Business Cards Land

The idea of hand-made business cards is becoming more popular, particularly with designers who want to get “back-to-basics” with their designs. I’m starting to notice a lot of hand stamped business cards using custom rubber stamps as well as a lot of other DIY business card ideas.

color it in cards

This great little idea (above) that I saw on Overnight Prints flickr page, for instance, from designer Kenn Wilson is a  real “lo-fi” way of making your business card really personal and one-of-a-kind. He’s used traditional print methods plus colored pencil touches to create a totally unique and custom “color-it-in” business card.

This partly hand-colored business card works particularly well because it conveys a sense of “exclusivity”. No one of these cards are the same, so therefore, the person receiving the business card is treated to a card that’s been made especially for them!

Popularity: 9% [?]

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Spot UV or “Spot Gloss” as it’s also known, is a way of applying shiny gloss elements to certain parts of your business cards, while leaving other areas of your card with a “matte” finish. The effects are often spectacular.

There are a few ways to effectively spot gloss a business card. The main ways are as follows:

1.Add gloss to the text and logo elements of your card to make your text really stand out

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We love this spot UV card! The way the spot UV covers the seams of the barrel, wine spots, and barrel bands is very ingenious

2. Add Spot gloss to parts of the actual design  – highlight visual elements  such as a guitar strings or the entire design area to add a “pop-out” visual look!

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The spot UV has taken the place of text! The actual "hidden" text was just a black area of space that the designer has added a spot too! Amazing effect created

3. Create a Spot UV “off-design” ,ie, putting a gloss finish on a plain black, red, or even white background can create a subtle text effect in which a glossy finish takes the place of actual printed text! (see example above)

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There are many ways to use Spot UV print effects to create superbly original business cards. If you want your cards to stand-out from the crowd then my advice is to spot gloss your cards and craete a unique finish!

Popularity: 24% [?]

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Is there anything more powerful than a business card when it comes to marketing materials? I think not! The business card remains the single-most powerful marketing tool that you can create! Here is a list of 5 reasons why your business  card is your most important marketing tool:

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 18% [?]

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Whether you choose Glossy Business Cards or Matte Business Cards, there are benefits and drawbacks to each!

Matte Card

Rather than being shiny and reflective, a matte card has a “light-absorbing” eggshell finish!

Major Benefits:

Unlike Glossy Business Cards, You can write on them with a pen!

This is perfect for people who want cards that they can add extra information too, such as real estate agents who like to add property info to each personal business card that they’re handing out.

For coffee shops and other small businesses that use business cards for “buy ten cups get one free” style offers, then it would also be preferable to make matte cards that can be stamped or initialed.

They have a very “tactile” feel!

Quality matte cards from companies such as Overnightprints.com have this “silkiness” that is very pleasing to the touch. If you want to convey “elegance” and “sophistication” then this is a print finish that you might want to use.

Glossy Business Cards

Major benefits:

A Glossy Business Card is Sturdier!

With the addition of a glossy UV coating, a glossy card is thicker, sturdier, and more protected from the elements than a glossy card! A glossy card is quite hard to permeate even with a small amount of liquid or moisture, whereas a matte card is less sturdy and is not so impervious to wet fingers and so forth!

Glossy Cards can make Print Colors really “pop”

By adding a gloss finish to your prints, the color of your prints become brighter and more reflective. If you are going for a really colorful, eye-catching look to your prints, then you should choose a gloss finish!

The Alternative:

Spot UV

Matte and Gloss are literally like night and day! But there’s something that some print companies offer that give you the best of both worlds, and that’s Spot UV!

Spot UV is a print technique that combines matte and gloss finishes in a very cool way. By spot glossing areas of your design, you can make design features, such as logos, shapes, people, etc stand out like never before! The technique combines the best of both matte and gloss world, providing sophistication as well as color-popping bright and reflective color.

Popularity: 34% [?]

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At Businesscardland we’re interested in any and all technology related to business cards Therefore, we are naturally excited about all the new business card apps that are available. We feel that any technology that adds value to the business card is an excellent idea.

The business card apps that are of particular interest to us are the business card scanning apps. These apps utilize OCR technology (optical character recognition) – a relatively new technology that enables your phone to scan images and convert that photo-data into selectable text that you can automatically apply to your phone and contact directories. Although there are many of these apps available, the following apps represent the most popular OCR’s on the market.

