SANTORO Graphic Designer Business Card

Christopher Santoro designed these business cards for his self-branding, SANTORO, as a Boston-based graphic designer and art director.

Sometimes when a design is eye-catching enough you don’t need extra colours to prove it.

Santoro’s business card is a great example of using basic colours (black/white) and a striking logo (with the help of lines and different fonts) to convey his brand identity.

“SANTORO is my private design practice that I’ve run since 2012. My original runs of cards were just digitally printed,” Christopher said.

They came out great but, if I had to be realistic, the design only made the mark look good! It didn’t really communicate much about me as a designer.”

“Fast forward to a week ago, and having done mostly digital and offset print jobs for my clients, I decided that I wanted to get a small run of beautifully letter-pressed cards just as a gift to myself. To quote Donna from Parks and Recreation, ‘Treat yo’self’.”

The Inspiration & Design Process

“Having been inspired throughout my life by punk/metal music and art, comic books and movies, I always wanted my brand to align with that boldness.”

“Designers I’ve followed throughout the years such as Michael Beirut and Aaron Draplin—my present-day gods of Modernist Design— they influenced my process and techniques around design in general.”

“So in 2015, when I was looking at my branding at the time, the most ‘exciting’ part was the Trade Gothic Condensed type—aside from that it looked really stiff! I wanted something that had strength that could work flexibly with just about any colour or texture, and just conveyed that dynamic that I’ve always wanted.”

“The “S” mark and logotype were from a typeface called ‘Shumi’ and my supporting typefaces are Druk and DIN. The design itself is pretty simple, but with thick lines that complement the type and mark.”

Business Card Printing Details

These business cards were printed by Mama Sauce using letterpress printing technique,

“This is a 1-colour letter-pressed card with Pantone Process Black on Post-Duplexed French Muscletone Pure White 140C stock. The edges are painted black!” Christopher added.