Author: CJ Lee | Business Card Design InspirationBusiness Card Design Inspiration

Maderable Woodshop Business Card

January 22, 2019
By: CJ Lee

Bicefalo Brand Studio designed these business cards for Maderable, a woodshop specialized in premium and high end projects such as hotels, restaurants, apartments and retail stores in México City and Yucatán peninsula.

“The main idea for the brand was to show what they do: different kinds of projects with different kinds of woods for different kinds of clients, so we created the concept of endless possibilities,” said Eduardo Cámara, the Creative Director of Bicefalo Brand Studio.

“The logo shows a rectangular element which represents a window, (as a window or world of possibilities for clients and projects), and that’s why business cards have different wood textures or photos on the back of the card.”

“We also created different logomarks or ‘isotype’ variations playing with the window concept, placing it in different positions, helping it to have a memorable and dynamic brand… not so repetitive placing the same logo everywhere.”

These business cards were printed on 250g matte couché paper with a matte foil finish by Visual Print in Mérida, México.

Printed by Visual Print

For Maderable

Stage12 Hotel Business Card

January 21, 2019
By: CJ Lee

ICARUS creative designed these business cards for Stage12 – Hotel by Penz.

Stage12 is a well-known hotelier family in Innsbruck and they already own 3 hotels in town. The mission was to create an urban lifestyle hotel which should be totally different from all traditional hotels in Tyrol. The client wanted to create a hotel with cult potential, special personality and the spirit of international cities.

The Design Process and Inspiration

“First of all, we created the name ‘Stage12’. We gave them three drafts because we wanted to give them the feeling that we are totally in for the project,” said Lukas Proksch, the Art Director of ICARUS. “After the decision, we created the logo. We designed an icon that shows an abstract curtain of a stage. After further research on fitting typography, we started to create the illustrative style. In the end, we didn’t have that much time for creating all the different deliverables, but when you are on a run and stay focused its crazy what you can achieve in such a short time.”

“Our strategy was to make it totally different from all the other hotels in Innsbruck or Tyrol. We didn’t want to show people the typical hotel picture. We wanted them to discover the hotel and make them a bit curious how it is going to look like. So, we decided to create this with a classic illustration outline style plus a nice color pallet which now can be found in the hotel rooms too.”

“We chose a modern grotesque sans-serif font with geometrical characters. Furthermore, we wanted to give the project additional layers to make it even more special. The wording was challenging too. The written messages speak an internationally understandable language, delivered with a subtle nod and wink. For example, ‘Make my room great again’. The color palette was based on the interior scheme to create perfect harmony. Our main goal was that every detail had to fit together.”

Business Card Printing Details

These business cards were printed by Infinitive Factory.

“Our goal was to mirror all the materials and colors which were used in the interior of the hotel to give potential visitors a perfect impression what they can expect while staying at the hotel for a night. In general we used different types of paper to show the diversity of the Hotel,” Lukas said.

Therefore, four different types of cards were created. “The leaders of the hotel got the beautiful leather embossed Gmund paper. These cards are double laminated together with a letterpressed gold logo. The general hotel card was printed on the extraordinary Gmund Gold History paper combined with a letterpress of the line art illustrations. Furthermore we created a small branding for the hotel bar. The bar manager got a business card with Gmund Colors Matt 91 plus a shiny pink foil embossing and of course letterpress on the other side. The last business card was for the staff. They got a simple 2 Pantone printed pink/petrol card.”

“And with all that, finally, we can say ‘Yes we did it!’” Lukas added.

Printed by Infinitive Factory

For Stage12 – Hotel by Penz

Heavyweight Studio Business Card

January 18, 2019
By: CJ Lee

Heavyweight designed these business cards for their corporate branding as a digital product design and development studio based in Amsterdam.

“While introducing our new design studio to the world, we created a new brand with it. Our inspiration came from Memphis design with its’ bold and playful shapes,” said Jurgen Ploeger, the Designer of Heavyweight.

These unique and colourful business cards are real eye-catchers. Besides the colourful shapes and patterns, the elephant icon is a nice addition to the logotype as well.

Heavyweight’s business cards were printed by Moo. According to Jurgen, “We’ve added spot gloss to the shapes on soft touch matte paper to make it shine and bring the design to life.”

Printed by Moo

For Heavyweight

Yoisho Ramen Business Card

January 17, 2019
By: CJ Lee

Senka designed these business cards for Yoisho Ramen, a ramen shop based in Jakarta.

