Business card format shown above replete with drop shadow ...forgot to mention that bit.

Oops, also forgot to mention the name of the graphic design firm ...Graphic Declaration.

...with background image (Harper's Bazaar May 2011).

...and here in a more common look. Ya, it's cleaner but not half as vibrant! I've done about a half dozen different color ways, I guess I'll just up them all... the magenta on deep brown is awesome.

This certainly makes a statement :)

With regards to the execution - I'd definitely try a heavier weight if you haven't already. I haven't seen many examples of lighter weights working well in branding.

I'll revisit heavier weights, thanks for the comment apankrat.

5star I love the audacity of this design. It has a very distinct 90's digital retro feel. Try the heavier weight but you might find the slab shadow will lose its emphasis. It gets enough attention as is and its a bonus that you're using easily clashed colours like magenta and cyan & yellow.
It reminds me of websites with star mouse trails and MPEGS playing. This style is prominent in the fashion & style industry, check out http://www.openingceremony.us/ & http://www.lifelounge.com.au/

Are we talking about a business card, or a magazine cover?

By “up” the B-side do you mean upload?

Regardless, the direction of the “drop shadow/3-D zoom effect is a bit trendy, and likely to date very quickly. Within a year I would guess. In addition, it is “zooming” backwards. If it were “bursting forward with declaration” I would recommend it zoom from bottom left to top right, leading into the reading direction.

To make it more timeless, I would stick with black and red. At the very least, a dark shadow so that the type “declares” its self off of the black. The yellow and cyan seem to exist on the same plane. If you want to switch it up a bit you could use a red shadow with type black. That way, it might look a little more trendy, hip, fashionable, contemporary &c but still stand on a colour palette that is a bit more timeless.

Perhaps you can speak a bit more about the firm, so we can make informed semantic decisions about the context and fitness for purpose instead of taking subjective aesthetic shots from the hip in the dark?

Dan, thanks for your comment(s). 'Audacious' just about sums it up. I believe that anyone foolish enough brave enough to step up and declare their independence either through their own enterprise or whatever their means maybe, is an audacious act!

Who are you to be free?

And... how dare you to strive to be free?

My graphic firm is all about trying to communicate that spirit of a declaration of independence. Within each graphic we (in vain) strive to be alive. Hard explain really. How do you describe a tour de force ....as compared to what? A polite/stale/trite center column gentile format? Really? Is that what free enterprise is all about ...becoming stale?

I'll leave that answer to those best qualified.

Chris, thanks for your reply bro. The direction of the projection has the sole purpose to add tension to the composition ...and to some small degree set up the word GRAPHIC. The eye then travels to the word DECLARATION and then bottom right and then back up to the word GRAPHIC ...and on and on it goes. A graphic declaration as simple as that.

20th Century Fox has somewhat of the same idea. Albeit composed in perspective vertically stacked. I chose to present the graphic flat. Flat to the picture plain. The 'projection', the element which heightens the text, is without emotional baggage of a perspective overture . It too is flat to the picture plain.

Why flat? Well, that my friend is worth a semester's worth of lessons. Modern lessons. Non-biased lessons...

...I'm going with DIN as our typeface of choice. Some subtle difference from my original choice of Berthold (and light years away from my romantic choice of blackletter), I think it offers a slightly more relevant openness. And by B-Side I refer to flip side of the business card ..just like a old skool 45 record ... B Side. Get it???

Upped on the A side is what is shown above ...I'll up the B side soonish like. You know, with the firm's stuffs like what up? Contact 'n' stuff.

Ya?

It's been a long time coming ...

:)

Din is a great move in my eye. It cleans it up the edges, the colour choice helps with that too.

Your slab shadow projection also makes for a handy block to print details on the back so you don't see it through the transparency. (It would be a good idea to get a hit of white under the colour on both sides) What colour ink on the reverse?

I like it and your vision.

Thanks for the comments Dan, the B-side will be printed the reverse of the yellow area as seen on the A-side and with red text also rendered in DIN.

So lay down a layer of white under the yellow?

Nice work, consider a third contrasting colour for the type on the back to push the theme one step further.

The hit of white is purely pre-press 5star, shoot me a message and we can go over details if you want to know more (I think this site has some type of messaging).