Photoshop Newb

Please give me tips to improve.

Business Cards:



It's my first one.

W/ Border:

 

Honestly, I would completely redesign this whole thing. It's not that your not familiar with Photoshop, it's that your not experienced enough with design and how to make things apeealing (color, fonts, grids etc..)

http://www.haveabrew.com/junk/P1010535.jpg
http://www.haveabrew.com/junk/P1010536.jpg

That is one good example of what a business card should look like. (Not mine)

 

Thanks for the comment.

 

I agree, needs redesign. You could have done it similar in Word, no need for Photoshop. Check some examples of business cards before you start designing to get an idea of how to make it look more corporate, more appealing.
Also, if your newbie at Photoshop, you might wanna try some tutorials first: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=business+card+photoshop+tutorial&btnG=Search

 

you should try mixing and harmonizing the colours.Look for 2.0 colors.

The most important thing is the layout of the Card.Try using different kind of layout and arrange it nicely with 2.0 colours.Insert image related with the theme of the Business Card..Am I right?

 

my tip is to simply start over. try something a bit less... 1995? i don't know. but honestly if you handed me this i would probably laugh. no offense or anything. you can check out www.good-tutorials.com as well and www.ps-lover.com - www.tutorialized.com - www.absolutecross.com/tutorials/photoshop/ just some links to help you get better with photoshop in general and then maybe attempt some business cards. also remember with anything for print you should use CMYK as your color profile and a resolution of 300dpi atleast. you can get away with maybe 250dpi but i wouldn't recommend it.

 

if you can't do the back ground yourself try to google for some samples. I found loads of free templates to download. Glossy style, business style and so on.

 

there are really no guidelines as to what a business card *should* look like. There are obviously good and bad design choices, but no set rules as to what a card is supposed to look like. But keep in mind, designing for print is VERY different from designing for web! If you really want to give a good impression when you hand someone a business card (and not have them laugh, as one poster mentioned above), you should have an experienced print designer help you with this. Otherwise, you're wasting time and money. When handed a cheap, poorly-done card, most prospective clients will give you the fake smile, then find the nearest trash can as soon as they walk away.

You shouldn't even really layout business cards (or do ANY layout, for that matter) in Photoshop, that's not what the app is made for. InDesign or QuarkXpress (or even MS Publisher) are what you should be using. However, if your only choices are PS or Word, use PS!! Ansi had some good tips about that, the 300dpi and CMYK are right on.

I'd hesitate to limit yourself to "2.0" colors, as suggested above. The whole "2.0" movement is all about Web design, has NOTHING to do with print design! Sure, if your logo/corporate colors happen to be similar to colors in the 2.0 palette, you can design your stationary that way, but otherwise, don't do it just because 2.0 is the new "in" thing. Again, design tendencies for web are quite different from those pertaining to print.

Generally speaking, your stationary (BCs, LH, and Envelopes) should share a unified look, and should be based at least somewhat on the company logo and color scheme.

I have samples of stationary/cards I've done recently, if anyone's interested, I'll be happy to share. Been in the printing/graphic design biz for over ten years.

Good luck!

 

i tried indesign once... it was like waslking through a maze blindfolded.. heh. i did my business cards in photoshop and they came out rather nicely. too bad i still have yet to finish the website that is advertised on them. work i get from the net tends to keep me pretty busy these days anyways so i really have no need to pass them out right now so it's not a big deal

 

I agree with all the posters above. It needs work. Try searching for some tuts, use better colors, try different fonts...

It's a bit offtopic, but a while ago I saw a blogpost with some great and original business cards: http://creativebits.org/cool_business_card_designs

Edited: I've also found some interesting links:
http://www.abduzeedo.com/creating-new-business-card
http://desktoppub.about.com/od/businesscards/a/bcard_parts.htm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dailypoetics/sets/72057594104389710/

 

You have to start to work on alignment before design. As you can see, the slogan doesn't line up with the text above... The text on the bottom doesn't either and the green line throws everything off. Keep everything aligned so it's more organized and visually appealing. Then you can work on adding some more design elements.

 

here read these tutorials:
http://www.c4d-renders.com/quality-photoshop-tutorials

 

Some of the best business cards are EXTREMELY minimalistic. Such as the ones linked above in the first post.

Make it very simplistic and the text really attractive. Make it a rich shade of cherry red, or some nice glossed up words. Don't make it too over the line and "webby" as this is going to be on paper.

If you intend on ever making a complex one, you will need a really nice design for it. One with nice transparent layers working everywhere and that is very colorful but conservative enough to call "sane". GL.

 

onix has it right,
a business card should not be overwelming. You should make your information easy to read and easy to find. Yet it should still be attractive. This is easy if you are good with colors and typeface. That is all you really need to deal with on a business card. Sure you can do something flashy, but its a tougher road.

 

go to pixel2life.com you will have alot of good tutorials to follow and you will learn a few things!