That’s a Wrap!

I was asked to create a business card and letterhead for an organization.  Before I started the assignment I thought it would be very simple. I had seen several business cards, and I knew my content would be an appealing logo and some information about the individual/organization. However, I had no idea how critical every element of graphic design would be for the business card.

At the beginning of the semester I learned about three values of graphic design: simplicity, clarity, uncluttered-ness. There must be a way to carry these values while having a strong creative appeal that immediately draws in the viewer’s eye.  I had studied the elements of design that help capture that creativity, including contrast, repetition, proximity and alignment. However, as my assignment began, I noticed that I was trying too hard to “bring out” a specific element of the design that would look creative, rather than using all of the elements together as a creative whole. What I ended up creating was a rather plain background, simple text and a large, somewhat awkward looking logo. Have a look for yourself…

 

I think the values I was going for weren’t wrong, but I created the wrong feel for my organization. It didn’t capture the professionalism of the organization. I felt as if I was looking at a business card for a nursery or preschool, with the logo resembling more of toy blocks, my strange colored lines straight down the middle and my childish green font. My font for the name was much too large, and the gap between the name and information much too big. The information appears so small that you aren’t even drawn to read it. The name and mission of the organization is also unclear.

So after countless trial and error experiments with different creative elements, I finally came up with a completely transformed business card #2.

 

I was significantly more content with my second draft. I think the transition between the first and second drafts was the most drastic and difficult, but gave me the most satisfaction. I realized changing the color of the background was not too intense if I picked a darker, calm color that would create a contrast to the colors of the content on the card. With the dark shade of an almost navy-aqua kind of blue, the light, baby blue really popped. The two shades of blue were a simple way to create contrast that was appealing. I changed the typography of the name/information about the individual to a much more professional font of Minion Pro. The name was capitalized, but kept in the same font to hold repetition and contrast. It was distinguishable but consistent. I added a backside to the business card, with the three beneficiaries of the organization and statements that capture its mission. The logo included the name of the organization as well, which I discovered through my research with the Communications Director at the Center for Children and Families Inc. I still felt the card was incomplete, however, so I ended up spending more time working with small features and elements I thought needed to change.

 

In my final draft, I removed the white frame, because I felt it took away from the content I wanted as the focus. I also removed the shadow behind the tagline on the back of the card, feeling it was not consistent with the rest of the content and a bit distracting to the eye. I gave a bit more space between the name and information about the individual, since I felt the change in proximity would make the content more uncluttered. Lastly I made sure all of the objects were in alignment with each other. While these changes seem very minimal, I still invested a lot of time in this strategic process. As the designer of the card I can see how the small details matter, and I feel much more confident presenting this card to the organization.

The second part of my assignment, the letterhead, was less intimidating but still a surprising experience for this novice designer. I went through a similar process as the business card, but completing the first project definitely prepared me to accomplish the letterhead without as much trial and error. The experience gave me more of a strategic mindset from the start. My first draft, however, needed work. I didn’t like my use of the color blue for the organization/information in the top right corner. I could tell my alignment and proximity were unbalanced. I also felt as if I was missing at least one more element or two that would give the assignment more of a complete feel.

 

For the second draft, I fixed the alignment and proximity of the logo, organizational information and text body. I kept the text in a consistent black text, and I changed the font type to Ariel Narrow, bolding the organization’s name to bring it to attention. I added a line between the text body and the logo, which I felt was a good element that appeared both professional and creative. Overall I was much more satisfied with my second draft, and will also be sending to the organization for feedback.

 

Initially I would not have shown them my work, because I thought I lacked any kind of digital design creativity.  But seeing how the card and letterhead both improved, I felt more confident showing my work to the organization. In the future, I would like to try and design a logo completely from scratch. I think it was nice to have an already created logo, so I could gain a feel for the organization through color and typography. It helped give me a bit of a boost so that I could create the rest of an image and feel for the organization through the assignments I created. However, I think the next challenge would be to understand the mission of an organization and create an entire logo from my brain. It would be a whole new level of strategy, but this experience taught me that through lots of time, trial and error, creativity is at my fingertips. For future students completing this assignment, my advice would be to invest a lot of time in it. Sometimes I thought it would be fine if I crammed in a bunch of hours all at once to work on it. However, this was unhelpful to the assignment as a whole because I think our brains need to rest and recharge before we can offer new perspectives and ideas to a project. I be stuck in a rut during the assignment, realizing something just feels off and I am discontent with my work. Yet I can’t decide what I’m doing wrong or which element should change. If I rest on it for a day and try again, my brain has the ability to create more. This “rest and recharge” motto can honestly be applied to just about anything in life. In general, our bodies and minds need to rest if we want to contribute our very best.

Rest + Recharge + Recreate = Results!