Business cards

After having our lectures with Pauline Ashcroft, and having done some commission work experience and having my own small stand in a tearoom selling my work, I felt it was important to make business cards. Networking is one of the most important elements of having contacts and staying connected to people in order to get work and promote yourself. I haven't had any social media pages or portfolios that I could have on a business card to promote my work and I created a professional email as well. Now that I have all these connect details in place and professional ways in which to promote my art I could start to make business cards. 

Brain storming and inspiration - https://uk.pinterest.com/ldownhill/business-cards/

I created a Pinterest board linked above with ideas and inspiration for how I could have my own business cards. I wanted a personal touch which was bold and striking. For another module I had started to explore the idea of digital patterns and in my own time I made a pattern which I call 'Sprinkles'. Inspired by Camille Walala and her work, the pattern is strong, striking and really stands out. I could've sent me design off to be professionally printed but I wanted to make them myself to reduce costs and to actually show my own creativity. 

I took the technique I used for making my greetings cards and printed the design out on one large sheet of high stock paper. From this I then cut the same size rectangles out to make the business cards. I then separately made up a few sheets with my contact details on which I stuck to the back of each. If i'd thought about it more wisely I could've printed double sided with the design on one and a grid of contact details on the other. Using the colour blue was brave as blue is a hard colour to see how its actually going to print from screen onto paper. Luckily the blue was light enough that when printed it still complimented the other colours and wasn't too dark. 

Once the cards were cut and the contact sheets were made for the back, I then used small hand printing letters with an ink pad to spell 'L D Illustrator' which is my initials and then my 'job title'. These were time consuming but because I love the hand made I was happy with the result. Each business card is quirky and different due to the pattern on the front and the hand print of the lettering on the front. 

Once they were made I took a photo of them using a proper Canon camera to make them look that little bit more professional and posted them on my social media page to document then process and show off the final result. For what ever reason, whether it be the image itself, the design of the cards in the image,  the post reached 112 likes which is the most a post has never been on my Instagram. This was a massive boost and made me feel more confident when handing out business cards.

Because I have the space in the tearoom now which has my stuff in it as well as the mural, it makes sense for a portion to be placed there. They are placed next to the work that I am selling in the tearoom for people to pick up and look at as they wish and also take. If they aren't as popular as I would've liked then I think I will get the card sent off to a company to do it properly and make the cards more professional or reprint them and make an effort to print them double sided with the contact details on the back.