Business Card Final!

I have finally sent of the design for my business cards to the printer. I am getting them done with Nick who I met at Leeds print festival who prints with letterpress process. Through what I have learnt about current letterpress printing is that you can use a polymer plate that allows you to create a design on the computer and leave only the printing up to Nick. This was a huge benifit for me as I wanted something personal with the quality and feel of Letterpress.

I have bought my new web domain and added it to the business cards with my new email

www.matt-tucker.net 
hi@matt-tucker.net

I also managed to swindle some nicer options for stocks, ordering some samples from GF Smith and using the cut offs that Nick had, meaning I got 300 business cards worth of stock for free!

Summary of Print Specs
700gsm Colourplan — Purple, Blue, Grey & White
1 Colour Polymer Plate
1 Sided
Black Ink

All for £140 & £10 delivery charge.
They should be arriving sometime by the end of this week

Website Layouts

I have been working with outlined boxes to try and understand the coding process for building a website. Although the coding aspect isn't my normal focus I feel its a valuable skill and something that will benifit how my website turns out. I have also managed to get hold of a few people who said they can aid the process with me. Its just a simple website containing a few selected works and a CV as I don't want to give away my whole portfolio and have nothing left to talk about during visits and interviews.

CV / Portfolio

I am going to make a slightly extended CV but for the moment while contacting studios this works well with the rest of my portfolio...

Business Cards Process

I knew what typeface I wanted to use and I knew I was going to get them printed with the Print Project so I have to decide how the simple series of type would fit on the page. Lots of print outs and tests to get something I was happy with..

Website Design

As my coding skills aren't really up to scratch I realised I should just spend more time designing my website to make it something I don't have to change in a year or so. The result is a minimal layout, meaning reactively simple and functional coding and user interaction. The only aspect of the branding is the use of the same typeface I have on my business cards. I don't like the idea of a logo for myself as I will just hate it in a few months...

I hope this document offers some indication as to how the site functions and the Java Script coding...

Stocks For Business Cards

I have been speaking to a printer based in Bradford after meeting him at the print festival. He has some beautiful work and offers a very reasonable price. I have been in contact with GFSmith to get some samples which arrived today. I ordered the samples through Ratio:Studio and GF Smith were more than happy to help. I ordered three colours all in 540gsm, a turquoise, green and grey. I also want to get an idea of how the stocks thickness would fit into wallets, how it might affect the print and how the colour looks in the flesh. -
I was also discussing ways of budgeting the business cards to allow me to either produce more or make each one a higher standard. One suggestion was to use the offcuts of a number of stocks that the printer already has access to, meaning a variety of colours could be used for the set of business cards, something I would be interested in exploring. I will post the deisigns I have been working on in a separate blog post.