Josh Bowman has a few ideas about the most exciting topic in the world: business cards!
- There are standardized sizes for a reason, and you should make sure your business card isn’t a weird size that will get lost or won’t fit anywhere. A business card should fit in a rolodex. Unless it is the most impressive business card ever designed.
- Less is more. People are web-savvy, so keep it simple. Website address. Name. Company Name. Phone (maybe). Email (maybe). Do you need much more?
- Use pictures if it relates to what you do (i.e. photographer/artist, etc.). Otherwise, be cautious about how much graphical information you include. Don’t make people work to figure out who you are.
- Use good paper stock. Quality matters.
- Use all the same design principles that you would apply to a website or a poster…don’t be cheesy.
- Show your design to somebody before printing. Make sure they are honest with you. Does it look simple and clean? Can they quickly figure out who you are?
- Don’t use a watermark or raised lettering or colour unless you have a reason. If you can afford it, hire a professional or risk…this.
- Rounded edges, subtle design choices, innovation..these can all work. I don’t like all of these examples, but I do like how simple but effective many of these cards are.
- When you are out networking, you might give out a ton of cards and never hear from anybody. It’s better to take cards, and in fact I feel like the main reason to have a business card is so that you can get somebody else’s card and follow up with them. I’ve also noticed a certain cache in people selectively giving out cards, or saying that they don’t have any cards on them. Or maybe they just say that to me (boo hoo!).
- At the end of the day, a business card is just how you stay in touch with somebody, so don’t sweat it too much.
Love these ideas. Boring business cards are just so offensive. A good business card design is still really important to have, but if you can’t hire a professional, do NOT use those super commercial sites offering free business cards all the time because everyone is using them. Find a new and innovative site – I used Tiny Prints for my personal business cards since they are really easy to customize. What does everyone else use?
dude business cards are super-exciting. The look, feel and design. Man!
I have my face on my business cards!
Which is why I never give them away to anyone. That’s just embarrassing.
(It’s the She Said He Said logo.)