My Personal Business Card, Letterhead, DVD Label Designs

[Infectious]

Hey guys. I recently graduated "college" with a degree in animation, for our final portfolio show we were made to design a couple things for our show. Business card, resume, DVD covers and labels. I'm obviously not trained in graphic design of any sort but I liked the way my things came out. I was wondering of you all had any comments or critiques on any of it. There are a couple things I'll be changing when I print these next time but I was wondering if there were any other things I should revisit.

Thanks!

P.S- Yeah...I shouldve blacked out my info or something but...I'm lazy. Also my DVD cover wasn't pixelated at all when I printed it out, it's at print resolution. I don't know whats up w/ the version here. Pixelated!http://marvinmansilla.com/web_pics/GDF/printed_material.jpg

[Kevined]

Just a quick glance for now, but I noticed you had a strange smear on your resume by your name. I thought that was just a jpeg error until I saw the same thing on your site. The artistic brush strokes and gravel smears do not relate that well, and from first look it seemed like you smeared the ink.

I think you should just stick witht he brush strokes and not use that other texture. Lines are more relavent to your profession anyways.

[urstwile]

The style of your character designs seems completely different than the style of your collateral.

[budafist]

The style of your character designs seems completely different than the style of your collateral.

That's a good point there. Your stationery should reflect the same feeling as your characters. You have used a mix of serif and sans serif font...why? I don't feel like the 2 fonts you have used compliment your drawing style.

I am very surprised that you have not drawn a character for your logo. A self portrait would be the obvious route. The scribbly flourish shapes (is that a font that has been laid on top of itself) that you have as a design feature really does nothing for your business. Since you obviously have drawing skills, why are you not showing them off?

I say get rid of the scribbles and replace them with a character mascot of some kind.

[Infectious]

Hey guys thanks for the crits so far. Just wanted to say a few things...

Kevined: That "smear" you're reffering to under my name on my resume is actually the little flowery things I used under my name and on my card. It's probably best to take them out altogether on the resume I think. As for the gravel/concrete texture, I added that mostly to give accross a certain point that my work is more about being unrefined. Whereas someone might design a card with simply solid colors, I decided to try something different in essence to drive the point that I might be willing to go out on a limb and not go about some things in a conventional way. Also...as someone who comes from a 3D background I'm kind of drawn to texture.

urstwile & budafist: Indeed, my character design is probably the furthest thing from my print designs. To be quite honest, I'm not even the biggest fan of character design but in order to graduate I had to focus on one singular aspect of my schooling and I gravitated towards character design simply because I can draw particularly well. In all honesty I prefer 3D and graphic design, though I have no actual training in the latter.

My overall plan with my printed assets was to give across the notion that I'm "edgy." These designs, especially the resume and business card, were created particularly to be used without my character designs entirely. I created these items with the knowledge that I would be using them later in the pursuit of freelance jobs, which typically are those based in web design but would need to be versatile enough to be able to accomodate several venues. I would hate to be pigeonholed in one particular area because I have so much more to offer than character design, it's really not even something I care to pursue. There are better character designers than myself.

Maybe I'm overlooking something. I would love to hear some thoughts from others, maybe theres something I'm just not considering. You've all probably done this a lot longer than I have. What do you think?:confused:

[urstwile]

Hmm, I'm not getting the "edgy" vibe when I look at these designs. I guess I'm a little confused as to the motivation behind all this, especially if you say the character design is not something you're into all that much.

I will exeunt this thread perplexed.

[budafist]

I guess my question is "What is edgey?"

Obviously it differs from person to person. Is edgey th same as cutting edge? Or totally different?

[CkretAjint]

Personally I feel it is too busy. If you take away your scribble mark, you don't have much of anything there... Just some type on a red background. *shrugs* I think it could be alot stronger if you ditched all the modern cleshea items and input something strong and simple.

Also, the character on the front with the goatee has red shoes. Then on the back he has black shoes... WTF?

