Business Cards

A WASP IN A WIG BUSINESS CARDS Business Cards for Personal and Professional Practice Module Level 6.

Investigating Media and Composition I wanted to have a go at creating some analogue designs which I could edit digitally.

I created the following with black/white pen and a wash of watercolour. I really liked the idea of having wasps in white, because they are seen as quite a ‘vicious’ and overpowering insect with the danger colours of black and yellow in the natural world. Presenting them in white would highlight them as a beautiful form and would keep the colour scheme simple throughout the business card.

I created some of these to a really large scale because I wanted to experiment with creating headers and banners for websites and other professional social medias to follow this branding.

Designs Digitally Edited & Experimenting with Business Card Composition & Layout

Rethink!

I wasn’t very sure about how these were turning out. I really liked the aesthetic but I don’t think they were appropriate for business cards as they didn’t seem to reflect a very commercial style.

Once I started adding the gold and going with the simpler designs I wasn’t sure if the designs started looking a bit tacky, especially as the illustrations themselves weren’t very good – and I am selling my craft as an illustrator!

I had another go at creating some with a simpler aesthetic and that would fit with the rest of my branding such as the digital portrait I currently use as a logo for my online presence.

Too Girly?

After spending some time experimenting with using my current branding – my digital portrait, I decided that perhaps this look and the colour scheme would give off a too girly vibe. It is something I will go up against anyway so I could play to it – but I’d rather it just be a really nice illustration than my own caricature.

Back to the drawing board! With this in mind I started creating some work with the key themes of my illustration practice in mind – pattern, detail, colour and nature. I also wanted to keep the wasp theme entwined – which would be easily done if I followed the themes of nature.

I have been looking at humming birds and kingfishers for my India project and I just love the colours of their feathers and their form so I wanted to incorporate these with some exotic colourful flowers and wasps (which I can now draw from my imagination because I’ve drawn so many!).

I created a patterned circular wreath-style assortment of flowers and incorporated some of the birds and wasps in where I thought appropriate. I didn’t want to over do it with the wasps but I wanted to ensure that if I were to crop the image at a specific section there would still be a wasp visible. I did it in a circular form because I wanted to be able to crop the image at an edge and apply it to a CV for example so that the illustration subtly swept into the page rather than a sharp rectangular edge.

I decided on the simple corner design (above right) for the front side, along with a simple back with just the contact details with the colourful patterns icons and a couple of wasps in the negative space to reinforce the brand name sake.

FINALS! I am really happy with my final designs – although I can guarantee they wont be the final ones I ever design as I can’t stop adjusting them!