Self promotion - The pillar of shame verses the pillar of glory!

The first initial task we were given for this module was given to us from both Caroline and Mel, they had literally covered a table in business cards that they had collected over the years. We were given to task of selecting 5 cards, three of which we liked and two that we utterly hated. Below are the ones that i liked, there were a lot that i actually liked but i managed to narrow it down.

I chose the first one because it wasn't so much a business card, but more of a promotional image. The image is beautiful and colourful and it immediately caught my attention, the artist also used a really nice boarder to frame the image meaning that the design and presentation was well considered.  Below there is some text that seems to give a small narrative to the image.
The next one is so simple but i loved it, the guy on the horse caught my attention first but then i noticed that there were characters from James and the Giant Peach on there as well and i instantly connected with the image. The back of the card is pretty minimal but i thought that it was a nice balance as the reverse had a lot going on. The third one was another larger image that i picked up because i understood the reference to Alice in Wonderland straight away, the style is not really my thing but the finish on the card was really nice and the layout seemed well considered so that was reason enough for me to choose it.

Above are my selections for the pillar of shame, the first one came in this little brown envelope which at first seemed like a professional way to package something, it had a little hole cut out of it so that you could see what was inside, this would have been a good idea if the image actually lined up. The reverse of the envelope also had the same shape cut out but the reverse of the card of nothing to show meaning that the application and design were not well thought out at all. The artwork on the card was extremely messy and time had clearly not been taken to neaten the image up, i wasn't sure if the artist intentionally made a stylistic choice to make the image this way but i don't like it regardless. The back of the card on the other hand actually worked really well as it gave off that handmade feel but it seemed like it was executed a lot better, the artwork is not consistent and the flow of the card doesn't really entice me into wanting to hire this artist.

Finally the second card was chosen because i thought that the orientation was completely wrong on the front, maybe the negative space was supposed to be used as the sides of the building but i didn't really like it, the business card is door shaped and it would have made more sense if the image was flipped vertically so it followed the corners of the card. The information on the back was informative but a little too simple in my opinion.