Business Cards Land

It appears that this week we’re all about simple.  Simple ideas on Wednesday, the praising of old-school and vintage simple designs.  Today to end the week on a high-note, I decided that the best thing to do was show you a business card that was right up my alley in that it’s for someone in the very same industry as I am.  I’ve been a photographer for years and have always struggled to come up with the best possible method of designing my business card.  Like the card below, my personal card is very simple and I actually ordered it directly from OvernightPrints.com.  What I didn’t do, and now regret it, however, is add the amazingly simple and awesome camera focus icons!

Check out how much it adds to the simple design by just making it look like you’re actually looking through a camera’s viewfinder.  It instantly tells every person looking at the business cards exactly what business you’re in and exactly how stylishly you do it!  It just goes to show you that sometimes, the biggest design advances come from the smallest additions to your business card.

Over the weekend, why don’t you try adding a few simple things to your existing business card designs.  I think you’d be shocked and pleasantly surprised with how just tweaking a few minor things can produce some seriously big results.  From photography to accounting, landscaping to being a dentist, everyone can use a little help!

Popularity: 21% [?]

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Who says that the best business cars are the ones that cost the most, involve the most insane or unique design or take the longest to make?  Certainly not us.  I think my colleague Diana and I have more than expressed our belief that nine times out of ten, a business card that is exactly suited to fit your business is a lot better than a fancy business card that has nothing to do with it.  That said, another thing to keep in mind is that sometimes, yes sometimes, the most simple and old-school design you can think of will be sure to turn heads, a lot of them.

That’s exactly what the designer of this business card did, and I have to say, they pulled it off perfectly.  I can’t quite tell if this is literally just a piece of notebook paper, or if it’s actual business card stock paper that’s perfectly designed to look like it.  Whatever the case may be, both would have been exceptional and completely innovative.  Either way, we love the old-school design that literally looks like someone slid a piece of wide-ruled paper into a typewriter and created a new, quick and easy business card.  They even included the hole punch in the upper left hand corner.  How genius, how completely original.

So, as you head down the design road to your next business cards, why not think old-school, vintage and throw-back.  There are a million things you could do to bring the old-school back in and switch it up on all those people that opt to go super-modern and high-tech. Old-school is in, and old-school is now new-school.  Remember that!

Popularity: 25% [?]

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It’s Monday again, and we’re getting closer and closer to the Thanksgiving Holiday.  Hopefully you’ve prepared adequately by systematically starving yourself to make room for the onslaught of turkey, stuffing, pie and mashed potatoes.  That said, today we’re going to dive into something a bit different:  Uses for business cards that extend BEYOND business.  Yep, they are handy little buggers, and you can use them for a heck of a lot more than just networking your actual business.

We stumbled on a pretty awesome little article that was packed with ideas on how you can make the most out of your business cards, without making them about business.  Check out some of my favorite ideas:

• “Print something other than a business card on biz card-sized cardstock
• Print a short survey on a card
• Other things you might print on this size cardstock include:  Hangtags, Nametags, Tickets to Events, Tiny Greeting Cards.
  
• Make your business card a referral card for your organization or club
• Turn them into appointment cards”

By adopting any number of these, it makes sure that you’re not only switching things up when it comes to your business cards, you’re also ensuring that you have some fresh ideas that will make you stand out even further in the minds of each and every person you hand one out to.  Not comfortable not handing out your business card, worry not, you can still slide one of yours in too!

Popularity: 8% [?]

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T.G.I.F.  Again.  Right?  We’re at the weekend again, and we know that you know the drill by now, we’re gonna get you out and enjoying the weekend as quick as possible!  As you well know by now, there are TONS of ways to make sure that your business card really pops out and looks amazing.  All of these come in the design stage, which you also know.  Here’s another one I think we’ve mentioned before, but nevertheless it’s just so easy to implement, why not try again?

