I talked to one of my classmates about the business card design and he said that it’s important to give the eye a break. I like to think of that approach as the reverse “mullet.” Party in the front, business in back.

Update 4-15-13:

I had great feedback in critique today. Tom said that he “got” the idea of what I was going for with the type, a kind of 1920’s book title page look (centered, stacked, hierarchical type and playing with tracking). He said that perhaps a traditional typeface can bring that look out a little more. He liked the hat and lollipop head. He thought it was very “NewYorker” but the character needs work. I try to get Tom to like characters I make (he dug the pirate) but this one lacked charm from the shoulders down. He said if possible, try to just integrate the “swizzle stick.” I don’t think a lollipop sticking out of the wordmark would do, but I decided to take his advice and simplify. Here’s my new idea. I love it because it’s a nod to Magritte (The Treachery of Images – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.) and a mnemonic (Hat=Kat). I am beginning to embrace the idea that my name is made up of existing words (Kat Countiss= Cat Countess).

Update 4-22-13: Business cards with kerning:

Update 5-13-13: I am in love with how they turned out!

Earlier Blog Post Related to this Project