Making a business card. Any advice?

Question

I went around the web, reading articles about business card mistakes, and here is a full list of them:

1. Don't use cheap materials/techniques or attempt to print your own.
2. Don't use metal business cards. They won't get through airport security. (Is that true?)
3. Don't use a big font for the address and contact info.
4. Don't put a picture of your face on the card.
5. Don't use pixelated or other substandard images.
6. Don't flirt with the margins.
7. Don't overcrowd your card.
8. Not including information that is attractive to clients, i.e. "5-year warranty," etc.

Obviously name, address, email, phone number, and fax number are necessary, but are there any other do's or don't's?

PS: For a 3.5x2 card, I should use the following settings in Photoshop, correct? 3.75x2.25, 300 DPI.

Answer 1

Most folks won't spend more than 3 seconds looking at a business card; you probably want to make sure that either your URL or phone number is easy to see (i.e. design for lazy users).

I would disagree about "no more than two colors" unless cost is a prohibiting factor. Depending on your logo and layout you may need more than that (or your logo may not fly without it).

I usually use Illustrator to do the layout (because vector graphics scale better) but there's nothing wrong with using Photoshop. You're going to want to find out what the text area and bleed area for your printer are; they can usually supply you with these numbers.

If your biggest concern for material is getting them through airport security, then you probably don't want metal. If, however, your biggest concern is getting clients to call / email you (which is the point of a business card) then don't immediately dismiss metal (or any other material). There are tons of sites that showcase creative business cards printed on suitably amusing materials (wood, paper, metal, plastic, etc.). The idea is that your card should stand out from everyone else's.

Raster images should be 300 dpi and not overly scaled to prevent jaggies (jagged edges caused by aliasing and low resolution scaling). Most printers want CMYK for 4-color printing, so you may have to find a way to convert your raster image to CMYK. And for god's sake, don't use Comic Sans or MS clipart.

Answer 2

If you have a logo and a website, add them also.

I suggest no more than two colors. (edited to clarify: two colors for your text. Your logo's colors are outside this suggestion.)

Answer 3

Do include a strapline, tagline or a positioning statement - i.e. tell people what you do - don't assume they will just get it from your company name or logo.

It also helps to strengthen your message and remind them of it.

Also, do not add too much information, it isn't a flyer to promote your business services, it is a contact card to remind people what you do and how to get in to contact with you. The more information you try to add, the more you'll have to cram it in and the less comfortable the design will look.

Answer 4

It should be well designed.

Beyond that, it's hard to give specific advice without knowing a lot more about the type of business, your target audience, and how you plan on using them.

Some things to consider:

• a blank back can be useful for jotting notes down when meeting people
• a thicker card stock is noticeable in the hand
• a blind emboss or letterpressed cards can be a nice touch
• cheesy 3D raised ink from Kinkos is cheesy. Unless you're being ironic. Then maybe it can be cool.
• glossy stock is harder to write on with a pen

Answer 5

To be honest, if you're getting a print company to make them, it might be easier and not significantly more expensive to get them to do the design as well?

Most if not all print companies can do this themselves or via outsourcing, and you can give them a rough mockup if you want a bit more control.

Answer 6

I recommend VistaPrint as a place to get your business cards made. It's kind of a cheesy operation, but it's not terribly expensive to get a big batch of full-color one side (ie. full color glossy print on the front, blank white on the back) cards printed up. They offer basic design services, but if you are halfway decent with Photoshop it is really easy to just download their template, paste in your logo and place the text, and then upload your design to use for the cards. Basically, if you go with all the defaults then it'll look like crap, but it doesn't cost any more to customize everything.

The list of items in your question are pretty good, but I would point out that if you're anything like me you might want to ditch the mailing address and put on your website. Info like my name (duh), email address, phone number, and website haven't changed in years, but my mailing address changes every few years. If you go through your cards fast then that doesn't really matter, but it's nice to be able to lower printing cost by getting a giant stack of cards that you can keep using for years.

And as lauren pointed out don't go crazy with the colors. Personally I would recommend black for all your text and only use colors in the logo, but if you absolutely must use colored text then limit yourself to just one color.

ADDITION: Incidentally, if you aren't any good with graphic design then you could hire someone to design on VistaPrint's template and thereby get the best of both worlds. Note the third option when ordering business cards is "Upload Complete Design": http://www.vistaprint.com/business-cards.aspx?xnav=TsrItem&xnid=aPremiumBusinessCardsBusiness+Cards