Bateman's card is actually terrible. The type face is just a poor choice over all. The letters have variable thickness in the lines, and they aren't monospaced which is a big no-no. Plus, despite using a sub-cap design, the advantage is lost due to the massive first letters. Usually you want the first letters of every word to be slightly, but noticeably larger than the rest of the word. That in combination with the capitalization, makes the whole thing easier to read. But the small capitals on BATEMAN are too large, there's very little difference between the size of the "B" and the "ATEMAN". Sure, traditionally last names are full caps, but it looks better to small cap between 85% and 95% instead and Bateman's is just... weird, cause the B is still a hair larger so it's obvious he's going for a small caps look.
But the typeface is obviously not designed for small caps in the first place. First of all, it's not monospaced. Secondly, each capital letter has variable line thickness and some are even tilted or skewed to draw as much attention as possible. Generally, that's done to make sentences and proper nouns easier to read. A proper small capital design just makes capitals easier to read without calling special attention to them. Weirder, the difference between the "P" and "atrick" in "Patrick is just so huge that it looks like regular capitalization. So really, the difference between Bateman's design and just writing Patrick BATEMAN (which is the traditional format) is negligible.
The numbers are terrible as well. The phone number, while also being way too far from the edge, is nothing but disjointed from the rough-shod centering. Due to the lack of monospacing, the three fives are almost twice as big as the 212, so the fives are centered lower. To make it worse, the next number after the fives is a six so far up it might as well be superscript, followed by a three slightly larger than the fives and a four a little smaller. The two of course, is centered up slightly and is almost half the length of the four.
There are also generally just errors and spacing problems. In the upper corner is the firm name, Pierce & Pierce, which, for some ungodly reason, is missing a space on one side so it's "Pierce &Pierce". I can barely read "Mergers and Acquisitions", due to how crowded it is. The address at the bottom is full of the numbers issues, but doesn't suffer as much from the capitalization since it's so small. Unfortunately, the whole address is also off center, the space between the start and the edge and the end and the edge is noticeibly different.
I can assume that the card itself is made from good stock from the other character's reactions, but the design of the thing is an atrocity.
Compare it to David's card, which has issues like the unnecessary bolding of his name which was unaccounted for when spacing the letters, or the bad type face, but which has fewer issues over all. The phone number is all equal sizes and proper spaced, the "Pierce & Pierce" has proper spacing between the words, and the address is at least centered, if not too far away from the bottom edge. Over all, it has a better composition than Bateman's, but could use some work.
Bryce's card is where it gets interesting. While I'm personally not a fan of textured cards, that's mainly personal opinion. It's really a divisive issue, I think it makes the whole thing look cheap and poorly-made, like it was manufactured from recycled from toilet rolls, but to each their own. Anyway, the typeface, while not perfect, is significantly better. Unlike Pattan's card, the name really does need to be bolded due to the typeface, and the lack of monospacing is not helping matters. But it's definitely a better choice. The numbers are the same size, which is good, and the address is both well spaced and well typed. Also, everything in general is just a bit bigger and lines up a bit better, though the phone number is slightly inwards of the address, and the firm name is centered slightly bellow the phone number, it's still much much better. Plus, I'm a slut for raised lettering.
Finally we get to the only good card in the bunch, Paul Allen's. The typeface is the only one that's monospaced, and the lines are all the same thickness. It's a prime example of how to use small capitals, each small capital is about 80 or 85% the size of a normal capital, as it should be. PIERCE & PIERCE is sized especially well, and the "Mergers And Acquisitions" is not only done in small caps with good letter spacing, it's also the same length as "PIERCE & PIERCE", which is a huge deal. The phone number is great too, not only because of the typeface, but also because of the periods. The spaces between numbers in a phone number is usually a weak-point for business cards, cause dashes are more eyesore and hard to read than helpful, but the periods get out of the way of the numbers will also making it clear and easy to read.
A personal favorite of mine, is how the phone number is spaced directly between "PIERCE & PIERCE" and "Mergers And Acquisitions" and how he's broken up the address and fax number into two lines.
If I had any complaint's about Allen's card, it would be the exact spacing between letters. The "P" in "Paul" is just a bit too far away from the "aul". And the rest of the capitals are just a bit too close together for my taste, but now I'm nit-picking.
Submitted August 31, 2020 at 04:41AM by AFabulousCapitalist https://ift.tt/2G4kUwy