When all others go rectangle, why not try a batch of circles?!  By including even a small handful of circular designed business cards into your arsenal, you’re making positively sure that you can switch things up and really impress people by doing nothing other than handing them a circular card, instead of a standard one.  Take a glance at the business card above…I’m not saying the card would look bad as a rectangle, as clearly it’s designed very well, but how much MORE impressive is it as a circle?!

If you don’t feel like going full out and paying for die-cut circle shaped cards but still want a completely different feel and look from the standard sharp-cornered rectangles, head to OvernightPrints.com and order up some new rounded-corner business cards.  They are the quickest, cheapest and best way to throw some simple creativity into your design without breaking the bank.  Truth be told, they are exactly the cards I’m using right now.

Enjoy your weekend and we’ll see you Monday Morning!!

Popularity: 34% [?]

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Hello and Happy Monday!  We’re gonna kick things off by showing you something that belongs directly in the “What will they think of next” file.  That’s right, this little original business card thinks so far outside the box, it doesn’t even USE the box.  We’ve seen business cards printed on crazy materials before, everything from metal to wood to even beef jerky, but what we haven’t seen is today’s…until now.

Yep, we’ve found maybe the most unique use of another material yet…a peanut.  That’s right, the card above is literally printed on a peanut!  Imagine the looks on people’s faces when you hand them a bag of peanuts instead of a box of business cards!  Heck, if they are careful and hungry, they can even eat the business card peanuts without damaging the shells and keep the contact information in tact!

While this type of card might not be advisable for everyone, in every industry, if you were in the food industry, or maybe even professional sports, I can see this being the PERFECT head-turner and conversation starter to get the ball rolling for new business, or even just maintaining existing clients.  What will they think of next?  Business cards on donuts?  On Pets?  What next?!

Nevertheless, it’s something to keep in mind as you build your business cards:  How can YOU make yourself stand out with one simple piece of paper?  Figure that out, and you’re onto something big.

Popularity: 8% [?]

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Hello and welcome back to Friday!  That’s right, the weekend is upon us and we can finally go out and do all those things we’ve been meaning to do, but just haven’t done yet.  That said, if you’re anything like us, the business card we’re featuring today might just be your favorite you’ve seen.  Think about this for a moment:  When you get a package in the mail, if you’re not quite sure what it is, how satisfying is it to pull that long FedEx pull-tab and hear the little rip noise before you see inside?  Yeah, us too.

That said, I just found a business card that combines that sound, that action and that satisfaction and the revelation of the actual business card details.  In a word:  Amazing.  I have no idea where these were printed, or who does them but I have to say they are some of the most genius business cards we’ve seen in a long, long time.

Nevertheless, it IS the weekend now and we’ll keep things short.  Have a perfect weekend and we’ll see you back here bright and early Monday morning

Popularity: 16% [?]

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I think we’ve featured business cards on this blog before that have similar ideas, but I have to say the one we found today might just take the cake as the absolute smartest use of living things to make a business card that goes from pretty ordinary to absolutely extraordinary in no time at all.  The business card below belongs to that of a landscape architect, and I have to say if you’re trying to promote yourself as an amazing landscaper, there really is no better way than this card.

As you can see, the card uses actual plant seeds inside to grow actual plants outside of the business card to represent tiny trees in a landscape blueprint.  Before the seeds grow the card just appears to have holes in it, but if given at the right time, or if kept for long enough, the card will actually bloom and before you know it, you’re looking at not only a business card, but a miniature model of a blueprint and completely “tree’d” in area.  If you’re looking for a landscape architect and someone handed you this card, be honest, how quickly would you consider seriously hiring them?  Yeah, us too…instantly.

If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand times here, the best way to have your business card do some seriously smart marketing for you is to have your business card tell everything your business stands for for you, immediately.  By going with a unique card like this, you are making pretty darn sure you’ll never be forgotten.

Popularity: 14% [?]

