Business Card Experimentation

In my visual design lesson last week we learnt how to use 'Adobe InDesign' and also about typography and then we formatted what we learnt into a business card. I had so much fun doing this, and although I’m still working on my own personal business card I decided in my spare time to have a go at creating some business cards for a variety of different causes and people using only typography.

Business card one: for Adam.

My boyfriend is currently a catering student who aspires to be a chef. I decided to use a green colour on the right side to create a slight border constructed of technical food terms (I tried to include terms that I know that he likes, especially barbecue) My favourite part of this business card is how I used his full name (which is luckily four words!) to construct a fork silhouette. I decided to use the colour as it has connotations of being organic, healthy and fresh.

Business card 2: Breast Cancer awareness.

I decided to use 2 shades of pink to represent the iconic pink ribbon logo. Originally I intended to incorporate the phrase ‘FIGHT BREAST CANCER’ into the shape of the ribbon, however I’m not sure how to curve text yet and I wanted it to look good. Overall I’m quite happy with this, I think the use of 2 different shades of pink is effective. I also tried to put a block of colour behind ‘fight together ‘ which was successful!

I intend to get feedback from peers and my teacher and improve on what I've started and also find people I know who would also want a business card and put what I've learnt into practice!

(Business Cards generated in 2010, post bought over from Posterous)

Lips: collaboration with CharmedCharlee

On set photograph: Charlee applying the
Panda Lips to model Emma

Once again for my assignment work, this time I decided to focus on lips and beauty photography inspired by the photographer Jamie Nelson. For this shoot I collaborated with beauty blogger CharmedCharlee to show and created interesting lip designs. Working with Charlee was great and I'm really happy with the results we achieved.


In terms of the studio I used a cross lighting technique but with the front light (position on the right side of the camera) having a higher power level and acting as my key light. I also used a gold coloured reflector under the models face to prevent any hard light and the make the light have a warm tone on their face. However, the one thing I believe I could of changed was my choice of background. I decided to use a grey background for the photos however upon reflection I think that a choice of either a white or black background would have been more effective, additionally I think it would of made my work in post-editing better and easier for myself.  Once again I decided to use the macro lens as I was focusing on such a small part of the face I wanted as much detail as possible.


Once again I did a lot of editing in Photoshop using a lot of cloning, filters and brushing. I think the designs are super cute and I had a lot of fun creating some of the designs and working with Charlee!

You can see the final results once again on my Flickr in greater detail as well as on Charlee's blog.

Product photography

For a recent photography assignment we were free to explore many different areas of photography and one of the areas I decided to focus on was product photography. Before this module I’d never really used a photographic studio (I do have previous experience in television studios) so this was a real learning curve. For the product photography I used the lighting chair and a singularly key light to highlight specific pieces of detail on the products. For two of the photographs (the watch and the winged bracelet) I used a black background and a black watch box to provide the backdrop, which in turn made the pieces stand out, and highlighted the gemstones. For the other photograph I used the same watch box to prop up a vintage sequined black and gold belt to provide the background the Perspex on the lighting table to provide the base of the photo. For all the photos I subtly moved the key light around the shot but mainly kept it in front of the products as it worked really well. I move the light and it’s angle to hit certain areas I wanted to stand out on the products. For all these shots I decided to use a macro lens on manual focus to pick up the small details and also a tripod to provide stability.

I found the results to be highly effective and along with some editing using Photoshop I think they come out great and I think they would fit right in with a successful advertisement campaign.

You can also see the photos in greater detail on my Flickr account.