Fashion Photography Business Card & Logo

Brief

Design a business card and logo suitable for an Instagram Icon for fashion photography student Jesika Brewer.

I have previously collaborated with Jes on a zine last year, she's an amazing photographer and jumped at the chance to design her business card she needs by tonight, so she can print them in time for London Fashion Week.

Research 

In terms of layout I found the ones that were portrait stood out more, I really like the emphasis with these cards on photography and looking at that from a more abstract stand point playing around with the focal point: the lens.

I found this too obvious and unoriginal, it seems to be too literal, focusing on the camera itself, people want to see what the photographer can actually do with a camera.

Thinking about colours it seems apparent a lot use swatches of colours from main images say on the front of the card and use this for the text or background for the back of the card. This style creates a consistent palette, I feel it looks sleek and minimal.

@berlingraphix uses this, although this isn't a business card it give me inspiration for pinpointing a minimal colour scheme that works well with the photography.

As Jes is a fashion photography student I do want to include at least one image on the card, large on the back I feel will look most professional. Jes suggested two but I feel it's neater and clearer having one full bleed. She specifically said she desired Blackletter typefaces.

Initial Designs 

More experimental typographical layout:

Using typeface Blackletter font Black Forest, as Jes said she preferred "old style type". The digital feel to this typeface I thought tied in with the information particularly well as we all communicate through the internet now; it seemed appropriate to match her modern take on styling.

I felt the use of heavy negative space just looked empty, whereas if it was black it wouldn't look so empty.. more contemporary in fact. Many instagram account I've seen utilise this in their poster art and is fast becoming the must have for layouts.. so I thought I best keep with this contemporary trend, matching Jes' contemporary fashion/ styling & photography.

For @berlingraphix black is an integral part of their design, it's negative space encroaching on designs, adding and subtracting, with bursts of colour.

I showed these to Jes and she confirmed she preferred the bottom row, using the green gradient as a colour reference for the text on the other side of the card, she liked as well giving the photograph room to breath, letting it speak for itself full bleed with no text.

As she originally had said she wanted multiple images on her cards I thought this was an appropriate amount, but it seems more professional just having text on this side. I showed Jes and she preferred the simplicity of the single image also, and noted she didn't like the double text for this reason also.

I then played around with the text on the other side. I thought the diamond shape may add to the blackletter old style aesthetic but Jes preferred it without. Upon reflection it doesn't add anything, perhaps overcomplicates the design and isn't necessary.

Logo for Instagram

Keeping it more simplistic I had the subheading aligned to the left, as the contact information is already experimental so I don't want to overcomplicate the design for the sake of being edgy. 

The lighter text colour is a lot more legible as well than the green.

Using typefaces Helvetica and Blood and Blade

Blood and Blade I felt was an 'androgynous', it has a blocky strong quality to the body of text but when it comes to the decorative ascenders, descenders, ears and so on they're fluid and delicate. The contrasting nature incorporates different styles as does Jes' photograph in terms of colour, composition and styling with the feminine shape to the blazer, with 'masculine' bum bag.

I used the corners of the card for text, much like iconography on playing cards, I thought it would be a playful comparison as the cards become more interactive as people have to turn them in order to read. This is why I chose a neutral, easily legible typeface (Helvetica) for the subtext. 

I used colours swatched from Jes' photographs in order to maintain fluidity in aesthetic. For example the header text is sampled from the model's jacket to bring back the attention the clothing as she is also a stylist.

I really like the contrast between the decorative header text and the information, offering a dimension of professionalism through the information text while the header adds to the playfulness of the layout.

Jes chose the final design which we're both really pleased with, I feel it represents her work in a nutshell, it looks professional and I'm excited to add it to my portfolio.