When I spoke with Susan we arranged to meet up to discuss her ideas, and possible directions to take her branding elements. However as work was quieter than normal at this point I decided to come up with a possible to design, so that I could show the client. Bringing something to the meeting would also help me to determine her likes and dislikes, based upon the piece I had done.
I already knew the types of products that Susan sold as she posts images of her products on her Facebook page. We had also discussed where abouts the client would be distributing products in the summer. She had wished to stock these at craft fairs and small boutiques.
This was my inspiration for my design. I really wanted to capture what made everything sure produced so special. Everything is one of a kind, made by hand and made with love. This is exactly what I wanted to emphasise within the design.
I focused on the two main elements of the business, Knitwear and Jewellery. I really wanted to do illustrations for the business cards, Susan's stock constantly changes as she only creates a few of each products and once sold, moves onto the next design. Because of this, If I were to use photographs to represent her business, they would soon appear dated.
I began with a simple concept, creating a business card with a cable knit background, I sketched this below. I found that giving the card an appearance of a knitwear texture was a simple and effective way of illustrating this half of her business. When it comes to the time to take this idea into illustrator I will simply create a vector image trace from a cable knit photograph to gain a true to like representation.
I then questioned how, over the texture of cable knit I would incorporate the other side of the business, Jewellery. After a bit of consideration I decided upon the idea of creating a motif in the centre of the card that would consist of a circle (Shaped and designed to look like a piece of jewellery) with Susan Clark printed in the middle.
I came up with two different designs for this idea and sketched them up. I took inspiration from Susan's jewellery pieces, particularly her necklaces and bracelets which use a lot of charm type details.
The first design is the simpler of the two and resembles more of a bangle shape than a chain bracelet. I feel that this simple design will work well with the detailed background, not competing with each other but complement each other. I also kept the charms on the design simple, staying with one shape to again avoid too much chaos.
The next design was more detailed than the previous, and was more realistic in terms of looking like the pieces which Susan creates. I drew up a simple link chain illustration, however I think that this design is more more detailed than the above and therefore could push the design to be too busy. I kept the simple shape of the charms again, but I don't think that this makes the design any simpler, and so the decision between the two depends upon wanting to keep the design readable, or wanting to have a truer representation of the clients business.
To try and solve this decision I layered the bangle like design over the cable knit design and held it in front of a light to see what this combination would look like when layered. I liked the combination of the two very much together, and felt that seeing them in context, that to add any more detail to the piece would tale away from the design and possibly cheapen this lovely hand crafted brand.
With the background elements in place, I turned to look at the typography for the piece. As the aesthetic of the brand is dominantly driven by hand rendered pieces, I wanted to carry on this habit with the type as well. I found a typeface online that I thought would be really fitting for the brand as it was a clear representation of hand written text. The font is called Bombshell and is a flowy and feminine hand written font. However the font is £30 pound to purchase and my client has quite a low budget, and I also couldn't see myself using it frequently, and so buying the font isn't really an option. Instead I decided to create my own personalised typographic piece to avoid purchasing costs and make the project even more bespoke.
I practiced drawing out the clients name with similar characteristics until I was happy with the outcome. I then drew it up large format, so that when scanned in the text would appear very clean and neat.
Now that I had all the elements in place for the business cards I began the digitalising process. My first point of process was to find a cable knit pattern similar to the one that I had sketched up earlier. I found one online very similar to the idea I had previously drawn up, this is shown below.
I imported this into illustrator where I image traced the texture to gain a vector image which I could manipulate. At this point I also wanted to work on the colour scheme at this point. My focus, with the design being very organic base so far was to target the crafted feel by keeping the colours very earthy and organic. For this reason I looked into the type of stock that I could print the design on. This is when I thought about relief printing onto a different colour stock, mainly an earthy colour. This is where I came up with the idea of relief printing the design on craft card. Craft card again would be a further representation of the core of the company and the process in which the products are made.
I found that on online websites such as etsy sold ready cut business cards in the exact stock I was looking for in bulk for a very reasonable prices. This would be almost perfect for my clients budget and the aesthetic truly reflects the personality of the business.
For colours that would be relief printed I envisioned keeping the colours in the pallet similar to one another, and to provided some light to the design. For this reason I came up with a colour palette inspired by the colour of the stock I was printing on.
The cable Knit pattern in the background would be a lighter shade of the colour shown underneath. I hate created this in illustrator why colouring in the pattern white and giving it a low opacity. This colour however is only a reference as the cards could be relief printed, when relief printed the client will have to mix ink or paint that is similar to the digital reference.