“Known as Jakarta’s first craft ramen, Yoisho Ramen is all about friendliness, the joy of slurping, fusion ramen, breaking the rules while also respecting the tradition. That’s how we got into the actualization of the little girl with the swirl,” said Sebastianus Seno, the Co-Founder of Senka.

This visual identity also represents a friendlier vibe and youthful energy with the cartoon character, Yo-chan, which is named after the brand name ‘Yoisho’.

These business cards were printed by KYUB Studio using textured thick Old Mill paper with bright red side print.

Printed by KYUB Studio

For Yoisho Ramen

Skaistuma Bars Business Card

January 16, 2019
By: CJ Lee

Grebis Design made these elegant business cards for Skaistuma Bars, a professional beauty salon based in Riga, Latvia.

“The word ‘Skaistuma bars’ means ‘Beauty Bar’,” explained Peter Grebis, the founder of Grebis Design. “Professional and friendly staff and the place itself is a community – great people doing awesome job to make us all look better in our fast speeding lives. They are expanding and selling beauty product line for professionals in the field.”

It’s fascinating to see black, although as the main colour palette, combined with vibrant colours to form a unique visual identity that’s both artistic and elegant!

“In this project there were no specific points from client and they gave me the full control to study and create the best possible branding look. The dripping colours and colourful tones were chosen to represent their constant flow and professional approach to each client. Inspirations for the card design were the client’s: their emotions and the people whom they make happy each day. Due to that, the colour tones represent the happy emotions.”

These business cards were printed on cotton paper in order to present the rustic, handcrafted look and feel.

For Skaistuma Bars (Beauty Bar)

Bold Design Business Card

January 15, 2019
By: CJ Lee

Alex Aperios designed these business cards for Bold Design, a new startup design agency created by Alex at Aperios Design Ltd.

“The idea is to connect a group of talented designers and developers with like-minded aspirations in helping businesses grow and stand-out. This will be a remote only fully integrated agency offering design, web design, brand identity and web development across the globe,” Alex said. “The card design was inspired to create something bold, punchy and different so that they would catch the eye of a potential client.”

The visual identity looks edgy and stylish, thanks to a spectacular logo formed by diamond icon and clean typography, in addition to a sleek blue colour background.

These business cards were printed by Moo. “Both designs were printed on the extra thick 600gsm card to give extra impact. They have an uncoated finish to give them a real industrial feel. They also feature a subtle colour pressed down the middle,” Alex added.

Printed by Moo

For Bold Design

Phalen Reed Graphic Design Business Card

January 14, 2019
By: CJ Lee

Phalen Reed designed these business cards for her design studio that focused on branding and packaging design.

“After leaving my job to pursue freelance full-time, I wanted to start fresh with new personal branding. In addition to a redesign, new business cards were definitely in order,” Phalen said.

“My style is clean, detailed and layered with pops of color. These were all characteristics I wanted to incorporate into the design of my business cards. For the front of the cards, classic typography was used in a fun layout that highlighted my specialties (brand and package design) and a call to action statement that read, ‘tell me about your project’. To reflect my love of color, there are six versions of the back of the card, each with a different background color and my logo displayed prominently.”

These colourful business cards were printed by Moo. According to Phalen, “Since my new logo has the shape of an old-school seal, it seemed only fitting to apply that seal-like shine. I opted to do a spot gloss treatment on key details on my cards, such as name, contact information and logo. The spot gloss finish gave these business cards a beautiful shine!” And that’s exactly what a brand needs to stand out from the crowd!

Printed by Moo

For Phalen Reed Graphic Design

Untold Consultants Business Card

January 11, 2019
By: CJ Lee

Steve Younger designed these business cards for their corporate branding Untold Consultants, a globally awarded brand strategists and designers based in Sydney, Australia.

As storytellers, Untold created their corporate identity using a different approach with the details – making the contact info more conversational and personal. As for the other side of the card, a special design was made to express a hidden but important idea. “The idea in the logo is that Untold™ find the missing content for their clients–the untold story! And then create a strategy (and the creative) to leverage it,” said Steve, the Director of Untold.

The logotype is bold and catchy. If you look closely, there are two conversation-box-icons at the front and back of the logo, similar to filling in the gaps, defining untold stories and making tangible stories that resonates with their clients.

These business cards were printed by Clint Harvey, which according to Steve, the Master printer. “We used Notturno 450gsm for the card-printing and foiled the card on both sides using magnesium blocks, as there was no ultra-fine detail requiring brass blocks. The cards used two foils, a black foil and a white. We did experiment with clear foil but found the black to be a better effect and apply more consistently.”