[Infectious]

urstwile: My motivation for these pieces were essentially to do what my teacher told me. Since I needed these assets for my portfolio show I had to make them but I also wanted something I could use afterward with little or no adjustment. Character design isn't my thing, just what I did to get out of school.

As far as "edgy" goes, like budafist said, it's something that people have different definitons of.

budafist: I don't know, I sort of use "cutting edge" and "edgy" interchangeably. You make a valid point though in that definitions are obviously different from person to person.

CkretAjint: I don't quite think I'm using modern cleshea[sic] items. I honestly think they are in a way almost a narrative of who I am. I'm curious though, when you say to input something strong and simple what exactly do you mean? Can you give an example perhaps? I'm just trying to understand you, I don't quite come from a design background. Do you mean something like a logo or picture? And a I don't know, as far as business cards or resumes go, I'd like to think most of them are just text on a background. They're often times very minimalistic.

As for the character with the black/red shoes. They're essentially two different files that were altered 6 months apart. I never did resave an alternate model sheet. I guess I hadn't noticed. Not that big a problem though, it's the same type of shoe, just a different color. Theoretically he couldve just changed shoes. But yeah, you're right...thats an error. Ahh well.

[CkretAjint]

When I look at it I see a grunge pattern and a swirl/scribble mark. To me, all I see when I see these items is something that the artist didn't have anything else to plug in. No crisp image, no conceptual type of item that ties it all together, so instead I'll just toss in a 'cool' scribble and run with it.

When I say something strong and simple I do in fact mean a logo or picture, something that ties it all together. I guess it's who I am, but once I see grunge designs I remove the grunge elements mentally and see what else is there. Sometimes it still works, and sometimes it's nothing more then text on a cool/dirty background.



Also, you don't need "Copyright ©...". Normally it's "Copyright..." or just the c-ball with your info, not both.

[Infectious]

CkretAjint: I see where you're coming from and in all honesty you've made some valid points. You've mentioned things I would have never thought of otherwise. I don't think the "grunge" element of it, and I specifically speak about the texture, takes anything away from it. I think its just subtle enough that you could miss it if you viewed it from across the room.

You'll also have to define what you mean by "crisp" image. Do you just mean an image that isn't pixelated? My swirl image no matter how crazy it appears is in fact a very clean vector image and looks fine printed. Perhaps you can expound on what you mean by "crisp."

BTW, thanks for the copyright info you gave me though I noticed that maybe it's a web thing to have both the copyright and copyright symbol next to each other. I've noticed it on many websites, even this one has it at the bottom of the forum, but not so much in print. I wonder if there's a reason for this.

[budafist]

I think by crisp Ckret means not scribbly/grunge but more clean and simple. The scribbly vector marks are already very complicated and then there is a stroke outline around it at times. This makes for a very busy piece of decoration. That is all the scribbles are - decoration. They aren't really adding anything important to your design. Grunge motifs are not unique or new. Which is why I struggle with the term edgey. The scribble is such a big focus of your branding, but it really doesn't bring much to your design. Which is why I think you should get rid of it.

...Though it is probably best if he answers himself...

[CkretAjint]

I second what Buda said... I know it's a cop out for an explanation, but she is better at using her words than I am! :p

[Riefnu]

I also have to agree with Buda. While I like the look of whole. It is not anything new to the current trend. "edgy" seems to describe more of a rebel attitude rather than cutting edge though. Punk rock was "edgy" in the 80's, and still is considered "edgy" 20 years later.

Also if these are things that you are trying to impress potential clients with, would you really want to pass off as a Grunge attitude of rebellion and carefree attitude?

[Rexline]

Also if these are things that you are trying to impress potential clients with, would you really want to pass off as a Grunge attitude of rebellion and carefree attitude?

Reifnu: Great point!

Infectious: I'm more concerned that this was one of your final projects assigned to you before graduating. Truthfully it's something that maybe you should'nt have been assigned. It doesn't make sense, to me at least. Instead, they should have taught you how to put a portfolio toghether.

Let your actual work represent you. What might help you is to look at what your other class mates have done.