My business card

Posted by Gerhard Schlee in

9 May 2011 — 8:03am

This is my business card. It has all I think a good business card should have: basic contact info and some creativity, all of that in a white, one sided card with black text. The creativity is up to the reference for my name's correct pronunciation, inspired by language dictionaries, since I don't know many people who can correctly say this funky german names...

I didn't think my visual ID needed a symbol, as I already have a impossible to pronounce remarkable name and surname. I also didn't fill my card with fancy graphics, as I preferred to show my creativity in a more discrete way. Anyone interested in more of my work can visit my online portfolio (behance.net/gerhardschlee, from where I took most of this text). By the way, the typeface I used is the beautiful Fengardo.

One thing I've sought in this work was to avoid cliches and seek differentiation through simplicity. One of my references was the business card of the legendary Paul Rand, which probably all of you already know. Just like uncle Paul, I tried to break the monotony of my design by aligning the informations asymmetrically, but still in a harmonic way.

I believe I managed with this work to make something creative and attractive without too much visual pollution. Many people try a minimalist style and end up being simpleton, instead of being simple. I think a good minimalist design is, on contrary of what it may look for some (clients, mainly), hard to achieve.

What do you think, people?

sesch
9 May 2011 — 9:10am

Hello Gerhard!

First of all, big pinch of salt reading my opinion. I like a lot what you're looking for.

The first thing what I did with your post was check your image and I though that this was a very good lingüist business card because that was my first quick link with the concept. But then I read your comment and I realised that you're a designer. So, there's maybe something missing in your B-card, and I say maybe because I don't live in Brazil and I don't know you or your work, because if you can be so persuasive with your clients and be sure that all of them or at least the majority will remember that you're a designer (because of your recognizable work or personality or both), I should say that's not a bad decision at all. But if that's not the case analize that a bit more.

About the design, It works well, maybe the three lines of data could be a bit smaller.

Gary Lonergan
9 May 2011 — 9:15am

Layout is good but I would have preferred this set in Akzidenz Grotesk.

Gerhard Schlee
9 May 2011 — 10:08am

sesch, thanks a lot for your great comment. About the "missing something", I will consider it. I always try to distribute my business cards personally, to ensure people will associate it with my personality, just as you said. But yes, the card, in itself, really does have this problem you mentioned, I think.

I will analyze the feedback from potencial clientes with this card, and if this problem proves nasty, I will make some changes, for sure. But until now, it have being working fine!

At the start of the project, I even considered filling the back side of the card with a grid-like abstract pattern, but I ended up droping out this idea for the sake of a more minimalistic aspect. Do you think it would suit?

Gerhard Schlee
9 May 2011 — 10:29am

Gary, thanks for your comment. I even considered using some more "traditional" looking grotesque sans, but ended up choosing something with more personality, for a bigger contrast with the rather rational layout. I made it this way because my business card is focused in both B2B and B2C approachs. An overly sober business card wouldn't work for me. Also, using Akzidenz Grotesk or anything close to that in this specific case would feel too much like a cliche to me.

Gary Lonergan
9 May 2011 — 2:47pm

Maybe it's that lowercase g that bugs me

BrettR
10 May 2011 — 1:04am

Possibly a clean watermark on textured paper? They have this really thin cardboard paper that adds a really nice effect to business cards, the name for this type of paper fades me though.

Gerhard Schlee
10 May 2011 — 7:44am

BrettR, a textured paper is a great idea, I will surely consider it. Thanks!

calebam
13 May 2011 — 7:42pm

I really like BrettR's idea of doing a letterpress "watermark"/logo on that card stock-like paper. I think that it would be really interesting to play with a G inside a circle: something scripty, but clean. Also you can keep it simple but make it more visually appealing if on the side that you watermark, you make it a 5-10% black. I don't know if that goes against keeping everything white like you mentioned, but just something to consider.

Chris Dean
13 May 2011 — 9:49pm

An older thread on business cards.

BrettR
14 May 2011 — 1:22pm

Another thing you can do is raised lettering (or sunken). I am personally a fan of raised lettering because people tend to run their fingers along it, making them look at the card for a longer period.

I am sure you have all seen this clip, it's a classic.

American Psycho - Business Card Scene
The good part starts after a minute.

Chris Dean
14 Jan 2013 — 4:04pm

I love that clip. I often start lectures with it.

yoshi22g
15 Jan 2013 — 11:01am

Not sure if it's just me, but the bottom left white space is making me tense. It's drawing my eye more than any of the text. That white rectangle is almost too defined. Have you tried other arrangements? Maybe aligning the contact info lines with the pronunciation text? Otherwise, definitely a fan of the simplicity.

yoshi22g
15 Jan 2013 — 12:54pm

Wow, also realized this thread is over a year old. Woops.

hrant
15 Jan 2013 — 2:07pm