As promised here are some of the other excellent pieces that were recently entered in the In Search of Design Student Identity Competition. Every piece is unique and inspiring. While some pieces "speak" more clearly than others, it’s important to really understand each piece’s purpose. That very thing will be our next series of topics. What is the purpose? 

 

Here are some of the winners in the individual categories!

Yakez Wilson

 

Bethany Shearer

 

Betsy Baehrer

 

Elizabeth Fouke

 

Faith Dunbar

 

Julie Snowden

 

Faith Dunbar

 

Ryan Johanningmeir

 

Kristin Threadgill

 

Natalie Sullivan

 

Ramond Walker

 

Rachel McGoldrick

Ramond Walker

 

Sarah Blodgett

Sherman Merchant

Now that we have business cards out of the way, we’ll explore some "do’s" and "don’ts" of stationary design.  First let’s define what stationary really is. Stationary is comprised of your letterhead and envelopes mainly. These items, combined with your logo and business card, create your identity.

 

Let’s start with letterhead. Normally a full 8.5" x 11" sheet, letterhead normally gives you a larger playing field to house your information. With 4 definite sides, you have the opportunity to think outside the box. No longer does your letterhead information have to appear at the top. You can run it across the bottom, down the sides, or around the other edges.

 

In today’s design standards, DIFFERENT is better. Think outside the box. Try watermarking only half of your logo in the background while the other half runs off the page. Or you might try using pictorial representations of your information to convey your message to your customers (icons for contact information, etc.). 

 

So, what informatin do we want to include on letterhead? Well, we’ll start with the same basic info that we included on the business card. NAME, TITLE, PHYSICAL ADDRESS, EMAIL, PHONE, WEB ADDRESS, and FAX NUMBER. Now, depending on your design, you have the opportunity to branch out a bit, by including a slogan, motto or tag line.

 

Enough talk. Here is the Identity package I created for the Web business I work for.