Graphic Design Blog - Matthew Martin, BIG Media Design

It’s been a couple of weeks here at BMD since I’ve been able to make a post, due to the fact that I haven’t been able to find a spare minute. I’ve had a fair bit of work on (which is nice, considering the economic problems we’re all experiencing) and I’ve been busy compiling a pitch for a big project I may have coming up (more on that if I get the job!).

Anyway, I just thought I’d show you what I’ve been working on lately, just a couple of the smaller jobs, business cards to be precise, but nice results all the same.

Ann Shaw Clinic
Nutritional Medicine

Ann is extremely knowledgeable in her work, and I wanted that to shine through in the design. We compiled a brief together of the kinds of things she was looking for, and told me a bit more about her business. Ideas like hydration, vitality, fresh starting popping up and that was a theme that I applied to the design. Ann did talk about some colour schemes she liked, but when I was playing with my initial ideas I wasn’t feeling the freshness and lightness that I wanted to achieve in the design. The fonts chosen were neutral and clean, and I chose a colour scheme that matched this – mostly light blues and greys. The blue also made the card fit the business – blue has long been associated with the medical industry. I wanted to create a symbol to place on the back of the card and on the front above the business name to form a sort of pseudo-identity/logo. I experimented with plays on the medical cross, but found them a bit uninspired – in line with the pureness, and health aspects I warped the symbol to make it look as though it had water ripples running over it. On the back of the card the symbol was stylised with a scribble effect.

Funds4Life
Business Consultancy & Fundraising

When I was discussing a brief with Sandra of F4L she didn’t really know what she wanted for her new card design. She sent me photographs of her current cards of which she had two designs. One personal/professional one, and one that more resembled a flyer – professional one was kept back for special occasions and the other design was (in her words) used as confetti. After playing around with a few ideas I thought we could come to some sort of compromise, something that looked professional whilst still holding onto a more commercial quality to save her having to carry two sets of cards round all the time.

Anyway, about the design, the main theme of the front of the card is money and power, straight to the point. The colour purple has long since been associated with riches and wealth, ever since the royal families of the world adopted it. I put the main focus on the existing company tagline - which I felt was quite powerful and should be made a point of. The back of the card is still focused on the financial side of things but this time toned down a bit. The colour chosen is a light green, green of course being the colour of money (at least in the US anyway) here though it symbolises trust and dependability - a friendly colour.

Anyway, I hope you like the designs, and if you were interested in me creating a business card for you or your company, just drop me an email at info@bigmediadesign.com and we can discuss your brief!

PS. I’m still recovering from my little computer hard drive mishap which has once again put a huge delay on my website being up and running! How on earth I am getting any work through the door without a portfolio I dont know!