Final Critique

Stock was a very important part of this project because it added a lot to how the designs would turn out. The first impressions brought on by the texture of the business card is a vital part of my design choice. In addition I also decided to definitely use a hand-rendered font for the name on my business card because it showed the honesty of his personality. I looked at different finishing techniques I could use for my card, this included foiling and embossing which both I thought would work well to create an elegant design solution

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During this stage of my project I came across a very subtly textured maroon coloured stock which I thought fitted well with the emotional and deep side of Steinbeck. This colour also emitted a sense of professionalism as well because it was bold but in a stylish and underrated way.

After I had the business card sussed out, I needed to update my letterhead and compliment to suit its style. This wasn’t that difficult though I found that some of the transparent feature of the business card was difficult to translate onto a big piece of paper without it looking out of place.

Interim Critique

As well as using the double-sided card idea I also added another dimension by having the card within an envelope which showcased the fact that Steinbeck liked writing. Within the black envelope (black representing his professional, novelist side) you would find a more neutral coloured piece of card on the inside (representing his emotional, realist side). For the back of the card you would find a yellow pad paper pattern because Steinbeck used to use nothing other than that and a pencil.

The yellowpad idea was carried through to the letterhead and compliment slip. The type fits well on the lines although I don’t like that particular type I used for ‘realist novelist’ watermarked. It stands out a little too much and reminds me of an American sports team’s logo. The pattern of the yellow pad makes the piece look a little childish and bold but not professional. I also incorporated the idea of having a pen you could take out of the card as a gift to the person who received this business card. But again, is was evident that this wasn’t working because the card would have to be very thick in order to hold a plastic pen.

Starting Business Identity

With the 1^st project still ongoing and the 2^nd project just starting I knew I had to keep up to date with work, it was so difficult being motivated to do anything for the 2^nd project because I just wanted to carry on and finish the previous one but on some level it was also nice to have the choice to switch between the 2 projects so I didn’t get too bogged down with one of them.

I began my research of John Steinbeck, trying to get a feel for the type of person he was, his lifestyle and what he was best known for. I slowly became aware that I had too much research and was getting behind with actually coming up with ideas. I was really confused about which path to go down so at this point I just took a step back and did the simple thing of writing adjectives that I thought represented him well. I started looking at typography that would reflect 4 of the best adjectives because (I feel) this is my weakest area of graphic design. From this I started drawing out initial sketches of what typeface he might use for his business card. I decided to hand-draw my typeface as a starting point because I thought this fitted quite well with the fact that he was a novelist.

Secondly I began researching the shape and layout of business cards. I drew some innovative sketches of cards that may work, things like cards with a swivelling mechanism or ones which were transparent or a collection of cards that when put together revealed a bigger image.