My business cards for my freelance design venture have been delivered, so I thought I would post a photo and some info here for posterity.

They are printed on 380gsm fsc accredited board, matt laminated, and die cut with spot UV varnish to the front logo.

I decided to spend a little extra on the enhancements to illustrate to potential clients the finishes that are commonly available. I’m hoping that they will pay for themselves fairly quickly, but only time will tell.

I also wanted to mention something that really got my attention in design theory, back in my university days: Phi; the golden ratio or section; divine proportion; 1.6180339887. It’s presence through nature and history and it’s use in design and architecture fascinated me, and still do. In the past I have used it as a starting point for layouts and grid systems within my work, but my business cards represent the first time I have designed to the proportion in it’s entirety. I knew what I wanted on the cards, and I worked towards creating a grid which would allow me to apply them accordingly. For more information on phi, this site has an exhaustive collection of articles and this page contains some useful links for further reading.

Conveniently, and possibly not by coincidence, the standard measurement of business card supplied by my regular printer conforms quite nicely to Phi, so that was a good starting point. See below for the template I worked to.

Whilst I wanted to include some wow factor on the front, I tried to keep the back as simple as possible. Utilising a fairly plain design with a white background, they allow clients to jot small notes on the reverse if they choose, at the same time as using my chosen trading name ‘design is’ to bring into question the nature of my service and providing a quick definition (thanks to The Oxford English Dictionary) to give them a starting point to think from.

Essentially, I want potential clients to be thinking, “What else can design is do for my business?”

Let me know what you think of my cards. I’ll take all constructive thoughts into consideration for the next iteration.

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