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Business Card Critique
- Thread starter thebiggoose
- Start date
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I think the text is way too small. I'm not sure that people are going to be able to read it. It's definitely different though...
I'd also play around with the text alignment some. The text on the top seems kind of squashed, and the logo doesn't appear to be centered with the text below it. Also, is that Comic Sans?
I'd also play around with the text alignment some. The text on the top seems kind of squashed, and the logo doesn't appear to be centered with the text below it. Also, is that Comic Sans?
Dont put owner on the business card
and the text at the top seems a little boaring
becides that I like it
and the text at the top seems a little boaring
becides that I like it
Personally, I have never been a fan of photo images on a business card. They just feel a bit tacky.
Get a domain name of your own and have it redirect with frames and set up email forwarding. Just looks nicer on the card.
I find white on orange slightly hard to read.
I find white on orange slightly hard to read.
Buy your own domain - don't advertise a gmail or free web hosting account.
Don't say "More" in your list of services.
Both things scream "Person running a hobby business"
Choose two or max. 3 services to offer. Better yet, make a card for each service and make it specific.
Choose fonts much more carefully - they are not distinctive.
Actually kinda like the photo and the orange scratch pad effect as an initial-impact visual. Although the photo is slightly puzzling what it is communicating -- Person with consumer point and shoot camera -- how does that tell the story of what you can do?
Don't say "More" in your list of services.
Both things scream "Person running a hobby business"
Choose two or max. 3 services to offer. Better yet, make a card for each service and make it specific.
Choose fonts much more carefully - they are not distinctive.
Actually kinda like the photo and the orange scratch pad effect as an initial-impact visual. Although the photo is slightly puzzling what it is communicating -- Person with consumer point and shoot camera -- how does that tell the story of what you can do?
Thats the main one for me as well. I hate it when people put owner, manager, etc, etc on Business cards...
Bar that, I like it, maybe get rid of the Comic Sans tho...
dont like the camera to be honest, for a start, it doesnt look like a very pro camera, and it makes it look like a photographers card, when you do multipul things.
Putting aside all other comments, the shape of it looks too long. In the UK at least, standard credit/business card size is 85mm W x 55mm H.
Oh OK, let's be frank. Web design does not equal:
Oh OK, let's be frank. Web design does not equal:
It is.
Nothing about this business card says designer. The mark , and certainly not the type choice(please dont tell me that is comic sans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)...it screams HACK which is probably the truth.
What are you trying to achieve with this card?
Are you trying to get paid work?
If I gave you a proper job as a graphic designer, would you be able to carry it out?
Do you have the professional qualifications and experience?
Your card lists 'Advertising'. What kind of advertising?
That's such a large field - print, video, classified, pre-press, etc. I would be suspicious of someone who claimed to be professional in all these fields, they're rather mutually exclusive.
Would you happen to be in your teens or early 20's?
It seems like you think you can give anything a go, but dont really know how to do anything well.
I'm not ripping on you, I was exactly the same when I was 23, and I also designed a card for myself which had multiple even more outrageously unrelated fields of work listed on it.
Today I'm a sign language artist, and also am setting up a small company. I have two different cards - one is artistic/creative and lists me as a sign language artist, without going into any more depth, and the other is more formal and list me as company director.
Before making the cards, I had to think about:
- what kind of situation would I be in if it really mattered what kind of card I had? (ie. not chatting with friends or with people who already know me).
- what kind of people would I be talking to in this situation? - Arts curators, gallery buyers, arts funding bodies, or banks and business industry experts and contacts?
- what impression would I want to be giving?
Arts bodies want to see me as a creative, 'different' type who also also knows their field and can produce creativity with polish.
Business / industry sector types, especially for a minority culture start-up like me, want to feel they aren't wasting their time with me, that I'm not some punk wasting their time.
So I made two very different cards for these two situation, each has different energy, each has the minimum of words on and is as specific as possible about my unique selling point and particular expertise in that field.
In my experience, I get hired to do specific jobs, and if you're vague about what you are or what you do, then people will go for specialists in the area of work they want doing.
Cards are a little bit of a waste of time anyway. 99% of new jobs or comissions are through personal connections, either friends or family, or ex-work mates or people you used to work for.
