How to Design a Business Card (part 3)

So you have your elements, text, and images all laid out. Now it's time to add the finishing touches.

The background layer may be too simple. There may be a lot of empty space in an area or two. Consider who and what the card is about. Choose an element or style treatment that would be appropriate for the project. It could be a musical instrument for a musician, an architectural element for a builder, a gradient for an electrician, etc. I'm sure you get what I mean. Lay it on its own layer just above the bottom layer. Size it so that it looks good. Apply a blending option that looks right. Adjust the opacity so that it all works together. Get creative. Reposition and resize as needed.

Add more elements to that layer, or make yet another layer above it, and apply the same process of creation if you think the card needs it. Would anything else on the card benefit by applying some style to it? Do you need to stroke some text? If so, do it. If not, don't. Is something difficult to read because it blends with the background? Is something hard to see. Being a designer means that you have to solve any and all problems in a way that works and looks good. Being an artist means knowing when to add and subtract elements and styles. Use your judgment. The more talented you are, the better the result you will get. Talent is a critical factor; and there is nothing that can be done about that. Knowledge and experience helps, but talent is paramount. Have you ever heard the old saying, "Those who can, do; and those who can't, teach." Nothing against teachers, but there is a certain amount of truth to that saying. Everyone cannot be a Michael Angelo. But almost anyone can learn the techniques of painting.

Hopefully you now have a card that you like, and that others like too. Save your work one last time, and make a copy of it. Flatten the copy and convert it to cmyk. Some of the colors may have changed a bit from the original layered version. This is normal. Adjust the colors, saturation, and levels to get a result that you are happy with. Save this version as a high quality jpeg, or as PDF with cut marks, etc. Most printers can work with a simple jpeg. Do this for both sides if you have a 2-sided card. Realize that when you have your cards made, about 1/8 inch will be trimmed off around all sides for what is called the bleed. Your card is now ready for professional printing.

For more information, or if you would like to hire a professional to design and print your cards, contact ArtTechStudio. I hope you enjoyed and benefited from this tutorial.

Randy

How to Design a Business Card (part 2)

After gathering your basic elements and ideas together, it's time to begin laying it all out. Choose a background color for the first side, and fill in your bottom layer (I am assuming that you know how to use image editing software here. See future Blogs for technical tutorials.) Lay all your critical elements, such as logo, images, and text where you think they will look best.

Choose a font that will look good, be readable, and make sense for the project, and apply it to your text. Your choice of font is critical. You must know what looks good and what works. The wrong font will ruin your design. Look at the fonts that we use at Art Tech Studio. Look at the use of fonts in high end magazine ads. Basic fonts like Times New Roman, Americana, and Ariel are safe and look good. Strange or flowery fonts have their place, but use them carefully and sparingly if at all. You can use up to 3 different fonts in most projects. But be sure to keep it simple.

Arrange the text and other elements where you think they look best. Symmetrical designs often look amateurish. Put elements off center, but balance them with the placement of other elements on the card. The layout should be balanced from top to bottom and side to side. It will feel right when it looks right.

In part three of How to Design a Business Card, I will discuss the finishing touches.

Randy

How to Design a Business Card (part 1)

Business cards are a very important item in the design world. At Art Tech Studio we create so many of them that it becomes second nature for some of us. This is a simplified version of what we do when designing a great card for a typical client. If you follow these guidelines you will be creating good cards right from the start, and awesome cards after only a few months of practice.

The first thing that you want to do when creating a business card is to set up your document with the correct document dimensions. You will need to get that information from your printing service. Most printers require that you add 1/8 inch to all sides of your document for bleed, and that you work at 300 dpi or higher. So a typical business card that is 2 X 3.5 will be 2.25 X 3.75 at 300 dpi.

Next you will need to have all the text that you will use ready to copy and past into your design. The best way to do that is to enter and save that info in a text editing program like word.

Decide on a basic color scheme. The best way to do that is to use some or all of the colors from the client's logo, or to at least use colors that will go with the client's logo. Some people like to use a color wheel, or color wheel software to choose their colors, and others like to choose as they design; using their design sense to choose what looks good.

The next thing that we do is gather or create the design elements that will go into the card. We decide on what those elements will be at any time during the process of creation, and sometimes even change our minds during the creation. Elements should feel right for the project. They should tell the story that you are trying to tell, without being so obvious or elementary that a child could pick the element, but not so out there that nobody gets it. Choosing the right design element is an art all on its own, and is one of the things that separate good seasoned artists from novices.

Part 2 coming soon.

Happenings on the Light Side of Graphic Design

Lots of funny things happen when you're working at a graphic design house like Art Tech Studio. I'd like to occasionally throw some of that up on this blog.

Randy: "Hey Alex!"
Alex: "Heyyyyyyy Randy!" (Alex's typical reply to Randy's "Hey Alex!")
Randy: "My computer is slow as molasses today."
Alex: "Are yooooou trying to say molasssssssses is sloooooooooow?"

The entire staff falls on the floor laughing.

Lots of New Things Happening

2007 was a year of big changes for Art Tech Studio. It was the year that we made the big shift from being a photo studio that did graphic design, to a design studio that does photography. What that means is that now, more than ever, the emphasis is on advertising and marketing for businesses of all sizes.

Photography is still available as one of our strong points, but has taken a more subdued position in what we market ourselves as. Of course, we have not, and never will, forget our roots. We are willing and still capable of creating wonderful family portraits, as well as all of the more commercial types of photography.

Part of the shift toward the commercial side of phtography is modeling photography and services. We are so committed to the models in our area that we jumped through hoops for the past 6 months in order to qualify and receive a talent agency license for our new sister company ATS Modeling (license #TA891). That's right. Palm Beach County has a new talent agency. You can see the website at atsmodeling.com.

Even our storefront has changed, with the addition of 5 neon signs. As part of our new positioning as an advertising and marketing company, we now also sell beautiful high quality neon signs, both pre-made and custom.

Please check back on this Blog and add it to your feed reader using the links on this page, as there is more info to come about the changes and happenings at Art Tech Studio.

ArtTech's new website

All of us at Arttech studio have been working hard to update our website. The new updated website showcases our work in a clean and modern style. Added features include a client accounts page, an ftp application for uploading and downloading large files, and the blog that you are currently reading.