Business Cards Land

Say you own a barbershop, salon or some form of hair care institution…what do you think would be the perfect way, in a business card, to portray not only who you are and what you do, but portray it in a cool way?!  Well, I think we’ve officially answered that question this fine Wednesday because the cool people behind the Bolt Barbers Barbershop have figured it out, and figured it out exactly.

From the hilarious and adorable monkeys on the front, to the perfectly chosen fonts and colors on the reverse side, to the most obvious, and best part of the card, the sharpened cut outs that act not only as the monkey’s hair but could also be used as an impromptu comb of your own once you’ve got your hands on the business card.  That’s right, a business card that actually DOES what the business being advertised on it can do for you.  Impressive?  We think so.  Taking one look at the card, you most likely will too.

We’ve said it a lot on this site, and we’ll say it again this fine Wednesday:  The moment your business card matches up with what your actual business does and specializes in, you’ve found something special.  Whether it is having a ruler on the back of a contractors business card or a comb on the back of a barber shops, when the two meet in the middle, business card magic happens.

Take that into account the next time you’re throwing around ideas for your newest and greatest cards…make them meet in the middle, see the results.  Smile.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Possibly Related Posts:

• Holiday Business Cards
• The Conversational Business Card
• Colorful business cards
• Hand made business cards
• Great Spot UV Card Examples

It’s nearing the end of the year, and every-printer-and-their-mother is offering some sort of deal to sell a few more business cards and make a little more money before 2009 comes to a close.

I like to save money as much as the next person – but want to talk about two things here.  First, you need to make sure you’re comparing “apples to apples” when choosing a business card printer – and second, even if you don’t really NEED business cards just yet, you might want to take advantage of some of the sales anyway.

Okay, the comparing “apples to apples” part – it’s very difficult, at times, to compare business card printers.  Say 1000 cards cost $39 at one printer and $49 at another.  You can’t compare on price alone, and here’s why.

It’s not easy to tell what card stock is used, or what kind of coating is put on the card, or if there’s an additional fee to upload your own image and in fact, you can’t even assume a card is standard-sized.

Yet all of those options can make a big difference in how your card will be received.  It’s worth a few more bucks to have nice sturdy cards, for example, simply because such business cards tell the people who receive them that your business is solid and sturdy and dependable.

So – be sure to compare what you’re getting, if you’re shopping for “price.”

And here’s a great deal – free shipping from OvernightPrints.com!  (And no, you don’t have to buy just business cards, either.  But THEIR cards are nice and thick and sturdy – and cheap, too.)

Free ground shipping with a $75 order, when you order by midnight PST on Dec. 20th.  Enter code FS75E when you order.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Possibly Related Posts:

• The Conversational Business Card
• Colorful business cards
• Hand made business cards
• Great Spot UV Card Examples
• Glossy Business Cards versus Matte Business Cards

Welcome back fellow workers, Monday has come again.  Today we’ve got something a bit different when it comes to legendary and interesting business card design:  a business card that uses no ink.  Yes, you heard right, a business card that gives out all the pertinent and important information without using a single drop of ink.  How, you say?  Simple, embossing.

That, my friends, is exactly what Lisa Ano did on these business cards and the effect is, without a doubt, spectacular.  Not only does it show off just how high-quality the paper that she chose for her business cards is, but it also shows off how perfectly she chose the color and the correct embossing.  They come together to create a completely unique, completely simple and powerful card that I can almost guarantee will never be thrown away, and always passed around.  Inkless too, so think about the cost savings as well as environmental benefits!?

So, when designing your next batch of supplementary business cards, why not try to toss a few inkless ones into the mix.  It might cost a bit more, but for sheer Impress Value alone you will easily pay them off.  They might not be the easiest or most practical, but if you’re amassing a business card army, they are certainly soldiers you’d want in the mix.  Now remember, the holidays are upon us, if you need a great gift idea and don’t know where to turn, why not head over to OvernightPrints.com and check out some of the amazing holiday sales going on right now!

Popularity: 31% [?]

Possibly Related Posts:

• Holiday Business Cards
• The Conversational Business Card
• Colorful business cards
• Hand made business cards
• Great Spot UV Card Examples

It’s Friday!  Sorry for that enthusiasm, but with precious little shopping days left until Christmas finally arrives, you’re gonna probably need just about every waking weekend hour you can snag.  Saying that, today we’re gonna let you know why you’re putting so much time, effort and thought into your business cards…the reasons why people actually keep them, and why you should make sure what they’re keeping, is WORTH keeping.

