My First Artifact Re-design: Business Card

This is the culprit artifact.

Upon first glances, there is one grand noticeable problem. The card isn't inviting nor memorable. The business itself actually sells home protection systems, like alarms and what-not, and part of their business plan is going door-to-door to inform people of their products, but this card doesn't help. It's probably dawned upon you that if you predicated your business on some door-to-door action then you ought to have a very intriguing card, not one that is easy to throw away. The card does not have to be glitzy or shiny but does need to look much more presentable than this. Also, if you were to find this card a few months after you received it, you truly wouldn't know exactly what the business is. The card does have "protection" in the company name but protection is ambiguous and no clarification is offered. The location of Pinnacle Protection is a mystery on this card and forces a person to do work to find it, which isn't ideal. I made sure to give reminder of what the business is (home protection services) by including a slogan-- kind of like a statement of purpose--and also more information on how to get into contact and where the business is.

                                                                        My redesign of the card

My redesign of the card is based off the four basic principles given in The Non-Designer's Design Book: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity.

Contrast: In the first card, there is no contrast, really. There is merely white with the logo and two lines given for written information of the salesman. So to create some true contrast I inserted the red corners. They are not the actual tips of the card but they act almost as boundaries almost. Also, for some color contrast I made those corners red. 

I also put contrast into the words of the card. I completely overhauled the logo with a futuristic font and also made it completely red because underneath it is a separated slogan in black. The slogan is also contrasts the info below and above because I italicized it some and made it slightly smaller in font size than the logo but still bigger than the address information I included.

Repetition: There is repetition throughout the card but it starts with the color scheme. There are three colors: white, red, and black. I chose to make two elements red (logo, corner tips) because if there were just one element, the red might seem out of place. I also made sure to make the corners all identical so there is no deviation in size, they're just flipped. The font style, outside of the logo, is exactly the same. The contact information and the slogan are the exact same because more than two font styles may make reading the card slightly irritating. As well, there are two lines in this card just like the last one, but one is for a name and the other is a separater. 

Alignment: The alignment of the card is very consistent and no component of the card is out of rhythm in terms of alignment. I just bought Adobe InDesign the other week and the beautiful thing about that software is that the alignment tool is always exact and helps the user dictate where to put a certain component.

For example, all of the red corners are aligned perfectly due to the software. Also, the separater line between the logo and slogan acts almost as a boundary as well because all of the components below are aligned perfectly with its outside. The software also helped put every centered component in the exact center of a proceeding graphic. For example, the name line has a "Agent Name" tag directly below that is perfectly centered. And the slogan, as well, is perfectly centered under its separater line.

Proximity: The book indicates that proximity always implies relationship. When information is grouped together, there is always an assumed correlation amongst them. In my business card's case, the slogan and logo are very close so that they are very easy to identify. An easily identifiable slogan and logo have a higher chanced of being recognized in the future and because they are both marketing tools they deserve to be grouped together as such. Below is the contact information. All of the contact information is very close together so that it is discernible from the other elements. The agent name line is just slightly to the right because it is kind of its own solitary element but still not too far from the contact information.

Stylistic Choices: The red corners, as I have stated, are almost like bounder lines. What I mean when I say that is that they are there to keep the readers' attention within their alignment immediately. It is almost like I put a cross hair on the card and the information with the red corners is like the bulls-eye.

The logo has been completely redesigned because the other one was a little misleading. In its background there were mountains and the first letter was encapsulated in a red square. A regular person would not know at all what that business is based off aesthetic design. I remodeled it into a sleek, sharp futuristic version. There isn't a graphic to give hints of the businesses products but there also isn't a chance of distraction from a graphic at all. To remind what the company is, a slogan is used instead of a distracting graphic.

My 5 artifacts

I'm pretty excited about having chosen my 5 artifacts and I don't think I'll have to change them to cater to my inexperience with design. I think re-creating them to be better and more effective is a great exercise because it's fun and re-design/design of products is definitely a skill that is needed by every major company. Also, these artifacts were an excuse to buy Adobe In-Design, a program that many work ads have encouraged fluency in. Not to mention, my portfolio will probably look much better after this course.

1) Pinnacle Protection business card

The other day a stranger knocked on my door offering a subscription with Pinnacle Protection——some sort of home security package. He didn't look like any reputable salesman, in fact, he dressed almost like a homeless guy and the eerie coincidence of his mentioning of recent break-ins in my neighborhood was not missed by me, as my car was broken into just a few months ago. It was probably pretty paranoid of me to start thinking that maybe he bashed the window of my car and jacked my CDs so that he could come back and sell me some security. But nonetheless, setting my paranoia aside, he gave me his card and upon my review of it I found its blandness perfect for redesign as an artifact.

2) DVD Cover: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I love this movie. I love the interplay of reality, relationships, and memories being re-lived as they're actually being destroyed through minor brain damage. The movie offers everything you need and feels more like an indie film than one of the oscar winning kind. Even the DVD cover is nice and probably needs no re-design whatsoever. But my plan for redesign is to make a cover equally, if not more, artful and telling of the story but also creating an even more spectacular cover for a "special edition" version. The fun with the special edition idea is because most special edition DVDs are always flashier, shinier, and they are more attention grabbing and aimed at the true movie collector/fan than usual. My love of this movie is motivation enough to try and do a great job.

3) Book cover: The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Bourdain is one of my favorite personalties in all of pop culture. Ironically, it's because, in my world, I consider him so normal, or at least, what normal should be. He is verbose, descript, witte in the dirtiest sense, and the dude has a standard for everything and is intolerant of bullshit——the way everyone should be but somehow most aren't.  His book The Nasty Bits, despite its fantastic writing, in my opinion, has a very bland and unmemorable cover. It's much less symbolic than his most recent writing, Medium Raw. Upon looking at this cover you would imagine this guy is some self-absorbed motivational speaker in a leather jacket rather than suit, trying to look modest and not the brash, unapologetic, very natural and good guy he really is. It'll be fun trying to turn this into something that I believe fits with his true personality.

4) Message board interface

I love Texas Tech sports in an obsessive manner and I often try to acquire any football related news in any way one could concieve——meaning I enjoy sports message boards every now and then. This particular website I almost don't visit at all, really. I just remember it because of it's extremely boring, sleepishly gray look. Its appearance makes it look as if it belongs at some internet message board garage sale. Other than the dvd cover, this particular artifact might be the most difficult. I am hoping my Adobe In-design will prove useful with this one.

5)Texas Tech Safe Ride Brochure

I want to laugh at this brochure because it's bad in a lot of different ways. Or maybe I should say it's plain and underwhelming in a lot of different ways despite containing a subject with a very serious message. What this brochure lacks is almost disrespectful to its message, but oh well, I guess.  Safe Ride is obviously a service for people that get too wasted and need a safe driver to take them home so that they don't kill themselves or someone else but when I look at this I can't help but think it looks like it directed at the attention of 5th graders; i don't know many them that get drunk, either. Its most obvious that clip art was probably the main tool used to design this brochure and whatever department at Texas Tech that developed this should be embarrassed. Surely the staff that created this has better design skills and computer resources than to use clip art and could make this a little more serious looking, considering its message. The copyright says its from 2005 and I hope that is true and that the current one is 10x better but if not, then I think I could make a much more adequate one.