Case study · Awl & Needle
Awl & Needle
Business cards for The Awl & Needle, leather crafters in Georgian Bluffs, Ontario, designed to carry both their contact details and their full range of handmade goods.
01 — Context
A card that does two jobs
The Awl & Needle is a leather crafting business in Georgian Bluffs, in Ontario's Grey-Bruce area, making quality handcrafted leather goods and tack and doing repairs. They needed new business cards, and the brief had a practical twist: the card had to list what they make as well as how to reach them.
That's a lot to fit on a small piece of card stock. Good business card design for a maker like this has to read as a menu of services and a calling card at the same time, without feeling crowded.
02 — The design
A warm tan, a classic serif and a clear list
Our print design split the work across the two sides. The front is calm and simple: the crossed awl and needle illustration inside a warm, leather-toned tan circle, beside THE AWL & NEEDLE set in a classic high-contrast serif with the web address below.
The back is where the information lives. A large tan curve sweeps in from the left, echoing the circle on the front, and holds the offerings: "Quality handcrafted leather goods, tack, & repairs," followed by a tidy list that includes Western and English tack, dog collars and leashes, gun and knife cases, leather belts, saddle and horn bags, and ladies' custom tote bags. The right side gives the owners' names prominence in the same serif, with address, phone and email in small spaced capitals.
Using the curve to separate products from contact details is a simple piece of graphic design, but it makes a busy card easy to scan. For similar small-business work, see Le Petit Bowtique and the equestrian brand for Winning Edge Equine Services.
What we delivered
Business cards for a handcrafted leather goods maker.
