While away in Melbourne a week ago I was fortunate enough to visit the Melbourne Design Market. Although the layout and though are pretty similar to Adelaide’s Bower Bird Bazaar it was interesting to see what is popular in other states.
While there I picked up some business cards with great typographic examples:
I went to Bower Bird Bazaar today and picked up some nice business cards. It’s interesting to see what other people are doing with business cards and how they fit in with their style guide.
Bowerbird Bazaar is aimed at people who are looking for handmade or unique items. Which explains why my other half felt like an alien while there.
Although I keep an analogue journal for the things that inspire me I thought I would share some of the items I have been collecting lately. I’ve been collecting little golden books you can find at the supermarket for a couple of dollars. Obvisously I’m not the target market for little golden books by look at them it’s obvisous who is. I’m impressed at the simplicity of the characters in the books which allow children to copy easily.
Recently I have also been influenced by vintage or retro illustrations which could explain why I’m beginning to like little golden books.
Some of the recent ones I have found:
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One of my first post in this blog was about manhole covers in Japan. Alex Fisher has taken what I noticed in Japan one step further by getting charcoal impressions of the manhole covers.
Although manhole covers aren’t something you would look at everyday from a designers point of view. It’s interesting to note the differences in covers between countries and cultures.
For a more in depth look at these covers go to:
Alex Fisher
Some lovely packaging from around the world. Some of these works are inspirational. Like everything in design the packaging is well considered. I wish some websites were like this, though web development is relatively new to the design world.
For a link to the site:
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/05/50-beautiful-and-effective-package-designs/
I’m not much of wine drinker, or drinker so it’s pretty rare when I go to a liquor store.
The one I went into the other day had an interesting bottle with some nice typographical elements to it. Most people tell me not to use caps since it screams for attention but this is exactly what this bottle is trying to achieve.
Oh and it was a nice drop of wine as well đ
When cleaning out the house I found these interesting recipe cards from women’s weekly dating back from the 1970’s. Apart from the timely fade they were still in good condition. It was interesting to note how much food photography and design has change so much in the past 35 years.
Today’s presentation of food is all about appearance where as in the 1970’s in was all about taste. Much more care is put into the presentation, when photographing food today. Even catalogues from supermarkets take extra care in their presentation of food.
The cards from the 1970’s concentrate more on a homestyle feel, rather than an industrial kitchen feel of some recipe books today. Obvisously their target audience would have been readers of the women’s weekly magazine where as today the audience for cook books is much wider.
I’ve tried making a few recipes from these cards and I shall say they have been interesting.
Despite the saying “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover”, people do judge products by the packaging. I was quite impressed when I saw this blog post on abduzeedo. Although most of the work are student designs, it shows how much consideration and care is taken when designing the final product. No matter what the end product is the utmost care should be taken when dealing with a client. It’s definitely worth having a look at the site.
Here’s a link to the site:
Well the show came and went for another year. Instead of just going on rides and vomiting up my lunch I decided to collect a few business cards and flyers while I was there.
Ambersun Alpacas – This one is quite simple but explains who they are and what they do. I haven’t had a look at the website site yet but I imagine it would have the same consistency as the business card.
Buzz Honey –Â I thought this one was quite clever. They’ve used both sides of the card explaining who are the main people to contact. The trail is quite clever because it does make you think of a bee flying. They obviously have stayed away from the stereotype of bees and flowers. The card is quite simple and the colours really stand out.
Buzz Honey – Well thought out card.
Volksfactory – probably a mish mash of everything in this card. i see about 3 different typefaces which makes it a bit hard to read. Really not much thought put into it. However if it gets their name out in Adelaide and makes them money then it has achieved it’s job.
Murray Valley Cheese Company – They deal with cows and all sorts of diary porducts. I felt this was thought out as well but not to the same degree as Buzz Honey’s business card. However it does tell you what they do and where to contact them.
Miss cup cakes – This card was a bit unusual for me, which is probably why I picked it up. I didn’t really understand why they had a lady eating a cupcake as their business card. However it does tell me they make something yummy. My main problem with the card and company is the fact it doesn’t feel feminine to me. Although different people have different ideas on what is feminine and maybe that wasn’t the message they were trying to get across.
The cupcakes were delicious if you were wondering đ
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Growth SA Food awards – I thought this was just lovely so I decided to include it. The front cover of the flyer does show how SA business can grow. It’s suttle and nice.
So I guess your wondering why I’m putting up so many cards. I’m trying to see how people use their cards to promote themselves and their business. I want to see how they make it shown in what they do and what details do they put on their card.
This is all to get a clearer picture of how I should design my own business card.
I caught this post on Design Zen and I have a feeling we’ll be seeing copy cat cards for years to come but it’s an original idea and I’m jealous I didn’t think of it first. Though I have a few ideas in the works, so I’m sure I’ll come up with something better!
He has a flickr set shown here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/etaymor/sets/72157606459028460/