Business Card Reader $5.99 (available on iphone )

In principal, this is an excellent iphone app that gives you the ability to convert scanned images into text that can be automatically added to your contact folder. You can also view the info in “card holder” mode where you can scroll a directory of scanned business cards – clicking on the image to bring up their contact info.

The LinkedIn feature is a neat way of searching for your contacts in the LinkedIn directory without leaving the Business Card app.

World Card Mobile $5.99/ World Card Contacts $1.99 (available on iphone and other mobile phones)

This iphone app does a good job of closely mimicking the iphone’s native address and contacts application – really easy to use. Once you’ve scanned your cards it creates a scrolling, searchable list of of all your contacts. Like Business Card Reader, but with more contact and search options, it also provides a “business card mode,” in which you can view, phone, email or text your contacts via their business card scans.

The major downside of this app is that you have to purchase both the scanner and the contact directory app! They don’t come as one package.

ProOnGo Business Card Reader (Free) (available on iphone and other mobile phones)

The best thing about this app is that it’s FREE, although it doesn’t provide the directory options that the other apps can supply you with, the scanner is no better or worse than other (more expensive) apps.

Google Goggles (Free)(currently unavailable for the iphone- available for Android)

I’m mentioning this app because, being Google technology, it will hopefully evolve into a better functioning business card reader. With the Google search engine infrastructure behind it, it also gives the user more contact search options. Upon scanning a business card, the user is able to more adequately and instantly search the selectable data using the Google search engine.

Google Goggles wasn’t designed specifically for Business card reading, instead, it has multiple uses as an OCR – scanning and utilizing most texts and pictures and turning them into searchable content, ie, taking a picture of a DVD cover and turning this optical data into a selectable list of links and information associated with that product.

The Major Problem with Business Card Reader Apps

The Problem with all these apps are that they rely on printed text to be in a very strict text format to be recognized. I could successfully scan the following business card and turn all its information into usable text data.

An easy Business Card to Scan

But I wouldn’t have a cat-in-hells chance of converting any data from this (semi) elaborate business card!

This business card won't scan

The other major downfall is that you have to hold the camera and take the picture at an exact parallel to the business card , otherwise, it simply won’t work.

Business card scanners also find it difficult to distinguish between certain characters, such as “5’s” and “S’s” . The business cards that you scan, also have to be in a legible font! These readers won’t recognize fancy fonts, handwritten fonts, or cursive text.

It is also worth noting that all these apps only work with 3Gs auto-focus cameras. If you are only rocking a 3G phone – forget it!

At the moment, OCR technology is too flawed! I predict that it’ll take Google another two or three years to create a business card reader that can adequately read images.

Popularity: 71% [?]

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Mommy Card Designs from OvernightPrints.com

For Mother’s Day this year a great little “mommy gift” would be “business cards for kids” . Better known as “mommy cards,” these child safety cards are becoming increasingly popular with concerned parents. Many online print companies, such as Overnight Prints, are marketing this idea by providing “kid themed” designs for customers to add their child’s information to.

Basically, what “mommy cards” are, are business cards that display the name, photograph, family contact details, medical info (i.e. blood type), and other emergency information. Slipped into a child’s backpack before they go to school, they could be a real “life saver” if (God forbid) a child were to get into an accident or got lost somewhere!

You may be a bit late, if you are thinking of making them for Mothers Day this year. However, they are a very practical gift at any time of the year for mom’s and kids; there’s nothing that a mommy appreciates more than to give them the gift of a little more “peace-of-mind” when it comes to their child’s safety, and I bet young kids love to feel important by flashing around their very “grown-up” business cards to their peers.

Popularity: 21% [?]

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Things – Adam Mayer Digitally Designed Geared Business Cards from Bre Pettis on Vimeo.

You may very well need a laser cutter to create this business card! It’s so intricate and amazing! I love business cards such as this that really push the envelope on what’s possible to do with a mere paper product! If I were ever handed a business card that was this good (both to look at and to fiddle around with) I would keep it in my wallet as a benchmark for all other business cards to live up to!

This card was designed by Bre Pettis who, by the looks of things, is a genius engineer who makes a lot of really cool robots and other mad inventions. If you have the time, tools, and know how to create this brilliant card, here is the link to the template for this ingenious business card contraption.

