Personal Biz Cards.. Again.

[aid4design]

For those who helped critique the last time, thank you.. I am a constant "tinkerer" when it comes to my own stuff, I know you know what I mean..;) I am my own worst nightmare. :D

anyhoo, if I could get some feedback on this new BC, Id really appreciate it, I am getting close to running to press with it whether I am done or not, because I will always "evolve", but I need something...

thanks in advance for your kindness and critiques.

front:

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/388/aidbcfinalinprogressqa4.jpg

Back:

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/219/aidbcfinalbackma9.jpg

[budafist]

Your logo needs a lot of work. Perhaps we should start there first.

Both fonts need to be changed. I'm not fond of either. The sans serif is too bland and the script is overdone. Why the underline? Makes me think that is the only way you know how to emphasise your company name.

[capezio]

I hope I can sound constructive here and not destructive but here goes.

The back why has the font changed, what does the aid infer?

The problem is for me the skateboarder—I know the card is personal to you and you most likely have a passion for boarding, however, I'm expecting to see board wear and boards as your business not graphics.

Being at Uni in Cornwall the surf capital of UK surfing mad students used boards and surf related things for every project they did and it became quite predictable and monotonous so maybe I am being over critical here if I am I appologise.

[Andi Creffield]

Sorry but I have to agree with capezio and I mean this in the best possible way but nothing about the logo, business card or your web site says design to me.
The Arial font in the logo doesn't say 'I have a wide range of typography skills' I think if you're going to go with the red and black you should stick with that and loose the blue. The black on the reverse will work very well with a nice crisp clean red and black face.
Sorry for being over critical but if this is what you do for a business good deisgn has to start with your own image, that's how you're going to show people what you can really do.
Another small point is on the portfolio on you web site you've got a logo like this:

http://www.taylorsprint.com/good.gif

Which is nice it says eveything it needs to say and well put together, but on the page there's this:

http://www.taylorsprint.com/bad.gif

Which is not a good piece of design to showcase on your own website, pick the best work you've done and showcase it in more detail it will say alot more about what you can achieve.

Good Luck and please take this advice in the best possible context.

[Samakimoto Graphics]

*Airborne*
You have a typo there I think.

The difference between the back and front it too huge. I thought those were two concepts rather than one. I like the thinking behind "aid" although this can easily be misinterpreted if it does not translae visually to something design-linked.

1. too much font variety in one design. I think it should just be your logo and a san serif font for the info.

2. like Capezio said the logo though personal does not suit the purpose.

3. work first in all black then pick your colours. If it works in black and white...

All the best!

[aid4design]

Thank you for your insight. I appreciate the comments. I dont see them as too critical, I wanted you guys to be critical, how else would I learn..

as for the spelling I have been through that before, it is intentional.

I will rethink the fonts. ...and remove some of the weaker portfolio pieces from my site. I still have quite a bit of work to do anyway on my site.. Im only using a POS wysiwyg program just to get some samples up for now anyway.. not permanent by anymeans... I have no web training, just commercial print, and am going to invest in Dreamweaver, Flash and some classes/tutorials eventually, its just a matter of finding the time...

Thanks again folks. if there are any other suggestions please feel free, it'll all get taken into consideration.

[YNOT]

I'd have to agree with the majority of the comments here. One suggestion to help you...if you are passionate about 'boarding' maybe try making your logo more stylized to mimic one of your favorite boarding brand logos or something. That way you can keep the 'feel' of your boarding in there without showing a silhouette of the person boardin' and making it look too busy.

Just my .02¢...good luck!!

[Jackimalyn]

Im sorry, but you HAVE to take papyrus off your website. It is the 2nd most overused font. its evil...

[aid4design]

Im sorry, but you HAVE to take papyrus off your website. It is the 2nd most overused font. its evil...

:D thanks. I did not realize it was Comic Sans jr. I havent seen/read that anywhere, so I didnt realize I was doing something so "evil" to the design community(even though my whole site is pretty much crap-everyone starts somewhere I suppose.. I will never personally be satisfied with it though - even at the top of my game, if I ever get there).

I will revisit that font... thanks jacki.;)

[KingVance]

so why are you airborn industries design...why not just airborn design? or just airborn?

[aid4design]

well, it started in college. I brainstormed a ton of names because I knew eventually I would make it happen. After about 6 months of brainstorming names, I knew I still liked this best. I have always had an interest in anything in flight. Whether it was me(snowboarding, mountain biking, bmx freestyle, skateboard, etc etc) or a bird, a plane(paper or real), bullets, and anything else that was in the air. I have always enjoyed images of things "in the air". I also wanted to incorporate the "industries" part because it just sounds well industrial. Then "Design" is obvious, its what Im about. Then I realized the acronym "aid" could be used in a multifaceted way in my marketing. It really grew on me and after 3 years removed from school working in prepress and freelance designing at night, I needed something so customers werent just cutting a check to me. So I rehatched aid, filed for my DBA, and voila.

..not to mention the recently discovered association with the fact that Im always reaching for the stars with my head in the clouds.;)

so there is my explanation... I would love to hear feed back on that as well, other than the intentional misspelling of Airborn, which simply puts me ahead of ALL the other "Airborne" names in the phonebook or directories.. :D

[capezio]

I would love to hear feed back on that as well, other than the intentional misspelling of Airborn, which simply puts me ahead of ALL the other "Airborne" names in the phonebook or directories.. :D


I noticed the mis-spelling but I thought it was the American way like color and colour

[budafist]

Reminds me of my flatmate - she's a writer from America, but she comes to New Zealand, and suddenly her spelling has gone down the gurgler. There's no New Zealand spellchecker either, so she doesn't know she's spelt something wrong until we correct her. Oh well.

[Jackimalyn]

I noticed the mis-spelling but I thought it was the American way like color and colour

I think itd be like airbourne or somehting stupid like that then. cant we all just agree??

[Red Kittie Kat]

Nice way to spam Tracy :rolleyes:

[Andi Creffield]

Some serious keyword stuffing on the site as well??

http://www.taylorsprint.com/screen.png

[aid4design]

How does that pertain to feedback for my business card? :confused:

[Andi Creffield]

Because you're a designer trying to compete and this site breaks the rules. You should know about this kind of stuff if you're going to have a web site. There are certain do's and don'ts