Daily Post – Business cards

Now I feel like I'm really in business

This weekend I finally received my first batch of business cards. I ordered them from VistaPrint about a week ago and, I have to say, I was very pleased with the way they came out. Especially considering that they were free. That’s a great thing about VistaPrint, they are constantly running deals where they give stuff away for free. All I paid for was the shipping.

I kept the design fairly simple for this first batch. At the moment, I just wanted something that I can hand out to people that lets them know what I do and has all of my information on it. Eventually, I am going to work my way towards a more elaborate card, but for now, this design works fine. If I do run out of these soon (although I think 250 cards should last me a while) I will order the glossy finish as opposed to the matte finish. The matte kept the cost at $0, but I think it’ll be worth the upgrade to get the glossy next time.

Daily Post – Craigslist ad

Click here to see the final ad

I posted my second ever craigslist ad today. My first attempt was really very boring. Just text, no images, nothing fancy. Today, I decided that I needed to try to do something to differentiate myself from all of the other people that post their design services on craigslist. So, I sketched out some stick figures in an attempt to do a short comic strip-type ad. As you can see from the sketch, I was going to do a strip where the steps to a great website were numbered and step 4 would be to get Brian Hanson Design to do the site, but I changed it at the last minute. I like the idea, though, and I think I’m going to go back to it in a future ad. Also, I sometimes have a difficult time translating the energy in my pencil sketches into the illustrations I do on the computer. This ad is definitely a case of that. The end product didn’t exactly have the fun energy that the sketches had, but ultimately, I do like the way it came out.

What do you think? Would you click on this ad if you needed a website?

Daily Post – Contest update and new designs

I like my chances with the Entropia logo

So, my Big Richard logo design lost. They haven’t selected a winner yet, but my entry has been eliminated. I have to say, of all the contests I’ve entered so far, this is the one I for which I am most curious to see the winner. There were so many raunchy designs in the competition it’ll be interesting to see what the final winning logo is. In other contest news, I entered three more logo design contests today. I’ve already lost one (the three HealthySoil logos in today’s image) one is complete and I am still in the running (caricole) and the third (Entropia Digital) still has a little over two days left. I think these contests are helping me with my logo designs, but I’m not sure. I still don’t feel as if I’m spending enough time on them and getting little to no feedback from the contest holders doesn’t help me in figuring out what I am doing wrong. I do feel as though I am getting better, though, so that’s what I’m going with for now.

In other news, I have updated my profile on 99designs and Styleapple and want to link to them here. Adding these extra sites to my repertoire (not the right word, but I’m brain-cramping on what is) is making me think I am going to have to do the social links on my website. Maybe I’ll do something in the footer with them. I’m not sure what to do. This makes me think that version 3.0 of Brian Hanson Design may be coming sooner than I originally expected. Stay tuned.

A new mission

As you may or may not know, Brian Hanson Design is a brand new company. As such, my client base is very small at the moment, as in practically non-existent. I do have a couple of projects up in the air that I am awaiting final word on, but until I get that final word, I don’t have much to blog about. So, because I don’t want this blog to sit idle for weeks at a time (as it has been) I have decided that I will post sketches and design ideas every weekday. I already have a daily sketch section on my site, but I will not be posting those sketches here. Also, I may decide (if I like an idea enough) to post the steps of an idea from sketch phase to completion. Regardless of what it is I decide to post, I will be posting every weekday starting on Monday, December 28^th. As always, comments and feedback on these post is welcome and appreciated.