This revolving “clockwork” card may be out-of-the-realms of the average consumer and business person but I don’t think it would pose too much of a challenge for a talented designer or engineer. I can imagine that there are a lot of engineering students who would benefit from handing out such a technically difficult card. I suppose the only downfall is that you wouldn’t be able to make too many of them! You’d have to save them for impressing a special customer or potential employer.

Popularity: 52% [?]

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You’ve seen loyalty cards for “buy 10 get one free” offers; why not print one of your own?

The “loyalty card” is by no means a new idea, but it’s a really effective marketing technique for all small business owners. It’s cheap too – the price of a couple of sets of business cards is all it costs!

If your a coffee shop owner, then you’re probably well-aware of the benefits of creating loyalty cards to pick up repeat business. It’s such an easy, risk-free promotion. You create a business card that you can stamp everytime a customer buys a coffee – buy 10 cups and get a cup free! This same technique could also be applied to just about any other small retail business, i.e, local bakeries, frozen yoghurt stores, dry cleaners, fast food places, etc, anywhere that sells repeat business items.

This is how Gareth Blower who owns La Dolce Vita, an independently run coffee shop in Detroit, created his cards:

He designed a set business cards titled “loyalty card” – using his logo brand.  He added a little blurb about the offer (for every 10 cups of coffee the customer buys they receive a free one.) He also added a row of small block- spaces to his design, to create a place for the card to be stamped.

Gareth also purchased a stamper to mark off the coffee cups purchased. He sent me a link to the “stamper” that he uses on his customers cards.

Another really good idea is to make your business card into a coupon for a free consultation, a discount, or a free gift with a purchase. Make sure that you include an expiration date on them and  hand them out to all your customers. This technique would work particularly well for web-retailers who can add discount codes to the checkout section of their sites.

This small business furniture store created discount code business cards

Popularity: 60% [?]

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We’re halfway there!  The weekend is in sight and I’m sure given the Winter doldrums that is an extremely welcome thought.  That said, we have something that might just prove to be the medicine to your mid-week blues.  At least that’s what I’m guessing the samples of medicine themed business card look like they can do.  I’m not entirely sure what is in them though.

That’s right, look at these insanely creative business cards belonging to someone known as the Brain Doctor.  They have all of the pertinent information printed right on them and in the back is the all-too-familiar blister pack of little white pills.  While again, I can not be positive what’s In the blister packs, it does look medicinal.  I’m hoping for a sugar pill.  The fact that he’s a graphic designer makes me think it IS sugar, not some crazy brain medicine that you probably have no business taking.  That leads me to another idea, how cool would it be if you designed your blister packed medicine themed business cards with Smarties inside?!  Creative and fun!

Nevertheless, it just goes to show how far you can push the envelope and that no matter what your idea is, it’s most likely obtainable.  This guy had the idea to make his look like medicine samples and he found a way to make it happen.  What can you do?  What can you invent?  What can you decide to make great?  The sky is the limit, now start shooting for it!  Show us some of your best business cards, we can’t wait to see!

Popularity: 65% [?]

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Writing a blog in this industry, we hear a lot of words like “measure up,” “stack up” and compare.  Everyone wants to know how their business card compares to those of other people in similar industries.  If they’re using the right kind of paper, if their ink is high enough quality, how they are cut, just about every aspect of the card can be dissected and analyzed.  They are all being stacked up against the competition.  The business card we just stumbled on most likely never has to worry about how they stack up against the competition, how they measure, and you know why?  Because they can actually measure how they measure up…literally. 

Why?  Simple, take a glance above and you’ll have that question answered instantly.  Looks like Robert Gehring literally used a ruler, well 3 inches of one, and printed his details directly below the measuring lines.  In a word:  GENIUS.  I don’t know how long he’ll be able to keep this up, where he gets his sections of rulers or even if they all use the same 1-3 inches of the wood, but no matter what, these are some of the most inventive, creative and different business cards we’ve ever seen.  I have to say, we love seeing that and we love highlighting just how much you can do with a little thought power and a little attitude.

The bottom line:  When someone’s willing to go the extra mile like this on their business cards, you KNOW, for fact, that they’ll go the extra mile for you in whatever it is you need, whatever it is they do.  Think about this as you design something as seemingly small and simple as a business card.  Show how far you’re willing to go and chances are good people will believe you.

Popularity: 57% [?]

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