bit of a contrast issue with letters and the yellow background.. too much for my liking. Like the person before me, maybe softening the fonts would help.

 

I also wonder if making the couple larger in the card would help?

Bob

[mark pav]

Hi Steven. At the moment you have text that is right justified along with text that is left

justified, but on the same side of the card. That doesn't work. I recommend that you either

run the contact details along the bottom of the card or at least right justify it.

 

I also recommend that you separate your company name and the slogan more, both in

distance and by using two fonts. I would pick a plainer font for the contact details, too. I'd

reduce the boldness of all of the fonts, too.

 

Have fun. ;)

[fotografz]

Maybe something like this?<div></div>

[darice michelle]

Mark,

 

How did you get the picture to have a gradient like that? Love it!

[merlin]

The picture isn't bad, but as it is right now it's too distracting, marc's version is much better. I'm not a big fan of yellow.

 

that is not a good font for a business card, it's readability is very low, especially since it's going to be printed fairly small. Marc's font is a little better, but Serif fonts were really designed to be used in body, and rarely work well as header, or titles. Try future, you really can't go wrong with that font, simple, readable, and effective. just an idea

 

stephen

[merlin]

future=futura sorry, typo

[splat]

Thanks everyone for all the help. Obviously I need it. Anything I can see in my head I can usually create in PS but I'm a software developer by trade, not an artist. All the suggestions are most helpful. Then Marc goes ahead and does it for me. Wow. I didn't expect anyone to go that far. My wife loves Marc's version so I'll probably recreate something like that only high enough resolution to print. This will be her third business card design but by far the best. Thanks again for all you help.

 

On a somewhat related note, are there rules for desiging things like this or do you just have to have an eye for it? My next task will be to make a brochure for an upcomming bridal show and any simple rules to follow would be great. I'll be sure to check back here before going to the presses though. You guys are great.<div></div>

[hooman_b]

Why not just a simple white card, heavy weight stock, black or dark gray front. Simple, clean, easy on the eyes, etc... People will go to the web site anyway to see the photos, so why force it on the card?

[mark_warren1]

<i>On a somewhat related note, are there rules for desiging things like this or do you just have to have an eye for it?</i>

<p>

YES. there are rules for everything. you need to understand balance, proximity, alignment, and hierarchical relationships between primary data,(name) secondary data (buisness name) and tertirary data (phone numbers.)

<p>

on the card you've got "special" on one line and "event photography" on the second. drop the font size to about 11 points, all of that info should line up under the name of your wife's business from end to end. then drop the phone numbers font size to about 8 points, and i would lose the phone icons and substitute [p] [f] [e] or something similiar

[fotografz]

Darice, it's simple. Just open the image, select the area you want taken back with the

selection Marque, feather it a lot, and use levels to lighten it. Then move the selection

toward the end you want lighter, and use levels again, then repeat as necessary.

 

I don't agree that Futura is the answer for everything. If you pick a serif font with heavier

serifs it will reproduce just fine. These faces can be more elegant looking without getting

"flowery".

 

Steven, here are a couple more Layout ideas I slapped together. Obviously it requires the

actual image, not a web upload with all kinds of artifacts destroying it.<div></div>

[splat]

Marc, what font is that you are using? I looked for a font with similarly large serifs but can't find anything that looks quite as nice in my collection of fonts.

 

To recreate the gradient I used a gradient layer set to "screen" in my attempt. It looks allmost the same (after some tweaking a custom gradient). As with all things in PS there are often lots of different ways to do the same thing.

[fotografz]

Steven, it's Cochin Bold located in the PhotoShop CS2 font list.

[jen_huddleston]

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