tips on designing a new business card

[Lynneski]

I, too, seem to keep business cards from folks for aeons. And though it's hardly worth a leg wrestle, I'll disagree with Robert in one respect. Business cards that are kept have to be kept somewhere - usually in a Rolodex-type system or one of those binder things with pages of plastic flaps to fill with cards. If your card is too thick or too big, it may stand out from the rest in an unwelcome annoying way.

Make it groovy, die-cut, pop-up or whatever, but make sure it can be held in a standard-sized space.

The Devil's "gimmick" works, because you get the special promo, and then you get a more regular biz card for your keeper file.

I just had a flip through my stuff, and the ones that stand out (IMHO) are the glossy-coated stock ones, preferably with a coloured or black background - they stand out most from the usual coloured-ink-on-white-stock ones of 90% of the straight world.

All this being said, I'm now gonna contradict myself by saying that I still have a soft spot for two that break the rules: an older Junkyard Symphony card - hand-drawn, hand-lettered, and hand-coloured cut to standard size from a piece of cereal box (complete with nutritional analysis on reverse), and, one of my former students that's black print on a piece of cut-to-size incredibly thin wood veneer that simply says their name and "Globetrotter" where a title ought to be.

Did I mention that I'm a Gemini?

[naturalturn]

Agree with you there Lynneski.

A magician several months ago gave me his business card, which was actually the same size as a "standard post card".

Unfortunately, I had to discard it 'cus it just didn't fit in my business card filing system.

Thanks for your input Butterfly!
ummm... Aaron, boy WERE YOU ever (?) funny!!!
Nice business card Stephon,
very unnatural...

Natural(turn)

https://www.raywongmagic.com

[GlassHarper]

Business Cards

Pet peeve: business cards that don't include a "snail mail" address or, at least, an indication of where your home port is.

[scot]

This could get a little confusing.

Serifs are the little additionally thick line ends on some fonts. (courier / times new roman)

San Serif fonts don't have those things.

See my ill below.

People read bodies of text by taking little snapshots of the skyline of the entire words. Because of this, it is easier to read lower case serif fonts. lowercase letters are more individually unique and the serifs provide a simple map of line end locations.

It is different for titles and headings. For a heading or a title, you want something that shouts what you are trying to say and you want it to stick out and show itself as not just being some more body text. Your mind is used to taking in lowercase text as a block, and so if you look at a list in lowercase serifs, it will take it a second to figure out the format and diliniate crap.

For your business card, use the text as it is in the upper right hand corner of your website 1/3 of card. your headshot 1/3 of card. your info 1/3 of card. Your website looks good and your card should look the same good.

If you want to give people more text, more photos, more hand drawn wood chips, make an additional piece. If you want people to be able to reference you, put you in their wallets, take you seriously, make your business card boring. That's the way a lot of people expect it.

On folded cards:
I once recieved a folding business card from a photographer. it was good for him because he does photography and so, could include an entire person's body in nice detail. I liked getting it, felt like it was something special, but threw it away because it was too bulky and a pain. He would have been better off having a small brochure for me to peruse, or keep and an ordinary card.

[naturalturn]

thanks scot and GlassHarper...

for clarifying the serif issue and for advice regarding business cards. Much appreciated. I hear www.victordezsofoto.com who are based in Vancouver, takes great photos.

Cheers!

naturalturn

https://www.raywongmagic.com

[naturalturn]

For those of you who are interested in designing a new logo for your business card/company, check out:

https://www.thelogofactory.com

In addition, the "frequently asked questions" part of the site (especially the link right after the 2nd question) is very helpful.

naturalturn

https://www.raywongmagic.com

[Hunter]

Unique Card Material

This last spring I interviewed David Collins, creator/producer of Queer Eye, and I must say he had the coolest business card I'd ever seen: it was metal, printed on a thin sheet of aluminum. I don't know how that would bother people's filing systems, but if nothing else i had a blast throwing the thing at boards. Obviously Dave is better off than most of us, but it wouldn't be that costly if you had it screenrinted. I used to work at a screenprinting shop, and in bulk you can have 1 or 2 colors done suprisingly cheap. I believe the max is 6 colors for screenprinting, but you would be amazed at what can be done with 6 colors.

[Doctor Eric]

Let's post those mutha's

Stephon mentioned we should post our cards here, this is the first draft of my new one

[Thom]

ack. Never mind.

[Thom]

trying again

[Butterfly Man]

if your dick is as big as your card then I feel sorry for your wife

Wow ... I heard you were BIG in the UK but I had no fuckin' idea ...




and I got a 21in. monitor

[Thom]

and the other side

[Doctor Eric]

Ob La Di...

Hrm... hiring your autistic younger brother to be your designer may be good charity, but it's bad buisiness sense.

[Hunter]

wow

There may have been a more delicate way to put it but yeah, even just getting rid of the color gradient in the background and losing the cheesy text effects (soft bevel and drop shadow and such) would do a world of good. The characters on the front need to look a LOT better if you want to impress a professional with that. That'll do for the unsolicited advice, if you want more you'll have to ask so I feel less like an ass.

ERIC: I just noticed your location; you haven't seen a wooden swinging club carved like a turkey leg, have you?

[Doctor Eric]

Actually, my understandingwas to post bus cards for critique, therefore your comments, and mine, were not unsolicited. Here Thom:

#1- You've GOT to do something about those characters. Like bury them deep enough that they melt from the heat of the Earth's core.

#2- See #1, rinse, repeat.

#3- Your font choices individually are atrocious; combined, they create a synergistic effect that could very well cause siezures in the weak and elderly. Google "font wheel" it's like a color wheel, but tells you how to combine fonts in a pretty fast and dirty manner.

#4- Gradients, drop shadows, and bevels should carry a 15 year minimum prison sentence, very rarely are they used in a manner that is actually pleasing. Make it look good without them, and the improvement will be 1000 fold.

Hunter- No clubs, but about a half-hour ago Tom Arnold floated by, he was making out with the half-digested corpse of Jimmy Hoffa atop a giant inflatable pork-chop.