One final tip - don't cover your face - people will remember you better if they have a reminder of your face on the card.
Hope that helps
xoxo T
Are you trying to get paid work?
If I gave you a proper job as a graphic designer, would you be able to carry it out?
Do you have the professional qualifications and experience?
Your card lists 'Advertising'. What kind of advertising?
That's such a large field - print, video, classified, pre-press, etc. I would be suspicious of someone who claimed to be professional in all these fields, they're rather mutually exclusive.
Would you happen to be in your teens or early 20's?
It seems like you think you can give anything a go, but dont really know how to do anything well.
I'm not ripping on you, I was exactly the same when I was 23, and I also designed a card for myself which had multiple even more outrageously unrelated fields of work listed on it.
Today I'm a sign language artist, and also am setting up a small company. I have two different cards - one is artistic/creative and lists me as a sign language artist, without going into any more depth, and the other is more formal and list me as company director.
Before making the cards, I had to think about:
- what kind of situation would I be in if it really mattered what kind of card I had? (ie. not chatting with friends or with people who already know me).
- what kind of people would I be talking to in this situation? - Arts curators, gallery buyers, arts funding bodies, or banks and business industry experts and contacts?
- what impression would I want to be giving?
Arts bodies want to see me as a creative, 'different' type who also also knows their field and can produce creativity with polish.
Business / industry sector types, especially for a minority culture start-up like me, want to feel they aren't wasting their time with me, that I'm not some punk wasting their time.
So I made two very different cards for these two situation, each has different energy, each has the minimum of words on and is as specific as possible about my unique selling point and particular expertise in that field.
In my experience, I get hired to do specific jobs, and if you're vague about what you are or what you do, then people will go for specialists in the area of work they want doing.
Cards are a little bit of a waste of time anyway. 99% of new jobs or comissions are through personal connections, either friends or family, or ex-work mates or people you used to work for.
One final tip - don't cover your face - people will remember you better if they have a reminder of your face on the card.
Hope that helps
xoxo T
Tell em what you think of my business card.
It is a bit tacky. What sort of company are you trying to promote? Is it a hobby or a 'real' business?
I'm not a graphic designer and certainly no expert in this area but I happened to click onto this thread because I'm currently thinking about designing a website, so I'm looking at various logos and typefaces, etc etc etc.
Anyway here's my 2 cents (from the point of view of 'a person on the street that you might hand your card to')...
- The card would look immediately better without the text along the top. It looks like an afterthought. The font is bland and it doesn't 'fit' very well (overlaps the photo on the left slightly) rather than perhaps being centred between the edge of the photo and the right-hand edge.
- You definitely shouldn't list "More". What is "More"?
- Comic Sans has to be the worst font ever. Looks very unprofessional.
- The white text should be aligned (centred) with the "TBG Productions" text.
- A photo of a guy holding a cheap camera doesn't really spell out "Graphic Design/Advertising/Video Production/Web Design etc" to me.
- Overall the poor choice of fonts and layout don't really promote "graphic design".
Sorry if that all sounds negative. As I said, I'm no expert but many of the people on this forum are... I hope you take this all as constructive criticism and show us your next attempt...
Anyway here's my 2 cents (from the point of view of 'a person on the street that you might hand your card to')...
- The card would look immediately better without the text along the top. It looks like an afterthought. The font is bland and it doesn't 'fit' very well (overlaps the photo on the left slightly) rather than perhaps being centred between the edge of the photo and the right-hand edge.
- You definitely shouldn't list "More". What is "More"?
- Comic Sans has to be the worst font ever. Looks very unprofessional.
- The white text should be aligned (centred) with the "TBG Productions" text.
- A photo of a guy holding a cheap camera doesn't really spell out "Graphic Design/Advertising/Video Production/Web Design etc" to me.
- Overall the poor choice of fonts and layout don't really promote "graphic design".
