Pupating pixels: my new Bonkers 'business card' is born...!

As you may have gathered from my recent post on where my 'civilian' friends keep / display their perfume collections, I have a nice social circle in my adopted home town. After all, most of the photos were submitted voluntarily, and even the people whose bottles I covertly papped would probably have said yes if I had asked them. To further illustrate how friendly and giving Stafford folk are, only this morning a friend swung by - the one who curates his perfumes in a fridge, no less! - and gave me a knife sharpener, a Victorinox paring knife, and a creme brulee he had just made, recommending I eat it straight away.  So I did, and felt a wee bit queasy afterwards to be perfectly truthful, as it was a particularly rich one. But a kind thought, no question.

And it is thanks to friends that I am now the proud owner of a 'business card' for the blog - or should that just be a 'blog card', or a 'visiting card', I don't know? I suppose I might hand it out when I am not technically visiting someone. But you get the idea.

Work in progress - cake not illustrated

The process started with the help of my artist friend David - whose work I often share on Facebook, as well as featuring them in blog posts in the past - for it was he who created the design. David came round to the house one Sunday evening, bringing all his art materials with him, while I provided cake and biscuits, which was all he wanted in return. Within a couple of hours he had painted two different 'flittersniffer-themed' pictures - appropriately based on a butterfly of the Vanessa genus! - and both of which I liked a lot. However, a friend to whom I showed them both the next day observed that the sillage on one of the versions looked like the butterfly was having a p***, which it sort of did, now he mentioned it, so I duly plumped for the other one! It is also good to have friends who tell it like it is...;)

Soaring above sillage or taking a leak?

The next step was to turn the image into artwork, including the lettering on the reverse, and here another friend, Dawn, who is a photographer by profession - but also pretty knowledgeable about desktop publishing (is that the word?) - stepped up and offered to lay it all out for me.

So I went to meet her at the very aptly named Gainsborough Artworks(!), a rabbit warren of artists' studios housed in a converted shoe factory opposite the prison. As Dawn worked on my design, I had a good old nosey round her vintage artefacts, many of which are used as props for her photo shoots. I 'paid' Dawn in cake and vintage knitting patterns and women's magazines (of which I have loads, as it happens!), which she seemed to think a fair exchange for her time.

Armed with the digital artwork, I used a company called Moo to actually print the cards; they were very reasonably priced, with phenomenal customer service. I say 'phenomenal', because they did not one, but two reprints of the cards free of charge, as they kept coming out with a pink wash on them, even though the background was supposed to be white.

The 'Bonkers Blush' version

After each print run, Dawn sportingly took another look at the image, checking that the so-called 'CMYK values' were set to the all-important 'Coated FOGRA39' Moo had specified(!) - and to our delight the cards came out perfectly white on the third attempt. It was quite baffling though at the time, and at one point Dawn and I exchanged a series of emails entitled: 'Cow Bizarre!' I would heartily recommend Moo though if anyone is thinking of getting some business cards done, as they truly bent over backwards - at their expense - to get things absolutely spot on.

You can almost see Rolf Harris from here!

Oh, and there was another twist in the story, for after the initial 'pink' print run, I was down in London in March for the Jasmine Awards and met up with fellow blogger Sabine of Iridescents. She is a 'card carrying' graphic designer by profession - in every sense of the term indeed, as she also copped for one of mine, hehe. And over dinner Sabine suggested moving the blog title to the back of the card and creating more white space between the different text elements. I have to say that as soon as she mentioned these possible tweaks, I thought they made for a subtle, but definite improvement.

So when the second print run - which was in progress at the time - still came out a bit pink, Moo offered me not just another go, but another go with a different design(!). This gave me the perfect opportunity to introduce Sabine's changes, with a little more help from the ever-patient Dawn, whom I was still plying with cake.

Yes, all in all my Bonkers business card has had generous input from a painter, a photographer, a graphic designer, and a printing company named after a cow. Now I just need to go forth and meet people, to have an occasion to give it away!

PS Specially for Asali, here is a shot of the cards in their holder, nestling amongst my emergency tea bag stash.