Personal business card design
When it comes to choosing a business card design how fussy are you? It took me a long time to arrive at this design, and even now I find myself wondering how it could be improved upon. This post tells a little about how it’s produced, and of the good customer service I received in the process.
It’s printed on white 330gsm Plike, with single colour black on the front and pearl white foil blocking on the reverse.
I love the feel of Plike (short for plastic-like). It’s unlike any other business card I’ve felt.
There were initially problems with the ink off-setting onto the back of another when stacking for delivery. This was due to the substrate needing a special ink, which unfortunately my printer, Splash Print, didn’t know about until after the first run. Splash Print’s customer service was great however. They sent me 100 of the best cards from the first print (which were quite usable), re-ordered more stock and ink to re-do the job, then sent the full amount for no extra cost.
I’d use them again for special finishes.
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Excellent card!
Wow, you are anal about business card design…
But then again, it came out really nice, so maybe if more people were anal, things would be less ugly in the world…
I find designing for myself sheer hell. You ended with a great product. Nice to see both sides used. I’m assuming you’re in the U.K. Do many designers utilize both sides? I’ve been doing it in my little corner of Canada for many years now - although it is viewed seen as novel.
The rounded corner is a nice touch. I like the stand alone logo on the back side as well.
Ed, in my experience the majority of designers will use both sides of the card. To me it seems like such a waste if only one side is printed on. You have a blank canvas there to promote yourself so why leave it empty?
I’m all for white space and simplicity, but cards can be so much nicer when double-sided. Take mine for instance, I could have saved a couple of hundred pounds by not printing the foil, but it’s all about setting yourself apart from the competition. You never know how many hands your card might pass through once it leaves your holder.
That’s great that your card is seen as novel. I’m sure it helps your success.
People who take pride in their work can come across as anal. The positive adjective would have been “Quality Conscious”.
Being a control freak myself, I totally relate on this.. and fully agree with J David..
“A little more pride and a less uglier world”
I love the logo design..
Nice….
[...] These points all focus on online networking but it’s equally important to have a focus offline. This is where things like my business card and getting on the phone come into play. Ben over at the Instigator Blog recently wrote The Most Important Question You Can Ask When Networking. [...]
[...] For those interested, I posted a while back about the process behind my own personal business card. [...]
My name is Darren and I’ve just set my own recruitment consultancy up called Character - thought it was a nice link between Character as a typographic reference and Character’s as in people - let me know if you agree.
I’m a designer myself and so named the business, developed the brand (ident, website design and all written copy) myself.
I’d be inclined to agree with previous posts that it was probably the most difficult job I’ve ever worked, and i’m still not overly chuffed with the final outcome.
For cards in particular started off really elaborate (sp?) but in the I ended up going very simple.
Their on a 330gsm uncoated, fully recylced stock with just a single colour ink over the top. I really wanted to get the idea of growth over and hoped by making everything feel very organic it would do this. Time will tell of course and I’m sure they’ll be a few ammends next time - shame I have 2000 of the buggers though!!!
Feel free to check out the website at http://www.charactercreative.co.uk and let me know what you think and if any wants to get in touch please feel free.
I took a look at your website. Nice use of imagery. The typeface for your logo looks quite interesting too. What is that? :)
Personally I think you should increase the size of your body text. It’s not the easiest to read. Also, there’s no link to the homepage. Maybe you can justify that by saying there’s no info on the homepage, but why isn’t there? It’s a great photo, but people should know what you do from your homepage in my opinion.
Do you have a photo or image of your card design? I’d love to take a look.
The imgagery is all shot with my camera phone would you beleive!
It’s a place right up in the North of Scotland near where I lived for a couple of years as a child.
The font for the logo doesn’t exist. I developed it from I don’t know what now and beleive me it took weeks, months even to get it near right. Still think it could be better (Don’t like the relationship between the C and the h but ran out of time before sending to print)
There’s no imagery on the cards at all. it was considered to begin with but I seen it done a few times before and never really liked it.
I’ll have a copy of the cards on my myspace page so you can take a look at them there if you’d like to.
Here’s a link to Darren’s MySpace page for anyone who’d like to see his cards, though I’ve a feeling you might need an account to view the pictures.
I’ll send a reply to your email shortly Darren.
David, fantastic card! I’ll need to re-do mine when I re-brand next year (pairing up with a friend of mine in business).
I was wondering, if it’s not too much trouble - any chance of mailing me one? The ‘box of inspiration’ would appreciate one!
I’ll mail you mine if you like, although it’s nowhere near as good (hence the need to re-brand!).
