Seeking feedback on business card/logo treatment

[Colorwave]

Hi all-

I'm a 49 year old newbie on this forum, having recently discovered this space. Since this seems like such a great resource, I might as forge ahead in my first post and ask for a little feedback on a design. It is a logo treatment and business card comp for my new venture.

Here are a few details: I currently own my own scenery and modelmaking studio in San Francisco (Scene 2, which I've had for 25 years). What many would describe as a midlife "crisis" has me moving to the Big Island of Hawaii next year and starting over in an entirely new business. A few of the details are yet to be determined, but it is definitely going to happen.

The new business, to be called Colorwave Imaging, will be something quite different for me. I plan to do graphic design, photography and wide format printing in the Kona area. I will purchase aqueous and mild solvent wide format printers, and the printing side of my business model will include banners, posters, interior decor wall graphics, signage and giclee printing. The graphic design and photography I do will be in support of the the printing initially, but I have hopes of selling my own fine art and commercial prints as a part of the mix. I've dabbled in much of this as an aspect of my scenery, exhibit and modelmaking business, but will be venturing into this full time and ditching the world of TV commercials and advertising photography in lieu of the real world (albeit the Hawaiian version of it). The Big Island market is very small, so I plan to succeed by bringing some new hardware, plus my wide ranging skillset and experience to the island. As you may have noticed, I don't plan to specialize in any one thing, at least not initially.

Enough background, now I'd appreciate some opinions about my current design. Your thoughts?

Thanks,
Ron

[Colorwave]

This is how it would look on a business card.

I'm liking the idea of a bifold, double width business card to stand out from others and to communicate my big/wide format message. I will most likely do a solid fill or simple design on the backside of the card for when it is folded. The JPEG shows the creased and slightly folded card, so the drop shadow is a presentation convention, not a design element on the card.

Thanks for looking,
Ron

[Samakimoto Graphics]

Model making. That's interesting. I did a stint helping arch students (while in college) in college make their models it was very difficult especially with the fine details. I loved sticking in flowery twigs in the felt for trees as a finnishing- that was the easiest part. Not sure if this is similar o what you do.

First, of how do you see your logo working in black and white?

The direction and thinking is great. But too literal.

Sketch up a few more ideas. there are endless possibilities with your choice name.

[tZ]

It appears like you went in photoshop used liquify then masked it out with some type. Not a very sucessull concept in my opinion. Also, in black and white your logo would just be the text and really nothing more. Nothing in this logo identifies. I would sketch up some more ideas in black and white and try again to be perfectly honest.

[emmerse]

logo is a miss, but the card is freaking great for tying into the wide format printing side of the business.

[Kinkaid]

I always recommend against odd-sized business cards to my clients. There are so many office supplies, card holders, wallets, etc that are formatted for the standard 2 X 3.5 card that you handicap how people can store/scan/display your card. There are many ways you can convey the concept of "big imaging" in a logo treatment- I think thats the direction you should explore. Also I would condider reversing the order of your services- I would get printing done from a graphic designer, but don't think I would get my design done by a printer.

[MD]

I always recommend against odd-sized business cards to my clients. There are so many office supplies, card holders, wallets, etc that are formatted for the standard 2 X 3.5 card that you handicap how people can store/scan/display your card .... Also I would condider reversing the order of your services- I would get printing done from a graphic designer, but don't think I would get my design done by a printer.
But the card appears to be a foldover. When folded it will be a standard sized card. A lot of people still use rolodecks - maybe some back printing with the name and ph. number might be a good idea.

As for switching the order of of the services offered it depends on what Kinkaid is specializing in. From the initial post it seems that Kinkaid is a printer that also offers graphic design services. The order should stay the same.

[CamarotaDesign]

Thats a great business card. Way to tie in the concept of wide format/oversize printing, doesnt get much better than that as far as a concept. I'd definately add some information on the front and back for the people that will store this in their standard business card holders though. Also, you might want to try and get the visual elements to better accomodate the fold. It's not going to look the best with a fold line going right through your phone number and an odd spot on your logo.

