I was approached by a client who was looking for some branding and a business card design for a new hobby turned business they were launching. When speaking with the client for the first time, I was informed that the project would be for a hand made jewellery and knitwear project, which she would be selling at various craft stalls, in further, applying into current boutiques and shops. I was given details of where to find some images of pieces that she had created so that I could begin to get a feel for the company. We arranged to meet up later to have a discussion about where we could go with any of the design, and any initial ideas that I may have had in between.
I started to look into organic branding as I really wanted to emphasise the hand craft of the company. When doing this I noticed that a lot of designers had tried to mimic natural textures of nature, printing onto grainy card, mostly brown, and introducing others such as wood, as well as using a pallet of colour inspired by natures very own paintbrush.
Uses a natural textures such as a heavily grained wood (used for the lid) and rope (used to attach tag). The branding also takes advantage of a hand rendered typeface to further enhance the being of an all natural identity. Colours used are black, off white and green paired with the natural textures.
These business cards are about as hand made as anyone could produce. The cards have been create for a boutique booth in an antiques shop. The designer has combined a number of elements to create such a home made driven design. The designer has created a mix of hand drawn type and crafted paper, with the final pieces being printed via stamps. Creating designs that can be printed at home by the client is a great way to adhere to a low budget. Something I am having to do for my client.
These business cards have been produced for a company which sells and distributes organic and eco friendly beauty products. The front of the cards appear truly natural allowing the materials do do the talking, rather than blurring this by adding colours or inks. The designer has made use of embossing, the most eco friendly process that can be used for mark making. This also means due to the lack of inks etc, that this process would also be very eco friendly. However any people, including my client would not have a embossing press readily available for them to use, and therefore this could produce extra cost.
I also wanted to look at a couple of designs which incorporated the craft that is the core of Sue's business, sewing/knitting. The above design has linked the use of a brown craft stock to the aesthetic of sewing. Although this is probably done for large run on machines, the design still gives the connotation of traditional sewing. The play on words of 'sew woodsy' also says that the business is approachable and friendly, this is reflected in the crafty, humble and down to earth design.
The sewing technique has also been used in this embossed white business card. However here it seems to have taken on some kind of perforated affect in which the contact details can be moved from the card. Or, it has been used as a segregation line to determine the hierarchy of the business card layout. It is good to find an appropriate, yet fun and unique way of presenting information on embossed/debossed business cards as more often than not they can only be printed one-sided due to the displacement of paper. This is something to remember If It is a process I decided to use.
I looked at a couple of card designs specifically orientated around or designed for knitwear designers. The above one is my favourite I have sound of the two as is its effective yet simple. It uses both a geometric cable knit vector patter and negative space to produce something straight forward yet compelling. The use of the knitwear pattern is a simple representation of the clients profession. The motif of a heart is used to represent the care that the client has for everything which they produce, much like the saying made with love. Negative space is a focus on the reverse side of the card with a small hint to the knitwear pattern, to ensure the front of the card grabs peoples attention, whilst the back focuses on informing them.
Again cool geometric shapes have been used to make this business card plain yet effective. However I do feel that the designer of this particular piece has been quite lazy with the concept. If the small illustration was taken away, as well as the text which elaborated on the profession, the business card could be for anyone. Therefore it is important to remember to create a personalised and bespoke response for every client.
I found this business card particularly thoughtful and well considered, truly reflecting the meaning of an eco friendly business card. The business card has been printed onto brown pulp kraft paper, meaning that that the paper is made from recycled paper which has been through a chemical process to remove all ink, left behind is a raw pulp which can then be used to re-make paper.The ink printing has been done via soy and vegetable based inks on a commercial press meaning they are very environmentally friendly, and much kinder to the atmosphere than the opposing petroleum based inks.
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