Next I moved onto digitalising the centre motif on the business card consisting of the bracelet symbol and typography. I created the bracelet using the brush tool, again another nod to the home made identity surrounding and encompassing the project. This was completed using white so that It stood out from the background but also supported and worked with it, to further the brands organic dynamism.
The typography that I hand drew was also then added in the same white colour, inside the motif to keep consistency and again support the rest of the design.
Once I had the front of the design finished I was able to create the design for the back of the card very easily, as the front informed the back. I placed the clients necessary details on the back of the card which I had already acquired from being in contact with them. These included the clients name, email, phone number, and an extra message on the bottom of the card which I took from my first conversation with the client, that all the products produced are 'Made with love.'
The detail is stacked in a format of what details are most important and people will look for first, However adding special touches such as the heart symbols from the front of the card and a special message reflects the kind and friendly approach which the client takes and the effort and care which is put into everything produced.
I have not decided to put the cable knit pattern on the back of the card as well as I wanted this to be recognisable to the front of the cards. There is also a lot more important contact information on the back of the card and therefore I don't want anything to take away from this. In conclusion, I think continuing this design onto the back would make the overall design look too busy and cluttered.
I met up with the client and we discussed the design further. I showed her the ideas I had already come up with in the time between when we had last spoken and now. When asking the client how she felt about the direction I had taken she was very pleased, and stated that It was beyond her expectations what I had come up with. I have found this a lot when working on this module, that what a client expects of you is much less than the level in which you can perform at.
The client was very positive about my design decisions, and how I had kept in mind the morals of her business and its personality all the way through in every aspect of the branding from the hand drawn type, subtle mentions of products sold, colours, and budget friendly costs.
The client was happy for me to carry on with the design and keep her informed by email.
Next I began looking at what type of relief printing I could do to physically produce the business cards, of course there are options such as screen printing, however for the response to truly benefit the client, I need to think about how accessible the facilities will be to the client.
There is the option of lino cutting, however this is not my best skill, and I want to get the cards right the first time as they are for a client outside college, I would be more prepared to do so if it were only for my own development.
I then thought of the idea of producing a set of stamps, which the client could layer in order to create the design. This would be a great option for the client as the design could be easily remade by them without any assistance, the process would also be very budget friendly, the client would only have to pay for the production of stamps, buying the cards from etsy or similar store, and ink beds or paint.
Stamps would then make the production of the business card a hand made process relating to all other products produced by Susan.
Other business cards created via a custom stamp:
I started looking into how to produce a stamp myself, as again I wanted to keep the outcome of the project low cost. In my search I found a material called Sugru. Sugru is a self setting rubber that can be manipulated by hand. The material and air dries and forms a strong bond with materials it comes into contact with for a long period of time. A packet of sugru, 12 small pieces would be enough to create 3 business card sized stamps. and at only £12 for the pack it was a great cost effective solution.
Here is a stamp that someone has created using Sugru. It shows that detailed stamps can be created with the material, and that when made with care, the outcomes are very clean and neat, much like a stamp that you would purchase in a store. This person has created the stamp by producing a mould out of rubber, inversing the design, so that when the sugru is pressed into the rubber mould it is facing the right way.
Therefore I thought that I could produce stamps by pressing Sugru into laser cut plates made of wood. I could laser cut these easily in the facilities at college, again keeping the project low cost. All I would have to do is create 3 laser cut plates, and from the wasted wood create wood block handles as seen in the image above.
The three stamps/ layers I would produce are shown below:
Cable knit background.
Logo motif and products.
Back of business card.
I took what I had done so far to one of the crits.
In the crit people questioned how I would be able to produce such detailed stamps as college does not have the facilities to do so. The laser cutter at the college is not able to cut such fine detail as I wanted for the cards. Such as the small type on the front and back of the plates without snapping the plate, or burning through sections. Therefore I found that making such detailed stamps would not be possible, and for now I have had to digitally print the business cards for the client. The client however will not be distributing her stock until August and so this gives me time to research an alternate approach to stamp making once my work load has died down at the end of may. I look forward to trying to find an approach that will be possible as I feel that this method of production goes beyond all others for the client, giving and even more hand crafted, organic aesthetic to the brand, as well as being 100% cost effective for the clients lower budget.
The client was very understanding about the situation as I made it clear I would work on stamp relief printing much before her distribution time. Digital printing the business cards was also a cheaper option and was something If necessary the client could do from home if necessary.
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