Suspect:

Bennie has contacted me via PM and I will review his designs and post some comments and some tips here when I get a few more minutes to study them. It would be my pleasure.

Kyle

Hi.
Oh yes if I offended someone I am very sorry. Like suspectacts noticed I am Finnish. My english is 10 in school but it doesn't help very much when we are talking in practice. (Thanks http://efe.scape.net/index.php for that great in practice word )
I try to remember to put pleases and so on to my sentences but I just can't remember allways bicouse in Finnish we don't use any kind of those.

Bennie

[quote]On 2005-03-10 22:25, suspectacts wrote:
I would love to know what training most so called magicians have IN MAGIC! I see a lot of people out in the world who call themselves 'magicians' who have no formal training in theater arts, do not know how to entertain a crowd, use nothing but stock lines and stock props and leave audience members with the opinion that "magic is just for kids. Magicians just aren't that funny."

This, in my opinion, is a much bigger problem.


That was exactly my point, there are to many "magicians" "so called professionals" out there that just learn a few tricks, go print up business cards and then they are professional magicians!

Thanks for agreeing with me!

Also, glad to hear you make your living as a professional, good for you, you must be working very hard. And my problem is most definetly not with the people who don't hire me as I don't perform magic for hire!!! I am a professional business person in the business world. This was just a general observation from an IBM member who has seen how most of these "so called professionals" present themselves with publicity material. As for websites... It is also good to hire professionals for those to, but not for yours, its good................ I guess, I'm not a professional.

It does not matter what your materials are whether it be logo, business card or website. The bottom line is that they must be top quality and they must communicate well to be effective for you. You have to consider that anything you send out to a prospect is a direct extension of you and your show or act.

This materials is often the first impression you make with anyone. You want it to make the RIGHT impression to the right people who are your target market.

Let me try and give a bit of design advice based upon the cards that Bennie has posted so far. I hope it may give a bit of help and insight form a graphic designers and magicians perspective.

- The first card you show (with the flyings cards all around it) is a nice image but it says nothing about you, what you do or how it can directly help your client. The card is too busy with too much going on. From a design perspective, the problem is lack of focus. The photo is drawing as much attention as the type and so the viwer gets lost. Your reader must be able to get your name and information easily and they must do so in a quick manner. If they have to work too hard at it, they simply will not read it or keep it.

- The next card goes the opposite in extreme. You are trying to make it look like a playing card, yet your placing your image in there as well. It is not a cohesive design solution. What image or impression are you trying to make with the client? With this card, I get confused. From a design perspective, your type is way too busy. It is trying to do too much for you as all the type is the same weight and same size. There is no hiarchy of design. By this, I mean every element screams for attention at the same level.

- Your 3rd card with the cards and your photo gets a little better. At least your type is a lot more simplified and you are giving a bit more prominence to your name and what you do. The problem here is that you are trying to do too much with your background. The background is so busy, that the type becomes hard to read.

I hope this does help you. It was not meant to belittle you at all and I hope you take it as just good constructive criticism from a designer in the business and a magician and a friend.

Kyle

Thank you Kyle!

Great comments and critic wich I take seriously and try to follow them. I'll send here my new "entries" when I have time to plan and do one.

Sounds good. I look forward to seeing them. If I can get some of the cards I have designed, I will try and post some of them here to give youmsome ideas of what can be done.

Kyle