Final Logo & Business Card

The Project: A couple of years ago I was approached by a client who was interested in establishing an identity for his computer service. The business was based at the beach and it’s owner also had Charter Boat for deep sea fishing. So it was only natural that the specs for the job called for an illustrative logo containing a Marlin (hence the name of the company).

The Plan: Far too often in our industry, work is provided to a client only to find that the art is not compatible for production. Wether it is because the printing vendor isn’t set up for that kind of artwork, or the client was unaware of the potential expenses that could occur during the process of production. Although it’s not anyone’s fualt that this occurs, it is preventable with a just little bit of educated planning. For this reason I try to find how my clients intend to use the graphics I am expected to provide and how they hope to produce it. Based on this information, we are able to come up with a compatibility plan that coincides with their budget.

In this case, the client only wanted a logo that he could use to layout a business card himself. I knew that since an inkjet printer uses a CMYK process of printing, I knew that my final design be in full color. However, based on past experiences, I chose to develop a logo that could be modified easily enough to easily while still maintaining it’s recognizable traits at a later date should the client change his mind.

Logo Approved: After we had reached a final product that the client was happy with, he was provided with user friendly artwork so that he would be able to produce his own promotional material with the convenience of his own personal equipment and software.

Card Layout by Client

His final layout was simple and at least displayed the necessary information, but the logo we had created appeared to be intentionally stretched so that it would fill the entire business card.

The Revisiting Client: After having produced his own business cards for a period of two years or so, the client had decided to get a larger number of cards printed off by a professional printing company. Without knowing the story behind this decision and seeing an opportunity to improve his visibility, I offered to layout a new card design for him. Our final layout not only displayed elements of the original artwork in their proper proportion, but layout really drew attention and “flowed” quite well with the logo. All were happy in the land of creativity.