Printed by Clint Harvey

For Untold Consultants

Michael Steffen Illustrator Business Card

January 10, 2019
By: CJ Lee

Andrew McKee designed these business cards for Michael Steffen, an illustrator and designer.

The first impression? An uplifting and happy mood for sure – just look at the drawings! “Michael Steffen considers himself a glass illustrator/designer by trade but in his heart, he is a cartoonist! Michael has always been a fan of the Sunday Funnies and bases a lot of that humor and emotion into his illustrations,” Andrew said.

“As a designer, it was important for me to incorporate every aspect of Michael’s illustrations into the crafting of the brand – from the illustrations themselves down to his hand-written typography.”

With that in mind, a variety of illustrations were used to express the brand effectively. For the back design, Andrew chose a striking blue colour background and filled the space with adorable cartoon characters; for the front side, each illustration is the center of attraction with contact details beneath it, leaving enough white space for a clean, uncluttered layout. It’s an eye-catching design that sets the brand apart from other ordinary cards!

These 3×2.5in business cards were printed by Moo on 32pt Mohawk Superfine paper with navy blue printed on the edges.

Printed by Moo

For Michael Steffen

Xarxa Capital Business Card

January 9, 2019
By: CJ Lee

Diego Fernández designed these business cards for Xarxa Capital, the first open investment network specialized in sports business.

“The company selects, invests and supports business projects of high added value, scalable, with high rates of profitability and disruptive sports sector, and its primary benefit is to have a reliable network of experience, contacts and knowledge between investors and entrepreneurs,” Diego said. “Consequently, for the creation of the brand and its corporate identity, we chose a flexible and abstract representation of the concept ‘network’ together with colour and typographic system that brings confidence to the values of the company.”

The word ‘Xarxa’ means ‘network’ in Catalonian language. On the business cards, the dots or holes can be seen connected from one to another via straight lines to simulate the idea.

These business cards were printed by Pressing on Arkoprint Milk 300g using cutter plate for the holes; 1+1 tints (Pantone 5415) plus matte varnish.

Printed by Pressing

For Xarxa Capital

Vievent Agency Business Card

January 8, 2019
By: CJ Lee

Alen “Type08” Pavlovic designed these business cards for Vievent, a wedding planning service in Belgium.

Speaking about the design process and inspirations, Allen said, “I’ve had a chance to work with the owner of the Vievent Agency before, which helped us to quickly establish the style and overall vibe we were looking for in the case of his personal project. Since a version of ‘making dreams come true’ is this agency’s tagline, we started developing their visual identity through logo redesign and opted for the ‘dream catcher’ element. It is (mostly) a wedding agency, among other events, and the structure of the catcher also reminds of lace and decorative elements tied to wedding dress codes, including the accessories and wedding rings. That was the reason to print everything in gold on white background when it comes to cards, making it as sophisticated and elegant but subtle as it gets.”

The client handled the card-printing process and according to Allen, all of these three sides of the card – front, back, rim – were printed/finished in the same gold foil and all the elements were being letterpressed. “So when you hold it in your hands all you see is white and gold and you can feel all the letters and symbols on your fingertips.”

This is one of those spectacular business card designs that people will remember, thanks to the lovely gold foil edging that makes them look absolutely stunning and elegant!

For Vievent Agency

Kaleid Magazine Business Card

January 7, 2019
By: CJ Lee

Studio Flex designed these business cards for Kaleid Magazine in collaboration with Moritz Borchardt.

Kaleid Magazine is a new independent magazine that focuses on creating a quiet space for discussion. It shows visual art, talks about culture, politics, problems and solutions in a very nuanced and multi-perspective way.

Instead of a standardized business card design, Kaleid Magazine chose a more daring and wordy approach for their business card. “Currently they are calling for contributions and submissions in visual art as well as written content,” said Emanuel Heim, the founder of Studio Flex. “What’s special about this business card is it also works as a flyer and gives the receiver enough information about the project to know what it is about and how it could be interesting to participate. This card will only be in place for about 6 weeks before it will be replaced with a more minimalistic card.”

On the front design, the alphabet ‘z’ from the word ‘Magazine’ looks chopped off for a specific reason. “If you look at Kaleid Magazine’s Instagram, you can see that all the current designed content is somehow cut into pieces and then combined in new ways. The topic of the first issue is BORDERS so we want to show this in our design,” Emanuel explained. “There will also be a series of posters with the same main layout of the business cards.”

These business cards were printed on Munken Rough Lynx by Drunken.ch in St.Gallen, Switzerland, which according to Emanuel, “It’s the best online paper-choice we’ve come across so far.”

Printed by Drunken.ch

For Kaleid Magazine

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