Project Overview

A very simple but witty card that mimicked an ink sketch on paper, and a reasonably 'hand-made' aesthetic.

Organisation

Jeffrey Phillips

Team

Jeffrey Phillips.

Project Brief

I pretty much had the worst client on this one. Fussy, always changing their mind, completely unpredictable, (occasionally referring to themselves in the third person)

Basically it had to:

1. Represent myself as accurately as possible to the clients I wish to attract,

2. Express as much as possible with minimal effort because I hate to fluff on,

3. Be smart, witty and clever,

4. And be executed well, with quality materials.

Worst!

Project Need

I wanted my card to be as similar as possible to my illustrative style. Since I do a lot of work with pen and ink, a simple black on white design was my preferred choice. This also helped keep the costs low.

I hand-lettered the entire thing to ensure the "hand-drawn" look flowed all the way through, not just with the illustration.

Also key was to have a clever concept behind it. This I feel gives the work longevity.

So the result is a very unique limerick business card featuring a relieved looking corporate bear on letterpress stock. For now at least...

Design Challenge

My first challenge was culling many good ideas down to one concept and then refining that one.

Once I had my concept and completed it, my second challenge was finding a printer that could offset print on letterpress stock at an affordable price. I specifically wanted letterpress stock because the texture mimics a good piece of art paper and that works perfectly with my profession.

After a bit of research I discovered Taylord Press thanks to the advice of Che Douglas over at 'Beyond the Pixels'.

And I got everything I wanted, couldn't be happier really. In fact I can't think of a time I have been this excited about something since I thought Santa was real.

Sustainability

The stock, beer mat board is 100% sustainable plantation stock sourced from sustainable plantations. Evidently a proper 100% sustainable plantation uses few (if any) herbicides and conserves water.

Taylord Press use environmentally friendly soy based inks (with the exception of metallic) and water miscible wash-up and fountain solutions.

Lastly, I walked there and back every time I had to pay them a visit thus saving countless tonnes of carbon by leaving my hummer at home.