Hare and the Hat Business Cards

Here is a business card that a client has already designed and simply wanted us to print. However, we all agreed that this was not a good design and we convinced the client to allow us to re-design the card and have them consider that option before they got this one printed. They agreed to this and I was asked to redesign the business card.

I looked on shutterstock for photographs or illustrations that I could trace to get a simple illustration and created this illustration of a hare coming out of a hat. I was told that the business cards are for a magician, so I thought this would make the perfect imagery for the front of the business cards.

I was asked to create two designs, one for girls and one for boys. I therefore went for the obvious of a blue and a pink card. I also added stars behind the hare to emphasise the magic. I couldn't decide whether a coloured background looked good behind the illustration, so I tried a plain background on the front with a coloured background on the back. However, I still wasn't happy with either design. Although I don't think the flat colours work well in the background, I am happy with the fonts choices of Lavanderia and Futura - I think these work well together.

I then tried a bolder background with a radial gradient as I thought that maybe I didn't like the coloured background because it was a flat colour. I think that a gradient in the background looks a lot better and makes the hare in the hat stand out, but I still couldn't decide whether to leave the back of the card white or not.

I decided to make the pink card red, so there are still two variations for males and females, but it looks more professional and more like a magicians curtain. I also created landscape and portrait variations because personally I would always design a business card landscape, but the original that was sent to us was portrait.

After seeing the proof the client explained that they are not a magician, but a hat seller, so the design of the card had to be changed. They also insisted on a pink and blue variation, and wanted the card to be portrait with four names on the back instead of just one. I therefore went back to shutterstock to look for a new image that I could trace. I managed to come across a quirky vintage illustration of a hare wearing a top hat, and thought that this would be perfect. Providing the client approves, here are the finished cards!

Unfortunately the client didn't approve, they felt that the hare looked like a calf and thought that the top hat and bow tie made the design look like it was directed at men, despite the blue and pink backgrounds. I therefore had one last go at designing the cards to make sure that they were appropriate for both genders. 

The client thought that for the same price of printing 500 cards they would be able to print four lots of 125 with four different names on, with each of these having an equal amount of blue and pink designs so that they could have personalised business cards for both men and women. However, once Simon told the client that this would involve eight different print runs and that we would be charging separately they decided to have all four names on one card. We also suspected that they might say they only want one card to save money, so I decided to design two landscape versions that have gender neutral backgrounds.