tips on designing a new business card

[Steven Ragatz]

I agree that the "Let's do it" font needs to go.

When I saw the image, the tag line that popped into my head was "Look, but don't touch!"

Steven Ragatz

[scot]

I don't know how much you know about photoshop, but pick a big soft brush, set the opacity to 10 and color to black. behind your fire, make smoke by dabbing the brush over and over again in different places. or, make the background dark, new layer, render clouds, cut out pieces of that layer so that it look like rays of light coming from behind you.

You can't see fire on a white background in real life. It's impossible.

right now, the focus is on your chest. You want to bring that up to your head by pointing to it with smoke or something.

if you can do it, make the smoke either angled toward the left (best) or to the right.

Red / black are bad for text. I don't agree with Rachel, though. I can read it, and you'll be able to read it when you print it. Printed you can read whatever you can read at 200% the print size on screen -- don't know how to word that correctly.

I would go for text that helps you, and neither "Let's Do This." nor "Look, but don't touch!" really help you convey much.

I like having everything on one side of the card. That's what I would do if I were you. the back will be free then.

take off the border. It's nearly impossible to get the card cut right because they cut them in big stacks, so the border will be uneven.

The back right now looks like varakose veins.

If I were doing it, I'd also retouch the sleeve because your shirt doesn't wrinkle the way an expensive shirt would.

darwinsreject is a good domain name 'cause it's easy to understand and easy to spell. Good job on that one. Get a "hunter@darwinsreject.com" email address. It will look more pro and people won't be going to performers.net accidentally to find you.

contact me if you want any other help.

[Frisbee]

I think scot had some good notes...the other plus about having the back blank is that you or people can make notes about you or your show or a meeting with you on the back side...instant note pad.

[naturalturn]

Many good points Scot. Though I'm not sure if I like the domain name as the word "reject" has a sort of a negative feeling to it, in my opinion.

I made the mistake of cluttering the back of my old card with too much text - and should have left it mostly blank like yours Hunter.

Potential clients can also use the space to write notes about your act, where or when they saw you, available dates, costs, etc. AND if you do a lot of family shows like me, I sometimes encourage the kids to come up for an autograph "on the back of my business card"!

I just re-read the informative FAQs in www.thelogofactory.com

Oh, I like your card and logo Frisbee. Simple and effective.

[Hunter]

Wow - great stuff; thanks all.


I was wondering how legible that font is to people who haven't spent elongated periods of time looking at it. I was pondering a foil printing prosess that would make the colors shiny and deep; I thought maybe the red/black would look good one that one. Leaning away from shiny now.

I've got a brush set that I can modify to make some decent smoke. That pic was shot on a white cyc with the torch unlit; then we shot it lit at magic hour and dropped it in. I think the smoke would definately help the sell.

"let's do this" was just a placeholder when I was sketching out the concept; and I never came up with anything much better. Looking now I think I might be better off sans fake catch phrase.

Good call; can anyone guess what part of my anatomy displays the ultra-close-up varicose veins featured on the back?

Finally- yeah still testing the reliability of the mail servers at ANR.

Seriously, thanks all for the advice.

[dave walbridge]

easy web printers

Who would you choose for ease of use for a web based printer? I'm getting cards for two of my businesses (likely photo cards) and want simple odering, uploading, etc.

Dave

[Doctor Eric]

http://www.psprint.com/

[scot]

all printers are web based and I don't find ps print to be consistent in color, but for a performer on this forum, they're perfect

[Frisbee]

Since they sold a few years ago ps print has gone way down in quality and customer service there is a joke!

I had a recent problem with a flyer I produced there...

there was a scratch on their magenta disc...clearly there problem...every print had a red line thru the entire width of the flyer.

PS print told me in a written email that they do not stand behind their product as it is a cheaply produced item.
I pointed out it was not my fault, my image was not the problem but their equipment.
and after much pleading I got themto reprint the order...of course there was the
statement of "we normally would not reprint an order that is defective, but as a favor to you"

stay away from ps print, unless you do not care about quality.

if you want fast an relative inexpensive, than go ahead....

check out the list of recent complaints from the bbb on them.

[Daniel Zindler]

Here are a few things I've learned regarding business card design over the last few months. I just got new cards printed. . .

1) Print the cards on the thickest paper you can afford.

2) Include what type of events you perform at (festivals, fairs, corporate events, etc.). The person who calls you may not be the person you spoke with and therefore has no idea that you do Corporate Events because her friend say you at a festival.

3) If you have money explore unique printing techniques. For performers, printing full color cards doesn't make you stand out anymore. My cards have a die cut in the corner that makes them look burnt

4) Unless you've taken a graphic design course get a professional (not your friend) to design the cards. I fully understand and own Photoshop, I still hired a professional. Trust Me!

If you're interested in seeing my really cool business card I'll send you a copy. Just email me (daniel@danielzindler.com)