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Hello and welcome back to the work week!  Hopefully you don’t have TOO large of a candy hangover and all of your Halloween haunting went safely and productively.  I’m sure your kids and your dentist will both be appreciative.  Nevertheless, we’re back and to kick things off this week we wanted to hit you with a business card design tip:  Distress to Impress!

That’s right, when it comes to designing your next business card, why not take a cue from the business card above and throw in a little distressed, vintage, old-school style to your design?  As you well know, everything from jeans to artwork to wallpaper is being popularly distressed these days, so why wouldn’t business cards deserve the same exact treatment?  Look how effectively these cards combine the old-school logo with some faux-distressing on the sides and top.  It makes the card look like it’s perfectly vintage while still perfectly cool.  That, my friends is a powerful combination.

So, when you go about designing your next batch, try your hand at a few distressed versions.  What do you have to lose?  I think the best arsenal of business cards is one in which you have the perfect card for nearly every situation nearly every client and nearly every different style.  While this isn’t exactly reasonable, I suppose at the prices you can get business cards for nowadays, it sure could be.

Don’t forget to send us your newest and best designs!  We’d love to feature some!

Popularity: 12% [?]

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We’ve all seen them, heck we’ve featured a TON of them on this site…those nifty cards with the cutouts somewhere on them.  Whether it’s a cutout of a star, initials, or just interesting cutouts on one or two corners.  There’s some good news and some bad news when it comes to these cutouts.  First, the good news:  They DO help your card, they DO make it look extremely interesting and more creative.  Now, the bad news:  They are a lot more expensive.  Laser or die cutting can cost a great deal more money than traditional business cards and as such, make it not really worth it for the vast majority of us.  Until this tip, that is.

Here’s a money saving business card tip for you…you can do the cutouts yourself!  See the business card above? You can have those cut-out letters they have for a lot cheaper than having them professionally die-cut for you.  Yes, it will take a lot more time, yes, it will get extremely annoying, but yes, it will save you a great deal of money.  Say you ordered your next batch of 500 business cards from OvernightPrints.com.  This alone will save you a HUGE amount of money over those expensive printing houses while keeping the quality just as top-notch.  If you wanted to achieve the very same results as the card above, why not include those letters “y” and “k” in black on the original card and then when they arrive, take an Xacto-Knife and with a few small cuts you can have them cutout too!  Save you a bundle and still have awesome effects!

So, why not experiment with some designs that allow you to do the tedious cut0ut job at home?  I know it will be a pain the the rear, I know it will take a great deal longer, but the bottom line is, it will save you a ton of money while keeping the quality extremely high!

Popularity: 19% [?]

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It’s Friday again!  Finally!  Now today we’re going to tackle something a bit different…instead of business card tips, we’re going to throw a bigger, broader tip at you that you need to have complete before you even THINK of your business cards:  Your logo.  That’s right, if it is YOUR company you’re designing business cards for you absolutely must have a logo for that business and we all know that the logo goes right on the cards, so how do you come up with a great logo if you don’t already have one?!  Glad you asked.

We just found some excellent tips on how to go about designing, or having your new logo designed.  Head over and check out the full article, but for now here is a brief paraphrasing of how to go about creating, or having created for you, the perfect logo for your business!

1. Starting the Logo – Sketch out ideas, hash out exactly what you have in mind before you start.
2. The Design of the Logo – You want a clean, simple and to the point logo.  Avoid overly complicated, overly colorful and overly intricate designs.
3. Hiring a Designer – Money is an issue but look instead at quality.  It’s not worth saving a few bucks for a terrible, generic logo!
4. Protecting your logo – Head to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Offices…you want to keep that beautiful logo YOURS and yours alone.  It’s worth it.
5. Conclusion – It’s not as hard as you think!  Start with step one and you’ll be there before you know it!

There you have it!  5 simple tips on how to come up with a great logo that sums up your business quickly and creatively!

Popularity: 6% [?]

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