Plan Ahead With Minimalist Business Card Graphic Design

Graphic Designers have many jobs at their disposal and when they’re at work, even their feet are usually occupied most of the time. You might see them slouching lazily in front of the computer screen, with their fingers and palms moving rapidly over the keys and mouse, while a hastily written and rapidly typed sketch slowly comes into view in front of him. They may look like a class of robots. In short, they operate mostly in an invisible field, driven by the necessity of presenting to the client the best possible representation of their message, idea or concept. But what is behind the creation of such abstract forms?

Typography

The most obvious answer is that, graphic design is all about typography. Most of the design elements that we come across, from business cards to posters and banners, are typographical objects. The lines and shapes that compose the objects bear the marks of the different types of fonts used. If the font is not suitable for the design element, the only option is to alter or substitute the typeface. This procedure is called “glyphing”.

Geometrical

The most popular commercial graphic designs are those which consist of a single form or a few simple geometrical forms. These simple forms are called templates. Templates have the advantage that they are immediately recognisable and so they have the potential to become the basis of a graphic design, even without previous artistic experience. It was the creation of the minimalist style that really popularised these templates. As a matter of fact, the term “minimalist style” is not based on any strict definition, but just on the very nature of the designs themselves.

Minimalist

A minimalist business card template usually consists of a logo, text and a graphic image. The logo might be a typical shape like a circle or it may be a customised logo with no distinguishable shape. The font hierarchy used is usually a standard font hierarchy of capital letters followed by lower case letters. Sometimes special characters like hyphen are also included. Other times a different set of fonts may be used, thus making the visual aesthetic more interesting.

Templates

The reason why business card templates are made in this way is because it helps the designer too quickly and easily identify the purpose of each graphic element. For example, if the logo contains words like “red”, “white” or “blue”, the designer is able to quickly ascertain the meaning of the text, as well as the colours that should be used to make it more attractive. On the other hand, when a business card contains only text, the graphic designer has to make the most out of different text graphics. Here are some of the common graphic design techniques that are used by most minimalist style designers: embossing, puzzle images, fill patterns, swatch samples, shadowing, halo blisters, grid themes, envelope blisters, envelope seals, hole punching, LED display, popup images, envelope seals, and so on.

End Product

One of the benefits of using a minimalist approach to business card design is that the designer can more easily think about the end product. It is also easier for a graphic designer to come up with an attractive layout when there are no preconceived ideas to keep in mind. It is therefore important for the graphic designer to plan ahead and ensure that the end product has all the basic elements that will make it attractive.

Question

What is more important to you in logo design – colour, font or shape ? Leave a comment below with your answer.

Links:

• http://www.hotink.co.za/services/business-card-printing-cape-town/