Is she still mad???? : )

[Cajungaltx]

I love that trick Todd... one of my favorites to use with 'my' kiddo... she does that 'stare down' thing as well.

[gtakacs]

Is it me, or do they all look way too soft? I'm a "sharp as knife" whore so I might be wrong....

My personal opinion is that the first two are way to busy to be used as a backdrop for any kind of text let alone something as important as your first-impression-foot-in-the-door; a business card.

I think the text is not legible enough on any of them and the 6 different font sizes and alignments on the last one look like a hodgepodge of letters, definitely don't sing "professional" to me.

But then again, mine looks like this, so take my opinion with that in mind:
Front:


Back:

[sioleabha]

I love #3, Renae; I think it came out great.

[Teddington]

#3 is my choice but I'd prefer the eyes a little less soft.

[carrbowl]

The eyes are not soft...I just don't have them sharp enough for the web.

[katiexjo]

I like number 2, in number 3 she does look a little mad to me and number one is too soft for my taste. ~KJ

[janikphoto]

A book or class on layout, font choices, kerning, sizing might help. Your text could look better. I might like the middle photo the best.

[carrbowl]

Funny you should say that Jason...that's the part I hated the most. I felt pretty confident with my choices in photos...my writing stuff...stinks!!! Got any good books...can't do classes unless it's something from home.

[janikphoto]

Start with your local library. They should have some great books to choose from. Just search for books with keywords like font, text, layout, design. All should deal with better ways to handle text in one way or another...

[dliveleyphotography]

Might be alittle late in responding but if your looking for font/text:

http://www.dafont.com/

They have a huge selection

[janikphoto]

I don't think she really has to go with some crazy or wild font, but thanks for the link. I was just saying that the txt is a bit distracting, due to the font. Some of the words seem harder to read because of the decorative font.

I would ALWAYS try to put my email or website in a very basic font, like times or helvetica. Use the fancy fonts for your business name or company motto. Plus, mixing two fonts will help balance things some. Also, the text seems a bit squished and fat, if you know what I mean, like it's been stretched out...

[Tom]

#1 is just OOF and shouldn't be considered.
#2 is a very nice shot, but not for this use.

I hate, hate, hate papyrus font. It is up there with Comic Sans for me.

Have you thought about doing a two sided card with the text on the back?

Greg- why did you use a solarized picture of yourself on the card? Why not a normal headshot of yourself or a picture that could highlight the form of photography you are marketing?

[gtakacs]

Originally Posted by Thomas Campbell

Greg- why did you use a solarized picture of yourself on the card? Why not a normal headshot of yourself or a picture that could highlight the form of photography you are marketing?

It is actually a 4 shades of gray (black,dark gray, light gray, white) vector rendering of a self portrait I took. Kind of like the Obama Change poster only in black and white.

As to why I did it that way, the reasoning is this:
I wanted the people to remember me by putting my face on my card but I didn't want it to be like a realtor's card with their pretty face in full color. I also felt that an organic picture would clash with the clear cut no BS simplistic look of my card. I also thought that a vector render would withstand time better than a portrait would. Business cards are cheap but when you have 4000 of them stacked up you want to use them instead of throwing them away in two years when my portrait would look dated.

I'm also using my business cards to remind clients where they can find their photos. On the back side I just fill in their session code after the http://clients.gregtakacs.com/ with a pen and they can go there directly and look at their pictures. Kind of like how doctors use their cards as appointment reminders.

[FleurdeLisArts]

#3 hands down. She's not mad looking to me...she looks (as someone else said so perfectly) "intense" and you can read the text. Although I agree that the font and sizing needs some work to come across more professional imo ... I like the wistfulness of the font next to the intensity of the portrait, for some reason I dig the contrast in style there but there is something wrong about papruys...maybe size or boldness or something. I don't know...
I'm working on a new biz card design so these things are WAY up on my mind as well.

I AM taking it on assumption that they are not OOF and it just uploaded to web that way and from your examples that you deal primarily with Sr. pics? If that is not the case...I like Tom's idea about putting info on the back (and maybe include your area's of photography)

If I were a mom and got this card I'd think...."hey, really good photographer for a really good deal!!!" So overall, I'd say that if you want to get what you are worth...go cleaner!

Well done though...you seemed to have captured teen angst appropriately and without including piercings/tattoos or strange clothing fads!!!! wtg!