With the new year rapidly approaching and imminent full-time freelance work on the horizon, I recently designed myself some spiffy new business cards. The cards were beautifully letterpress printed by the Mandate Press in Salt Lake City onto a richly textured 110# Cranes Lettra stock, with fluorescent pink edging. The above photo hasn’t been retouched, these cards really glow!

A few notes on the design itself since I’ve never really addressed my “branding” here before:

The wordmark is set in a subtly customised version of House Industries’ Neutraface 2 text (the display version didn’t have the weight I wanted). I tweaked the letterforms to make them slightly more geometric and modern and notched the “i” to reflect how I write LOKi with a lowercase “i” (a story unto itself). Meticulous kerning creates an even letter flow, while simultaneously marking a differentiation between “LOKi” and “design”.

The icon is based on the “L” and”D” of my mashup typeface Hel Grotesk Gothiq, reflecting a desire to be avant-garde, hybrid and historical at the same time.

The text face is Underware’s Dolly, one of my all-time favourite book faces. The overall feel I hope is literary without being dull, humanistic without being old-fashioned, and professional without being clinical.

I highly recommend Mandate, who offer great quality, competitive pricing and a smooth design workflow. As they say, “Everything looks better letterpressed.”

There you have it, new cards for a new year and the sign of many new and exciting projects to come.