Portfolio 04 - Beginning Photoshop & Graphic Design

Student Portfolio Exhibit #4 - Business Card Design

Instructor feedback

Instructor feedback

Anna Sadler:

Design: Very professional looking minimalistic design, Anna. Good work! Perhaps a very slight gradient might work well too.
Portfolio Description: Couldn't find a description for this yet.

Ashlee Kirby:

Design: This design works well and looks professional, Ashlee. Well done! When I first glanced at the back of your card, the thought went through my mind, "My nutrition solution looks like I'm starving - there's nothing there."
Portfolio Description: Well done!

Design: Clean, professional, minimalistic design, B. Single font - Biko. Well done.
Portfolio Description: Well done!

Another idea for a photographer's business card

Design: It's clean and minimalistic, B. You'll want to replace the X's with a phone number - even if it's a fake one. Double check that your elements are exactly centered. I don't have your photoshop file for these, would you send it to me? Billye, I think for a videographer and photographer, your card would be more successful if it showed some of your work.
I don't see this in your portfolio, yet.

Bonnie Schenk-Darrington:

Design: This is an attractive business card, Bonnie. Nicely done! Triadic color scheme is lively and inviting.
Portfolio Description: Excellent!

Instructor feedback

Instructor feedback

Bryan Christensen:

Design: Bryan, you've got some good things going on your card. I particularly thought the use of the "on" symbol was creative. But your card just wasn't coming across as bold and professional. I think it was a combination of fonts you've used. In my feedback images, I've used a font called "Raleway" for the BC logo, I just used the Railway Black font, and kerned the "C" back into the "B". (Click the text cursor between the two letters, and the use the option (alt) + left arrow key)
Portfolio Description: Excellent!

Instructor Feedback

Instructor Feedback

Brynne Peak:

Design: You've designed a gentle, feminine business card, Brynne. You've got three fonts on the front of your card, and two of them really conflict with each other - Aliens and Cows, and Sunset Boulevard. Those two are so close that they just don't look right together. Then on the back side, you have a completely different font - Charter. I would suggest limiting your card to just two fonts. Repeat front and back fonts for unity in your design. I didn't have your font, so I used "Bebas Neue" font family.
Portfolio description: Good start! Go into more detail about your design thoughts.

Instructor feedback

Instructor feedback

Caleb Barton:

Design: Your card made me chuckle, Caleb. Although I'm sure you wouldn't think of using this as your professional business card, the humor came across. Design-wise, it looks almost professional. I would suggest sticking with left alignment throughout for unity in your design. You have two script category fonts, which are a bit conflicting. They almost work, but I would switch one of them to a different font category such as sans serif or serif. By the way, I didn't have your font, Mistral, which is perfectly OK to use.
Portfolio Description: Well done.

Instructor feedback

Instructor feedback

Caleigh Hales:

Design: Caleigh, you've got a beautiful start to your business card! I would limit yourself to just two fonts. Strive for unity through repetition. It's OK for the letter stems to go through text below, if you've contrasted it in some way. I did that by making the "happy moments" a lighter blue color. See my feedback examples.
Portfolio Description: Good start. Go into more detail about design. Have a look at some of the student portfolio descriptions I've marked as excellent.

Cameron Draper:
Note: This is Cameron's exhibit #2. I've put it here along with the other business card designs. His exhibit #4 is in the portfolio 2 gallery.

Design - Excellent
Portfolio Description: Well done!

Instructor feedback

Instructor feedback

Chelsea Gunther:

Design: What a fun business card, Chelsea! Since the text and graphics are so organic, I would suggest shaping the blue square more organically, too. That will give you move room for the teacher's name and info. I would stick with just two fonts, repeating both on the front and back. I think Avenir Next works well for "PRESCHOOL" since that's the font you used on the front. Fun color choice - nearly complimentary colors.
Portfolio description: Excellent.

Instructor feedback using repetition for a more unified look

Instructor feedback using repetition for a more unified look

Instructor feedback using repetition for a more unified look

Instructor feedback using repetition to unify two very different card front and backs

Dani Lawrence:

Dani, both ideas are good ones. They definitely "feel" like a taxidermist's business card. I think the idea of having two very different cards back to back is interesting. I'll give you two feedback examples. The first one is if you want a more unified front and back. My second feedback images go with your idea. In either case, look for ways you can unify the designs - repeating font, font color, font size, text placement and alignment, font spacing, etc. By the way, taxidermist was misspelled. You'll want to fix that.
Portfolio Description: Excellent

Eric Price:
What feels good about this design?

What problems do I see in the design?

Erin Amundsen:

Design: Erin, I need to get your Photoshop file(s) for your business card before I can give you visual feedback. Would you submit those to me?
Portfolio Description: Needs to be completed.

Instructor feedback

Instructor feedback

Holly Hudson:

Design: Nice mountainous, minimalistic design. Since you're advertising to be a technical writer, I would suggest a font that technical writers would use. Or use a different theme than mountains. Since you're going with mountains, try to unify front and back through repetition even more. Bring those trees across to the front of your card. A slight gradient on the mountains will make them come across as mountains even more than plainly colored triangles.
Portfolio Description: Excellent

Instructor feedback

Instructor feedback

Justina Adams:

Design: Nice work, Justina. In my feedback, I'm thinking really all you need to do is think about giving your text just a bit more margin (breathing room), then work a bit more on alignment and proximity. I added a black stroke FX to the back text to make it pop out of the white background more.
Portfolio Description: I'm not seeing this in your portfolio yet. Let me know when you have it up.

