Your business card sucks!

[bob]

It is called a business card, but it is a 1st impression.

Now you can be redneck simple with clean readable copy in a great layout & attract a good crowd for most businesses.

But if your into graphic communications & have a redneck simple card, it had better be outstanding because your customer is expecting you to do better.

The biggest lesson to this your creative design, layout skills in creating your brand is highly important.

So reading & learning all ya can about branding & then putting it all to use& action,is way more important than the bells & whistles

Twaddle. This is the sort of nonsense heard from those selling some sort of branding services and/or consultants who know little and understand nothing.

It's a card with my name contact information. It's clean and nice and not covered in boogers, typographical or literal. Anything more than that is useless nonsense and affectation. I make signs etc.and I'm reasonably good at it. If my card doesn't fill you with delight and desire and that's the sort of thing that's important to you then call someone else. My world isn't going to spiral into the sun if you do.

 

[Techman]

The worst place to learn how to do graphics work on a b card is a board that caters to graphics people. Yes? Do graphics people really know how to lay out a reasonable b card? There is so much to know about marketing rules and lay out for any one to spend much life force to learn the rules for a $30 bux a box item.

Here we have a thread that talks about b card design yet how many actually took some study on effective B card design? A B card is a point of contact. It is supposed to make contact very easy and carry several ways to make contact with the vendor. A b-card with tiny size 6 type is useless. A b card with one corner of something, the other corner of something, and a small name in the middle is useless. Who can read it at a glance? Who can collect b cards and keep them along with all the rest if it is some obscure size?

Over the years my experience is that a standard sized card with large writing will be kept while tiny writing gets tossed. Same goes for those odd shapes and sizes. All other enhancements are good fore play but what does the silver foil do when a user wants to make a call and cannot read the contact number? I know of not one single user who called another because the B card was all fancy with silk overlay and raised numbers. How many of us here dig up a b card and call a vendor because it his card was so pretty? NO one does.

Oh look at this beautiful Business Card. I just have to call this person and make an order because they spent so much on this pocket art.. Said No One, Ever!

 

[Pat Whatley]

How many of us here dig up a b card and call a vendor because it his card was so pretty? NO one does.

Oh look at this beautiful Business Card. I just have to call this person and make an order because they spent so much on this pocket art.. Said No One, Ever!

No....but I can't tell you how many times I have NOT called someone because of a crappy, tear apart, print it on your home computer business card.

 

[bob]

No....but I can't tell you how many times I have NOT called someone because of a crappy, tear apart, print it on your home computer business card.

Correct as far as it goes. For much the same reason that it's hard to take someone with magnets on their vehicle seriously. There is a point on one side of which demonstrates that you are a legitimate business, the other side of which announces that you are an amateur and/or dilettante.

But once you're on legitimate business ground, further enhancement is at best a frivolous waste of time and money and at worst, counter-productive. There's nothing wrong with and a lot to be said for a 'Poor but Clean' image.

Moreover, precious few of those drifting in these waters can actually lay out a decent business card. Their efforts invariably either look like signs or something cobbled together in MSWord.

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

Well, I said I would post pics of our new cards so here they are. We are very happy with the quality from silkcards.com.

 

[WCSign]

No....but I can't tell you how many times I have NOT called someone because of a crappy, tear apart, print it on your home computer business card.

1000000000% agree.

Silkcards has some awesome stuff and I may order something metallic from them for myself. And if a customer comes in and wants something kick ***, then I will show them the book of cards.

I always sell the typical printed UV coated cards. When I ordered mine for my new storefront. I ordered a coated card on a nicer stock. I get a lot of comments on that alone.. "I like that you can feel the lettering" So yes, your cards can affect 2 senses and engage the consumer.

Cards can get too fancy for sure... but if you put junk out there, you will get junk customers back in

 

[dexter]

It's a business card kids. Something you hand to someone rather than writing your name and number on piece of paper. It's not a visual feast, a collection of tactile thrills, or a pithy commentary on the human condition. It's a simple business card listing, hopefully, your name and contact information. That's what a business card is for.

Twaddle. This is the sort of nonsense heard from those selling some sort of branding services and/or consultants who know little and understand nothing.

It's a card with my name contact information. It's clean and nice and not covered in boogers, typographical or literal. Anything more than that is useless nonsense and affectation. I make signs etc.and I'm reasonably good at it. If my card doesn't fill you with delight and desire and that's the sort of thing that's important to you then call someone else. My world isn't going to spiral into the sun if you do.

Forgive me for rehashing a dead thread but...

This couldn't sound more backwards to me. To say that a business card is merely a piece of paper with your contact info on it so you don't have to write it down with a pen is nonsense. The way I see it, this is akin to saying a customers sign needs to be nothing more than the company name, address, and potentially a phone number cut from black vinyl on white coroplast. As long as it's got the info on it no use convoluting it with a visual feast of useless nonsense.

Whether or not you're a branding specialist, as a sign maker you're helping market a customer's business and if you can make it stand out from the rest on everything from a business card to a billboard you've not only done your job, but done it well.

 

[iegrafixs]

If you think silkcards.com is nice you should check out http://www.mymetalbusinesscard.com/

 

[Rick]

On the point of what a business card is... I tend to agree with Bob.
The main purpose of the layout is to make sure the client knows
how or where to contact you. Adding holes, cuts and shiny spots
is just decoration if it has no purpose.

I've heard this too many times about shiny cards... that if a monkey
is shown a shiny object and a dull one, the monkey would pick the
shiny one and they attempted to apply that to humans and business
cards.. my response has always been 'I want to do business with humans
and discerning monkeys.'

What my philosophy is, that the card (and all your branding efforts)
is that is all represents you in your absence. Your branding or what you
want representing you should guide how the design is layout. And added
embellishments should tie into that, or be removed.

Most signshops can't design themselves out of a paper bag, I have a
collection of cards to prove it. They should keep it clean and simple till
they learn how to "brand" themselves, or hire someone to do it.

If I slap my business card on the table, I want people to notice what I do.
I'm not an average sign shop. Can't do that with a plain wrap card

I'm reminded on threads like this of a time where "branding" was a bad thing...
The results were not all that impressive