Snug Homes Business Card

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UPDATED PORTFOLIO
www.jhousedesign.com
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I would say that this business card has way too many things going on, and way too many elements asking for attention. Ideally - in my opinion - the company logo should be the most prominent element since it's the company what is being represented by the individual appearing in the business card. I see 3 main elements fighting for attention, the logo, the slogan in the middle, and the persons name. I can't help but wonder where should i look at first? which is the most important? The problem of hierarchy could be easily solved by deciding which element is the most important and using color and size to make that clear. Third, I think the use of fonts has been rather exaggerated. I am one of those designers that likes to combine Fonts, but in this case, i think it's a little bit too much, I think you're probably using about 2 different font families, but the fact that they are applied differently (bold, oblique, condensed) makes elements that should appear as they belong together, be just individual parts. I also think that the overall design fells a too heavy at the bottom because most of the elements are placed there, and are very prominent, and because the persons name being in such a strong font adds a lot of weight to that area.
I think it is good that the colors used in the BC are similar to the ones used in the logo, but that red text on a green-to-yellow background is not a very good combination, all colors are too strong and at the end of it you don't want to look at any of them, to balance things out a bit, you could choose a different color for the text to be a bit more subtle on the eyes.

On the bright side, I think the photograph is nice because it shows the person kind of "caught in action" and it's not just a dull portrait, i think it adds a bit of honesty and a personal touch to the business card and the company as well. Balancing the colors in the photograph (too yellowish) would also be a good idea.

Well..It IS listed under "critique" it's not that i want to be negative!

Hm. . . I would be really careful when using "cartoony" type images and fonts. In my opinion, this kind of thing lacks a sense of professionalism. I would probably pass calling this company because I would assume they don't take themselves seriously or have an idea of what market they are competing with.

With that being said, I'll go over a few more specifics about the card. You have way too many fonts here. That makes it look "thrown together" and chaotic. You also have a lot of colours and size issues which cause a lack of hierarchy. It's not clear what to look at first. I would also choose a colour scheme to stay with throughout all of the company's design work.

Another issue is that you Capitalize Every Single Word In Your Tag Line. Make sure you have other people look over your card before you send it to print to catch things like that if you happen to not catch them yourself.

Remember the "KISS" (keep it simple, stupid) method and apply it. You might want to try placing elements before effects. That way it doesn't end up looking like your actual information was an after-thought and you had to squeeze it in. Hope that helps!

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My Portfolio

I'll start off by saying that my customer told me that he has gotten compliments from most people he gave the cards too. On the other hand, I haven't gotten any referral calls either from these cards, so I can't really take that at face value.

Here's a more detailed look at my thought process for this card. Perhaps you'd all like to comment further:

Cartoon Look:
I tried a more serious approach at first, and he didn't want that. He's a salesman, and wanted relaxed, warm, and friendly. Sales knowledge trumps design, so I tried for essences of, you guessed it, Spongebob, Walmart, and a local lumber company that we have here who used to do animated TV ads all the time. I tried to stay away from spongebob-silly, and veered more toward Walmart happy, with the hope of piggy-backing on the hint of recognition from the lumber supply logo too.

Eye Travel:
I think some of your issues are based on the luminosity of the screen, think in terms of ink, since all my color choices are based on PMS swatches.
If you let your eyes unfocus slightly, first thing you see is that logo. Darken up the green in your mind's eye, your eyes kind of ignore the text in the bar until you decide to look at it so the bar and text within actually act as a dividing element in the design as a whole. The photo, like the tagline & bar combo, is not designed to stand out either. I agree that it is a bit too yellow, but there may have been a reason. The contrasty elements catch your eye first, because in nature they are the most important.

Result:
Yes it's crowded at the bottom, but I think it helps drive the eye up to the logo, where it is not crowded. The name large and bold, helps raise it's hierarchy in the crowded lower section. Italicizing the title, The bar and logo together provide visibility from a distance because of the bright colors, such as to a customer passing a diner table or bulletin board.

More Space:
I have designed a single-fold card (that he doesn't use yet due to cost) to give the logo it's own space, and allow for more info on the inside. The bottom edge has a reveal that shows contact info even when folded.

Fonts:
There are Two basic fonts in the lower section, Cooper Black in the name, and Franklin Gothic med cond, for the info. Veranda is used for the italic because of it's similar strokes and I don't have a Franklin Gothic med cond italic font. The logo text is Cooper Black and (if I remember right) a modified Barbie. I may have modified another font to look similar to barbie though so I don't recall for sure.

text in background-- get rid of it
gradient banner- make it solid 1 color or one color with a black or white
logo-- start from scratch and make it a real logo
cooper black-- pick something else
bullet points-- get rid of
word "email" not needed, it's a given
picture: dude fades into his background, make him stand out more. A pro head shot would do wonders.

Really, just scrap what you've done and start over. LESS is more!