I know it’s easy to think that you don’t really need to think a great deal about what goes into your business cards, that a simple rectangle will do, filled with only the pertinent information.  That’s where you’re wrong.  People Do care, and here, thanks to a great article we found, are 8 reasons why people actually hang onto your business cards.

1. As a link to a potential customer or client.
2. As a link to a resource or a supplier.
3. As a link to a colleague.
4. For social, non-business reasons.
5. For referring business – it may be passed on to someone else.
6. To update information they already have.
7. Just in case.
8. Something likable, unusual or useful about the person or their card.

See, those little pieces of advertising have a lot more traction than most of you would have ever believed.  Hand it out to one person and it can make its way around to a lot more, for a lot more reasons.  Check out number 8…sometimes all it takes is something unusual about your card and it can be a reason for a stranger to latch on to your business card for good.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Possibly Related Posts:

• Holiday Business Cards
• The Conversational Business Card
• Colorful business cards
• Business Networking Cards
• Hand made business cards

Just found these cool business cards by French designer Jean-Baptiste Gouraud:

This isn’t a bad idea at all – with the proliferation of various Web 2.0 and social media sites, some of us have a LOT more contact info than we used to!  So why not share that on a business card?  You wouldn’t have to make it LOOK like Facebook of course – in fact, you need to be careful about copying logos or anything that might possibly by copyrighted online (or off) – but if you use Twitter or LinkedIn or MySpace or Facebook – why not add that to your card?

If nothing else, it’s great material for the back of your business card – and you can even include a specific call to action by inviting the recipient to connect!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Possibly Related Posts:

• Holiday Business Cards
• The Conversational Business Card
• Colorful business cards
• Hand made business cards
• Great Spot UV Card Examples

We’ve covered just about every possible tip on this blog up to this point.  From complex to simple, expensive to dirt cheap, home made to ornate and over-the-top, we’ve covered just about everything, and every time a new idea does come to light we’ll be on it, rest assured.  Saying that, one idea we’ve offered before, but we’re really going to drive home today, is that sometimes simple IS the best way to go, sometimes simple IS everything.

That’s the philosophy the brains behind this business card took as they took simple and then went even simpler.  Yeah, it’s hard to get any more non-complex than putting a single word on the front of your business cards.  The crazy thing is, look at it, it works perfectly!  The blackish-gray background, great quality card stock paper and elegant script combine to make this One-Word-Wonder a pretty darn powerful business card.  It doesn’t need email addresses, phone numbers, websites or contact information, it just needs it’s company name, that’s it and that’s all.  While I’m sure the back has a bit more information, the front says it all, and we love it.

Think about this the next time you design a set of business cards…is there anything you could do to simplify your card?  Is there information on there you just don’t need?  Sometimes less is more and when it comes to making a very strong first impression, less can be exactly all you need.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Possibly Related Posts:

• Holiday Business Cards
• The Conversational Business Card
• Colorful business cards
• Business Networking Cards
• Hand made business cards

Continuing my little theme here of non-standard ways to use business cards – taking advantage of their unique size, affordability and portability – here’s another really great way to use business cards.

Do you own any kind of retail store – and do you get people who just wander around without buying anything?

Browser Buck

If that happens often, you might want to print up some “Browser Bucks” and hand them out as people come in the door.

The idea is, basically, to hand people “money” – a business card that looks like a dollar bill or some variation thereof – and tell them it’s good to spend on anything in the store.

What’s cool about this idea is that AS SOON AS somebody has money to spend, they switch from “browsers” into “BUYERS”!  And of course that’s the mindset you want people to have.  It’s fun to watch – it’s like a light bulb goes off in their head – instead of drifting aimlessly looking bored, all of a sudden the recipient is looking for something to spend money on.

This business card template is available at OvernightPrints.com – I used the “Express Designer” but you could jazz up the colors and fonts a bit by using the “Advanced Designer.”

Clever idea, isn’t it?  Have some printed up and hand them out on the next slow day at your store, and watch what happens!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Possibly Related Posts:

• Holiday Business Cards
• Colorful business cards
• Business Networking Cards
• Hand made business cards
• Great Spot UV Card Examples