Sorry if that all sounds negative. As I said, I'm no expert but many of the people on this forum are... I hope you take this all as constructive criticism and show us your next attempt...
yeah, alot of useful tips from the other members... you might think of it as a tiny billboard that needs to catch the eye and clearly define your service in a professional manner without making it too much to read. One number, one website, your name and service, and a memorable distinctive style- which you have done well imhop.
lose the camera, or use a pro model dSLR, not a point and shoot, very amatuer.
comic sans is terrible.
get a real email, not a gmail account.
other than that, its fine.
comic sans is terrible.
get a real email, not a gmail account.
other than that, its fine.
My comments, from a business perspective:
- The point and shoot type camera does not indicate professional. I would expect to see an SLR type camera.
- I didn't notice the line that ends with More until I read this thread.
- Speaking of which, what does More mean?
- Get yourself your own website and email address.
- The colors are eye catching. However, the card is hard to read and figure out what service(s) you provide.
- Might consider a different card for each area of service that you provide.
- The guy with the photo does not compliment the services that you say that you offer. No where do you state anything to do with taking photos, yet your picture indicates that.
Hope this helps.
- The point and shoot type camera does not indicate professional. I would expect to see an SLR type camera.
- I didn't notice the line that ends with More until I read this thread.
- Speaking of which, what does More mean?
- Get yourself your own website and email address.
- The colors are eye catching. However, the card is hard to read and figure out what service(s) you provide.
- Might consider a different card for each area of service that you provide.
- The guy with the photo does not compliment the services that you say that you offer. No where do you state anything to do with taking photos, yet your picture indicates that.
Hope this helps.
Looks really bad, and borderline awful. Keep it simple and professional looking. The picture seams to be more of the focal point than the actual important stuff on the card. Don't use a picture on a business card, especially a stock photography type picture like that. Oh, and for the love of God, don't use Comic Sans, or anything that looks like it. You have the ambition, thats important, keep it. You can't get anything but better. Practice
... everyone here is so Politically Correct...
look, your card is awful, everything about it is awful ...
it looks cheap, poorly done, bad taste, no design sense, shall I go on....
and you want people to hire you???
I'm sorry, once again, this forum reeks of bad design...hey...you asked!
R
look, your card is awful, everything about it is awful ...
it looks cheap, poorly done, bad taste, no design sense, shall I go on....
and you want people to hire you???
I'm sorry, once again, this forum reeks of bad design...hey...you asked!
R
SECOND
Sorry to the OP, but this screams amateur/student. Maybe if your 15 this is fine, just having a business card printed at that age shows ambition, so stick with it and eventually people will stop saying this about your work.
However
Just so your spirit isn't broken, everyone needs to start somewhere, thus I present...my first portfolio from 2003:
http://www.jasondorn.com/version_01/home.html
As you can see, utter crap...eww really...this is bad
Ahh back when I had the ambition of a student...and no skills. Kinda wish I could have kept that ambition though, but I digress.Anyways compare that to http://www.jasondorn.com today's portfolio and you can see I've come along way.
So although this card sucks, and your next 3-4 will probably suck, eventually you will stop sucking. Every designer goes through a bunch of bad work before they get good at this, it's called experience. hmm that sounded really high school guidance counselor, hope some of this makes a point or two.
I echo everything negative said so far...sorry.
But one more thing is that I think you should consider carefully why you are breaking from tradition and putting your name above your company's name. Your name should normally be underneath it, with the company name taking prominence. Although, let's keep it real...your company is *you*, right? So if you chose the company name, instead of calling it Steve Mason, Inc. or whatever, then... well, that is still consistent with my point. Whatever the reason for the choice, your name usually should be below the company title, and if you're deviating from that, make sure you're doing it for a thought out reason, and not "because it looks cool."
Good luck!
But one more thing is that I think you should consider carefully why you are breaking from tradition and putting your name above your company's name. Your name should normally be underneath it, with the company name taking prominence. Although, let's keep it real...your company is *you*, right? So if you chose the company name, instead of calling it Steve Mason, Inc. or whatever, then... well, that is still consistent with my point. Whatever the reason for the choice, your name usually should be below the company title, and if you're deviating from that, make sure you're doing it for a thought out reason, and not "because it looks cool."
Good luck!
I actually like the photo and orange, but it does scream "photographer," not "graphic designer." You do need a more distinct font, especially at the top of the card, and I would narrow the fields down at the top of the card if you are catering to large businesses.