Opinions Please - Business Card Design

[Walter Rowe]

I am enternally grateful for everyone's feedback, for mock-ups to illustrate, etc. Here are two versions. One is what you've already seen but with suggestions incorporated. The second one targets "location" clients. I will likely print multiple designs so I can target different audiences as others have encouraged.

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[Walter Rowe]

I am not of fan of the photo card. I think a graphic logo (embossed, raised, or foiled), with a touch of color, on heavy matte stock looks and feels more profesional. But if you wish to stick with this I retouched your photo and typography a bit.

What do you think?

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Awesome Scott. What font did you use?

 

[scottinpollock]

What font did you use?

Optima. And here is another little tweek masking out your background for a black to blue gradient to pick up the blue from your clothes left and send it right. Also brought up the shadows/highlights on you.

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[Butlerkid]

The differences in fonts are subtle....but they make a big difference! I like the "softer" "g" in Photographer. And the line width is consistent and more "blockish" in the original font, but in Scott's font the letter width varies slightly. I'm sure there are other differences......

Extremely well done, @scottinpollock

 

[Butlerkid]

Walter, I like the background in the scenic card!

 

[gryphon1911]

One last thing and I'll be done....

Do you have any images from client shoots that you can use for your business cards?
Honestly, when I see a photographer on their own business card it screams narcissist and "I don't have any clients".

I'm not saying that to be the case, and I may be the only one that feels that way...but it just gives me that vibe along side of the "real estate".

 

[scottinpollock]

I may be the only one that feels that way.

I agree with you in the sense that if you're presenting yourself as a professional designer, photographer, or artist, your card better show off your affinity for the aesthetic... and a photo card of any kind just doesn't say that to me.

 

[Commodorefirst]

Thanks everyone. Email and website addresses are typically represented in all lowercase so I will leave those alone.

Seriously, they do this only because caps are irrelevant in www addys and folks just copy and paste website browser windows. Your double rr is very difficult to read.

My daughter has kristinnicoledance.com and it is much more difficult to read than KristinNicoleDance.com trust me on this, we taught all our students at work to cap website names this way for publication use. It makes zero difference in searches or before the .com etc.

By the way, I like the larger font on your name and the font size, Scott: well done, thanks for the examples. It also good to have different card designs.

Oh, and as you can see, there are as many opinions on card design as there are photographers. You have to be happy, and like your card and be confident in it. That is the most important aspect.

 

[Walter Rowe]

All good points to consider. I understand the concern with a self portrait looking narcissistic and looking like a "real estate agent". I do have client images that could work. I can also look at designs that include no portrait and instead graphics.

Thanks all!

 

[Butlerkid]

Word of mouth will spread regarding your superior skills. The card will help.....but your skills will make the difference!

 

[West]

I think what you want to do is get people to advance to your website, the business card should be simple and only serve as a conduit to do that. As you mentioned, I would go with graphics, nix the photo and make the email and web address larger, with capital leading letters for easy reading.

 

[Dayo]

... the part of a web address after the domain name is case sensitive, leading to problems in some cases if the user doesn't understand the rules.

An email address is never case sensitive.

You are right about email addresses being case insensitive but this applies to every part of the email address including the domain and TLD.

As for websites, what are basically misconfigured servers could be case sensitive but there is actually no specific requirement for the last part, the TLD, to be lowercase.

NikonCafe.CoM is as valid as nikoncafe.com.

30 years ago, when we were all new to the web, there were a lot of misconfigured web servers about which has led to a few misperceptions floating about.

Still think the unfriendly email address format would put me off contacting a person if someone else had one instead.

 

[Growltiger]

You are right about email addresses being case insensitive but this applies to every part of the email address including the domain and TLD.

As for websites, what are basically misconfigured servers could be case sensitive but there is actually no specific requirement for the last part, the TLD, to be lowercase.

NikonCafe.CoM is as valid as nikoncafe.com.

30 years ago, when we were all new to the web, there were a lot of misconfigured web servers about which has led to a few misperceptions floating about.

Still think the unfriendly email address format would put me off contacting a person if someone else had one instead.

Yes, I agree, that is what I thought I said.

I was also trying to explain that the part of a web address after the domain name is case sensitive. I think I am right in saying that every unix/linux web server in the world, and that is the vast majority of web servers, are case sensitive. Here is a random YouTube link, as an example of the widespread use of case sensitive URLs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxPdPpi5W4o

So a web address such as www.mydomain.com/fred would not give a result if www.mydomain.com/Fred was used.

 

[Walter Rowe]

Host and Domain Names are not case sensitive for web and email addresses. There are other use cases where the domain name is used as part of a longer identifier (such as principle name on a smart card) where it is evaluated as case sensitive.

I have updated the card to have caps in the web and email addresses and the Optima font as Scott suggested.

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[Dayo]

Your website correctly redirects all incoming requests, with or without the "https" protocol string, to https:// www. walterrowe.com.

In this case, I will suggest making the web address line "www. WalterRowe.com" and remove the "https" protocol here as when the Average Joe sees "www", they immediately recognise this as a web address and as your site handles the protocol for requests, there is no need to specify it here. Makes it more "accessible"

 

[Deleted member 4116]

Ditch https and www...both are unnecessary for print.

Personally, I find it odd to get a business card from a photographer and their "work" is a photo of them. Not saying this is the case, but it would feel pretentious to me. Show me your work or a logo.

I prefer a simple card: colorful/striking image and website URL...that's it. People who want more will go to your website unless your clientele are older, to which i'd include both a website and phone number only.

 

[Walter Rowe]

I killed the t-shirt and removed the https from the web link. Many thanks for everyone's honest feedback.

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[Growltiger]

That is so much better without the T-shirt! I think it all looks good now and I see nothing wrong with having your picture on the card. You look a good reliable sort of person that people would trust with their business.

 

[nu2scene]

I like the last version the best.

Have you tried making it darker on the right by the lettering and lighter on the left? The contrast might be stronger for the lettering, and the lighter background against the shadowed side on your face might work nicely. Or maybe not, you'd have to try it to see.

 

[gchappel]

I am coming in late to the party. Last rendition looks the most polished.
The only thing I would add, people like to write on business cards. Notes to themselves, etc. I quit using dark cards for that reason.
What is on the back? That can be very valuable real estate. If nothing back there, at least have it white so they can write on it.
Gary