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popantique
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Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: San Francisco, CA
 
2008-07-09, 07:31

Quote:
Originally Posted by Moogs View Post
OK, except that the colors I'm seeing in your OP are nowhere near pink. I don't think my laptop monitor is that badly calibrated but then again maybe it is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Windswept View Post
I prefer the card design in the upper right also, but without the swirls through the lettering of your name. The color looks bright red-orange on my screen, with not the least hint of pink.
I have no explanation for this. I used an HTML color for the pink, #FF0033, and it has always been approximately that shade on at least the three last computers I've owned. I will admit that it's a very red pink. On the do-overs below, I substituted it with a very similar shade from the pantone palate in AI, as well as doing one in a pinker pink and a darker pink. Pinks are a tricky thing. I don't want it to look too pepto bismal, too its-a-girl, or too barbie.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Roboman View Post
I haven't seen your fashions - I don't know if they're similarly bold, and that's what you're going for [...]

But I would at least try using a lighter pink, and see where it takes you. If you decide you hate it, it's okay.
I like bold. If I'm doing something for a client or to build my portfolio, I'll probably try to mix it up a bit, but left to my own devices I would probably make 75% of my garments in some combination of red, black, and white.
I did mess around with richer and dustier pink and purple tones. I don't hate them (anything I hated, I changed before it got very far), but lord knows how long it will take me to go through these cards and what my second-favourite colour palate will be by then. Right now I'm at the end of a jewel-tone kick (purples and teals especially).

Quote:
Originally Posted by Roboman View Post
I do know an age-old adage for design that still holds true today: If you want to make something look more expensive, soften the palette. When you think of your archetypical perfume box from a high-end brand, it's probably not red, white, and black.

Again, I don't know if expensive is what you're going for, or not.
It seems to me that the cause and effect would be a little different (though I admit you would know better than I): few people are going to pay an expensive price for an unknown product or brand, so logically if expensive then it's already known. If it's already known, then it doesn't have to try very hard to attract your attention. Since I'm not already known, I want to be a bit of a peacock and get noticed. I don't want my card to blend in with the generic mass of cream-with-black-text cards. Obviously I don't want it to stand out because it's ugly, though! I am trying to find the middle ground here.
Expensive isn't really my market. Quirky is my market. (Less Chanel, more Betsey Johnson.) Since I just graduated and started freelancing recently I don't feel justified charging a lot of money, and it would be hypocritical to expect people to pay a lot of money where I wouldn't (being a cheapskate and all).

Quote:
Originally Posted by Windswept View Post
Also, of the colors you mentioned liking, I think charcoal, red and white would be nice; or, even better, maybe charcoal, medium-light grey and red. Maybe a card that's 1/3 medium-charcoal, 2/3 medium light grey, with red lettering.
Ahaha. So, I tried this, and it came out as an exemplary case of ur doing it rong. (see bottom right, below).

Thanks again to everyone who pitched in their two cents. Here's what I came up with after reading all your comments and factoring my own bias.



Okay. There's a million (well, 14) variations on the style that was in the top-left of the first picture I posted. Flipside would be color-coordinated version of the horizontal design at the right of the same.

I took out the word "freelance" and the mailing address to free up some room so that the text could be easier and bigger to read. I also changed the word order around for purely aesthetic purposes (so that it'd be angled like the color block). There's no diagonal text to be found here, unless you count the logo (and I don't know if you did).

So aside from having different colors randomly paired with different fonts (there are a couple repeats for fonts), there are a few variations found in these:

-Name on two lines. I usually did this when having it on one line took up too much space (I wanted to keep the name more on the left for balance).
-use of normal logo versus the one with the ".com"; there are also some where I just deleted the ".com" text (difference is the stem of the q. If I don't use the .com then I'll probably change said stem to be in between the two lengths).
-on the dusty purple one, I omitted the logo entirely and raised the color block accordingly. I actually think this looks pretty good.
-on the one at the bottom right, I moved the logo/color block up and to the left a bit, to eat up a bit of the dead space that was left after I erased ".com" I don't think I like this.

In terms of the colors, I think the pink (middle, top row) is still my favourite, though I also like the grey with swirls (middle, bottom row). There are a couple others I like (such as the two-tone pinks on the right in the third row) but I think I'm less likely to get sick of the pink or the charcoal for however long it takes me to use up my cards.
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