Building On My Business Card

After looking back at my recent posts and seeing the development of my business card, I noticed that it may be quite expensive and time-consuming to produce, and so created an alternate route that addresses this problem. I also started looking at how I could use the business card as a starting point for the rest of my branding.

Business Card

Looking at the business card, I think that the areas where the acetate will overlap, creating darker areas is quite visually off-putting. This made me consider that when it would be made physical, the folds would give shadows on the white area, which again, won't look nice.

It has occurred to me that the only area of the business card that needs to be layered is the acetate, and I have thought of a way around that. If I print on two layers of acetate one with the plant, and one with the fish, and stick them either side of a piece of thick card with a whole in, there will be a noticeable gap between the acetate, which will remove the need for folds. Printing on the inside of the acetate will create a better sense of depth. This will also allow me to use a textured white stock, which is always nicer than a plain one in my opinion.

This will be expensive and time consuming though, because of all the different layers of stock I'll be using. Because of this I'm going to make another version which will be cheaper and quicker. I'll just double-sided print on a sheet of acetate and back both sides with some white stock. This will still mean the fish is at the front on the front, and the plant is on the front on the back. This will be cheaper and less time consuming, but I'll assess weather the extra time and money is worth it or not when I've produced them.

The Rest Of The Branding

After being happy with my business card I looked into personal branding a bit more in a wider context than just logos in order to get ideas for what other things I should make. I found an excellent blog post, and some of my favourites are below.

Other than the business card, I've decided that I'll make the following things.

• Letterheads
• Envelopes
• Folders
• Belly Bands

These things are all that I need to be able to successfully communicate with people in a way that makes sure everything I could possibly need to send anyone had my branding on it. I don't see it necessary at this stage to make things like badges or stamps. Because all these things are paper-based, it should be easy for me to continue the branding I'm doing at the moment.