While I'm not a huge fan of your logo, I think it works fine with other elements added. Its an interesting look that with well thought out layouts will look fine imo. Its not going to translate well to black and white though, that is for sure.

As far as starting a new business, I hope you have a lot of experience with these printers you will be using, or hire someone that does, or you are an extremely fast learner, because I am not going to want to be your first customer unless you let me sit in with you on the printing, and dont charge me till we get something perfect.

Good Luck, and welcome to the Forum!

[xplod_ldg]

As an image it's not all that impressive. It looks great on the card though.

[Danger_Mouse]

I like your logo. Good choice considering your starting up in Hawaii (will you be hiring other GDS's haha).

I think if you are going to put a wave like image in the letters, maybe use one image in the entire word rather than what looks like individual images per letter.
Only other thing is how the logo falls across the fold (already mentioned), maybe can be broken up a little better to fall on fold.
I like it, good job.

[peder]

I think your current logo looks very clean. Not the image(s) in the text, but the logo itself. Without the images in the text I think it looks like a logo for a movie company. Corporate, big and strong. If you're going to do like tZ says and sketch again, Colorwave is a very simple word to illustrate. First thing I thought of was making the C look like a wave just about to break.(that's what it's called when the waves go down again, right?) Could easily look like some surfing logo, though. Just thinking out loud.

[Colorwave]

Hi again-

After taking in everybody's comments and evolving the design througn many rounds of changes, I'm finally back with another design to offer up for critique.

Since my last post, I have decided to rework my business plan to focus on fine art printing (I'm not a fan of the work giclee) and photography, to the exclusion of large format environmental graphics. One outgrowth of that that affects my identity program is the fact that I no longer want to feature the "wide" message. As a result, I have retired the gatefold, extra wide business card and reverted to a conventional size.

Please take a look and let me know what you think of my new direction.
Here is the logo.

Thanks,
Ron

[Colorwave]

And here is the business card treatment.

[PrintDriver]

My only question is why confine the wave to a box?
All those colors that small may be a pressman's nightmare - not to mention needing to be printed in 4-color. And again, you may need a black and white version someday (not grayscale).
At least it's different from all the other cmyk printer logos I've seen.

[Kinkaid]

Wow! The new direction is great- a big improvement! My comment is that that wave is too gorgeous to keep in a box. Let it out- let it flow! Right now it's too seperated from the logotype and it looks like it can be dynamically intregrated. I really like it so far- just push it a little bit more.

Also would love to see the sketches or concepting that brought you to thias new direction.

[budafist]

The wave is too nice to keep in the box as others have said. Also, it is too black heavy. Take out the black background on the right and let the wave expand to the width of the card. I also think that colorwave being only in black is a bit backward. You have a colourful name. It should reflect that in colour for sure.

I'm not sure that the all caps is working in this font. It's a bit hard to read and too solid. Doesn't flow so good y'know?

[Colorwave]

FWIW: The box motif was an attempt to place the wave within a print or image context, but I agree that it reduces the scale and impact of the wave. Here are the same designs without the box.

-Ron

[budafist]

I definately prefer card 3. Try a horizontal format though so that the wave can be as big as possible.

[Danger_Mouse]

Card number 3 aLL the way. Love the ribbons.

The black I am thinking might be too bold for me. HAve you tried some others colors?
You don't want to take away from those ribbons at all, let them be part of your focus.

[Samy the owl]

^^ What DangerMouse said...black does look too bold..
try another font maybe? or reduce size of font? but that might make it even tuffer to read..

[cmykodi]

I think there are a lot of different directions that you could take this Colorwave. Using multiple colors is a step in the right direction, but as others have said that will get lost in black and white. Also, the way the colors are arranged makes me think of a DNA strand. My suggestion is to somehow incorporate a wave or an abstract version within your type. If you've ever seen Jeff Fisher's work then you'll know what I'm talking about (He's the man!). With this kind of name and location there are many opportunities for a great identity!

[Colorwave]

Thank you, everyone, for your feedback. I'm still working on it. I think I will do a litttle font browsing next, to see if I can come up with something that has a little more personality.
-Ron