Business Card Design

bethany138 · Feb 25, 2006

Please post or describe the design of your business card, who you use to print, and what your response has been. Please try to be informative because I think many people could use this type of info.

Mine:

Still working on it - trying to decide between horizontal or vertical. I know that I will go with a double sided glossy from http://www.overnightprints.com . I will use photos on both sides. My problem is that I do weddings and fashion.... should I get two different cards?

Thanks -
Bethany :popcorn:

Mack · Feb 26, 2006

from my expierence the horizontal is the best way to go, perhaps wedding on one side and fashion on the other

?

photogoddess · Feb 26, 2006

I have one for horsey stuff, one for portraits, one for 'fine art' and will make one up for weddings as soon as I find a suitable photo. :lol:

I desiged them myself using a program called Print Shop 6 made by a company called Broderbund (sp?). I use our photos as backgrounds and print them on my ink jet printer on white perforation free business card stock. So far response has been good. :biggrin:

Examples are below.

Fine art.... (Michael's the fine art guy cause I still suck at it :lol:

)

Horse stuff

Portraits

Arch · Feb 26, 2006

ok... bus cards are my kind of 'bread & butter'...iv probably designed more bus cards than anything else....cuz everyone in business needs cards, they are the point of contact in most cases, so IMO they should reflect your business in the best possible way. Its up to you if you go portrait or landscape....usually it depends on what images and style you want to achieve..... but for the most part i regularly use landscape....so that lines of text like address and long emails can fit comfortably in one or two lines, rather than all bunched together.

I dont have my cards on this comp, but i can post them when i get back to my office. As far as imagery goes, i would try to include at least one picture, a picture can say 1'000 words so its best to give that visual puch to a card rather than it just being a card full of text. It also can briefly show someone what you can do..... its not exactly a portfolio!... but it can give someone a pleasent feel of your ability.

When it comes to printing, it all depends on your budget, but personally the last 5-6 lot of cards i'v had done for clients have all been the following.... and i'd highly recomend this spec:

Full colour
350 gsm silk board card
Matt laminated both sides

...the reason for this is because i think this is the most proffessional spec without spending tons of money on getting it custom shaped or something like that. The matt lam gives a real nice silky texture to your cards....... and everyone who buys these from me always comment on how nice they feel...and there customers do too.
I can get these printed at a great price.... but sadly only in England.... so best thing is, get a quote from a local printer....but dont just get one.... get several and see who's the best price.... chances are they will vary in price... so get the best deal for the amount of cards.
...and lastly if your not sure if your going to keep the same office address or contact number dont go overboard and buy 2'000+ cards.... you'd just be wasting your money. That said also check if 1'000 cards say, is only a few bucks more than 500 cards. This often happens because the printers charge the most for setting your cards up not for the materials used.
Hope this helps.

markc · Feb 26, 2006

I'd probably go with separate cards as the clients probably won't be the same group. It might give a stronger feel of dedication to what they are looking for than a dual-purpose card would.

thebeginning · Feb 26, 2006

i have a more concentrated area of advertisement so I only had one style made (I went with overnight prints and was quite pleased). What I ended up creating was a simple design using one side for information and the other side for a small sample of my work. here's the 2 sides:

some of the stuff on it was lost because of the resize (border on the photo), sorry if it's not clear

bethany138 · Feb 26, 2006

Wow - Great Answers Everybody!!

thebeginning said:
i have a more concentrated area of advertisement so I only had one style made (I went with overnight prints and was quite pleased). What I ended up creating was a simple design using one side for information and the other side for a small sample of my work. here's the 2 sides:

some of the stuff on it was lost because of the resize (border on the photo), sorry if it's not clear

This is a lot like my style...but I was worried that if I only put B&W on my card then people would think I only did B&W photos... Ever have that happen?

thebeginning · Feb 26, 2006

i havent had anyone think that, I think most people realize that hardly anyone uses only black and white anymore...

if you are still concerned, you can always give the URL to your website on your card so people can check out your other [color] work too.

nitefly · Feb 26, 2006

I was bored and decided to make one.. Took me about 20 minutes.. I am not too pleased but I think it could be pretty funky if i carried on with it, it's just that I don't need a business card!

Corry · Feb 26, 2006

nitefly, might be a good idea not to put your personal info up. You should probably blur that out, like the others did.

danalec99 · Feb 26, 2006

thebeginning said:
if you are still concerned, you can always give the URL to your website on your card...

That's a must

, no matter what!

Thanks for starting this thread Bethany. I'm also researching on business cards. I have a simple one one from VistaPrint.com at the moment. I've been looking in to OvernightPrints.com, 4by6.com etc.
Does anyone know of any companies who does a CD/DVD business card? It would be cool to have a lil slideshow on the card.

The best card that I've seen thus far (ofcourse, imo), is Becker's. I was literally stunned! It was this aluminum 'card' with www.thebecker.com embossed on it. Just his logo and the URL; nothing else. :thumbup:

nitefly · Feb 27, 2006

core_17 said:
nitefly, might be a good idea not to put your personal info up. You should probably blur that out, like the others did.

It's fake. Well the e-mail and MSN isn't but I don't mind people e-mailing/adding me to msn! :thumbup:

Aoide · Feb 27, 2006

nitefly said:
it's just that I don't need a business card!

I don't need one either, because I'm not really going into the photography business, but I do have a simple one that I carry with me. It has my name, website name and URL and email address on it.

I have a photoblog so I am constantly updating my website with pictures. I wanted to have a card in case I was ever out and someone asked me about the pictures I was taking or if I took a picture of someone and wanted to give them the information for my site quickly. It is also good to give to friends and family that ask about my photography. I find it's a useful little card.

Christie Photo · Mar 3, 2006

Mine is just about as basic as you get. Just my name and contact info.

Pete

EJBPhoto · Mar 3, 2006

bethany138 said:
Wow - Great Answers Everybody!!

This is a lot like my style...but I was worried that if I only put B&W on my card then people would think I only did B&W photos... Ever have that happen?

I adore this business card!