Betsyness: get your daily dose!

I’ve been neglecting this blog for the past week (I’ve been busy at work preparing for a conference.) However, I have a lot of new posts in store for you, including my take on the Hot Chip concert last night, my apartment search, health insurance, and this one!

So my good friend Sonja, who is the writer of an LA-based blog, Nuestra Senora, asked me to design some promotional materials for her mother’s jewelry business, Zerena’s Gems. The business card will be the first step in a series of marketing schemes, including the design of an Etsy.com site and also a personal website.

I knew that the business card itself was going to be a design challenge, both because of the different issues of designing for print and also having to communicate information within a very small space. I have seen business cards in specialty design books that are definitely eye-catching but many of them would be impractical for this client, a small business. Many of the special business cards you might see employ wonderful (but expensive) materials and techniques like embossed foils, die cuts, and unusual sizes and shapes. Check out the Daily Poetics Flickr photo set for examples of business cards that really push the envelope of print design.

For this business card, I decided to stick to the standard 3.5″ x 2″ wallet size so that the final product could be printed rather economically through an online retailer or from local printer.

The first step in the process was selecting a font and creating a logo. For the font, I had my heart set on using the font, Fertigo. After initially viewing it on a Smashing Magazine post and subsequently downloading it, I have been saving this font for use in a future project. It is a very distinctive typeface and it later proved difficult in finding complementary fonts (perhaps I should post on the typephile forums and ask the resident experts on their opinions?)

The logo was very simple and based off a stylized version of my doodle of a topaz ring.

I thought I was close to being finished. I justified the use of the font because I thought it was very modern but yet still feminine. I based the deep orange off of the color of one of the stones in her jewelry and I thought that the light blue grey went rather well with the orange.

Well the client hated this initial draft. The colors were too muted and she did not share my enthusiasm for the font. Basically, the client wanted something more vibrant and colorful.

Now that I view the initial rough draft I feel so silly; I was given such freedom to go in a really fun direction and the first thing that I came up with was so boring!

For the second draft, I added some decorative elements which were based off of the oval form of the logo. I also changed the font to a more classic look and repositioned the logo so that it was better incorporated with the actual text of the brand.

The only problem was that now the main purpose of the business card, to promote the brand and to provide contact information, was now buried within the rest of the design.

For this third draft, I have rescaled the design elements so that they are supporting rather than overwhelming the text. I have also changed the colors to a deeper coral and turquoise, more in line with the Californian colors that are evident in the jewelry of Zerena’s Gems.

I’m still open to comments, suggestions, and criticisms. Please post!