My address is on my site if you would consider saying yes :)
Best wishes
Rich
P.S. Darren - I love your card too! The stock is rather good. Paper makes the difference, unfortunately I didn’t figure that out before I got mine done.
I’ll take a note of your address and send one over when I get a chance.
[...] cards against eachoter, debating the merits of bone, eggshell, and off-white. I take pride in my own business card, but these [...]
Looks good!
Oh, the tasteful thickness of it! :) :)
Seriously… I LOVE LOVE LOVE the single curved corner.
wow. this business card is great.
That reminds me, I still need to send one to Richard. Sorry for the delay Rich!
Very nice card. I really like how clean it is — there is no question where you should look. I also enjoy the finishing touches.
The rounded corner was a trial I did, by hand, because I wasn’t sure what corner radius to ask the printer for. I also saved myself a couple of hundred pounds by having the cards delivered as rectangles.
Hi Dave,
looks it is nice to touch it. What size does it have?
Plike, It is similar to matt foil on chalk paper, is not?
Standard card size: 85mm x 55mm.
I’m not sure what matt foil on chalk paper feels like.
hi david,
your tips really help me alot in designing a business card!
i just started out designing my own business card and would really like to hear your professional comment about my design!!!
http://photo.xanga.com/sohjunhao/ff388158436051/photo.html
cheers! :)
Ive been nudging my info in PS for days. All my friends and family love the simplicity of my card and say its fine. I just need it to be perfect.
http://img47.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bcex2oe1.jpg
That image isnt even the final product…..still nudging.
I took a look at your business card, and the first thing I wondered is why you use a GMail email address when you have your own domain? I think it would appear more professional if you use a domain-specific address.
I like the simplicity of your layout, so good work in that respect.
Tim,
Likewise with your email address. My recent experience of GMail where I had my account hacked certainly exposed some issues.
What dimensions are used for your card? It looks an unusual shape.
Thanks for commenting.
We all can be picky when it comes to our own items. In my opinion, those cards came out quite nicely!
Hi David, I love your site, your articles and comments are inspirational. Your site was recommended by a friend when I wanted to get her opinion on my new logo. I would be appreciate it if you could have a look at my logo and give me your comments, its on my website http://www.nichestudio.com.my.
ps- I just started out doing freelance web design.
Thanks!
Thanks very much. I needed to enter a username and password to access your site (Janice), so can’t provide any feedback.
Good luck though.
David,
Where I could get some business cards made that are made out of Plike like yours?
Thanks,
John
Contact a commercial printer and ask if they can order Plike for you. When I had my cards printed, the subsrate was ordered specifically for me.
We’ve moved offices and our new cards just arrived. Printed on a recycled stock called wove by fenna papers - beautiful stuff with just enough texture.
Check them out and let me know what you think here: http://www.myspace.com/charactercreative (in the picture section)
We’ve got a new site too since I was last on here - Inexhibit kicks ass!!
http://www.charactercreative.co.uk
P.S we’re holding an event in Leeds on the 12th of June called Stopping the buck. If anyone can make it along please do.
Darren
I’m guessing you enjoyed the experience with Inexhibit then? Good job getting the new site. Can’t login to MySpace for some reason (to view your pics section), but will remember to have a look at your cards next time. I hope the Leeds event goes great.
David, those business cards are gorgeous. I had to wear a bib when I was gawking at them (lol). I created my own business cards in Illustrator - this was the first time I ever made cards and the first time I ever used Illustrator. It was a lot of fun. I kept the layout and design similar to my portfolio site so there was a consistency.
DC Card Front: http://dougcloud.net/show/dcardfront.gif
DC Card Back: http://dougcloud.net/show/dcardback.gif
For your first time creating cards, and your first time using Illustrator, I think you’ve done a sterling job. Well done keeping that online / offline consistency too. It’s important.
Thanks, David. I’ve had Illustrator for about three years, after winning CS in a design contest, but I was so intimidated by it I never bothered to get to learn it. But then a friend suggested I make my own business cards and I knew AI was the best program to use. So I took a deep breath and plunged into it, using online tutorials (which are very sparse for AI) and I even bought the Illustrator CS Classroom in a Book.
I’ve found the Visual Quickstart series an excellent book collection, published by Peachpit Press, though I’ve not seen the ‘classroom in a book’, so perhaps it’s just as good.
(David - the link to the Plike suppliers is dead now - don’t they know cool URLs never change? :D)
Richard, Peacock Carter’s last blog post…Pedal for Charity: Web Design
Thanks very much for the heads-up. I did a quick search on their site and updated the post with a fresh link. Not the best site management to change URLs. I agree.
That is wonderful. So clever how you incorporated the visual identity into the shape of the card. Great job!