Kaitlyn Faraone:

Design: Excellent. Two contrasting fonts. The Baskerville font family is used well in the various weights and sizes. Beautiful choice of 19th century artwork. The only suggestion I have is bringing up the opacity of the white rectangle on the back to 100%. That will make it more unified with the white area on the front.
Portfolio Description: Excellent

Instructor feedback

Kate Sargent:

Design: Excellent
Portfolio Description: Excellent. Nice use of a mockup image!

Kate Stefanakos:

Design: Excellent
Portfolio Description: Excellent

Katy Dollahite:

Design: Excellent
Portfolio Description: Excellent

Kaylee Rowley:

Design: Excellent
Portfolio Description:

Instructor feedback

Keslie Packer:
What feels good about this design?

Simple, clean design. Only two fonts used that contrast. Pleasant color scheme.

What problems do I see in the design?

On the back, give your text more margin. Reducing the point size just a bit will make it look more professional.
Align text on the back to text on the front for unity.

Kole Nielsen:

Design: Excellent
Portfolio Description: Excellent

Landon Peay:
What feels good about this design?

What problems do I see in the design?

Lei Mobley:

Design: Your design works, Lei. I don't have your Photoshop file for this yet. Would you submit that to me?
Portfolio Description: Good

Lesya Feinstein:
What feels good about this design?

What problems do I see in the design?

Lisa Balling:

Design: Excellent
Portfolio Description: Excellent

Lisa Hopkins:

Design: Excellent
Portfolio Description: Excellent

Liz Pickrell:

Design: Excellent
Portfolio Description: Needs to be completed.

Luke Barton:

Design: Luke, I would rethink this card and try again. First of all, go with a computer scientist theme for your graphics. Use the design principles you've learned so far to work with appropriate alignments, contrast, repetition (unity), proximity, font choice, color choice, etc.
Portfolio Description: Needs to be completed.

Megan Garn:
Design: Excellent
Portfolio Description: Well done.

Instructor feedback

Melissa Johnson:

Design: Melissa, you've got a good business card design started here. You might want to use that beautiful gradient inside the piano as your background. Work on alignments. Give your text just a bit more margin. Change "address line" to a real address (even if its a fake one). Think about your message hierarchy - you've done a pretty good job on that already, but is there more you can do?
Portfolio description: Excellent

Instructor feedback

Instructor feedback

Mynth Carter

Design: Fun design, Mynth! Suggestions: Work on alignments between front and back of your business card. Take the background up to white for the most contrast, and to hide the small white border around the YouTube icon. Pull the youtube address nearer the icon (proximity).
Portfolio Description: I don't have a portfolio address for you yet, Mynth.

Instructor feedback

Sabrina Satterthwaite:

Design: Nice, clean design, Sabrina. I think a different color scheme would work better, but that's my own personal taste. One problem area is that "writer & designer" needs more contrast with the background.
Portfolio Description: Well done.

Instructor feedback

Instructor feedback

Sophia May:

Design: You've got a nice design going here, Sophia. I suggest giving your card information a bit more room. Look to align both front and back of your card.
Portfolio Description: Good start. Go into more detail about your design thoughts. See some of the other student portfolio descriptions that I've marked as excellent.

Instructor feedback

Instructor Feedback

Sydney Chapman:

Design: Pretty good, Sydney. I would avoid boxing things unless it's really necessary. Give your text a bit more margin (breathing room). Staying with a single font family works very well. I wanted to show you an example using two contrasting fonts. On the back of the card, I've used a bevel and emboss FX for the text layer - white text, but I've reduced the fill quite a ways.
Portfolio Description: Good job.

Instructor feedback

Instructor feedback

Tanner Castro:
Note: Tanner did a business card previously, so I've moved it here. His exhibit 4 is in the student gallery 3.

Contrast: Great contrast on the front of the card. The back side of the card could use a bit more contrast to make the text and icons pop more.
Repetition: You could strengthen this by repeating the font throughout your card. You've repeated colors.
Alignment: Strong center alignment - looks good.
Proximity (your use of space): You could strengthen this by grouping families of information.
Your choice of fonts: You've got 3 different fonts - a real problem. Use one or two at most. All caps are hard to read.
Your choice of colors: Good use of colors - Green from the back side for the North Mountain Co.
Focal point: The areas of greatest contrast create your focal points on both sides.
Message hierarchy: Font size says "North Mountain Co." is the most important message. Everything else is secondary in importance.
Portfolio Exhibit description: Good work on that!

Tia Kime:

Design: Excellent
Portfolio Description: Good job.

Instructor feedback

Instructor feedback

Tori Strong:

Design: This design works, Tori. Good alignment across card sides. Good color coordination, appropriate for your subject. Is the phone number correct (or a fake)? Looks like it has an extra digit. Have a look at my feedback images. I aligned your name with the top edge of the rose. I aligned the bottoms of the bottom texts on both sides. I changed the color of your name to a lighter pink version of the background, and the same for "Designs" on the back side - that will connect the two together. I changed the black text to a darker color of the purple brush.
Portfolio Description: I don't have a portfolio link for you yet, Tori. Can I help you with this?

Instructor feedback

Whitney Drollette:

Design: Well done! My only suggestion would be to center your text a bit more in the black space, and work alignment a bit more.
Portfolio Description: Excellent

Zak Osgood:
Design: Very nice work, Zak. The only suggestion I'd give is to center the inside design, too. That consistency will give unity to your brochure. On the inside, I suggest you even the margins for top and bottom.
Portfolio Description: Excellent