4 Business Card Design Faux Pas

Are you proud of your business card? Do you think it’s the best designed card in the world? How many people have commented on the design of your card when they received it? If you’re like most people, no one has said a word. Although good design means different things to different people, designers can agree on the following 4 business card design mistakes. You should avoid these in designing your business cards and if your printed business cards contain one of these faux pas, seriously think about redesigning and printing new ones.

1. A cluttered business card: Appealing cards don’t use up every inch of the cardstock. People get overwhelmed when they see a lot of info in a small space. Too much print looks unprofessional. Keep the vital info – name, your title and company, address, email, Web site and phone numbers. If you have room, you can include a tagline. Use the back of the card if you’d like. Just be sure to leave some white space, which is a design term for empty space.

2. Small print: If people need a magnifying glass to read your name on your business card, it’s too small! Obviously, people aren’t going to take the time to squint their way into understanding your text. Don’t sacrifice readability just to get a tagline or extra info on your card. A good rule of thumb is to make your name 9 points in size, your company name 12 points, and the rest of the type no smaller than 7 points. Using a hierarchy of sizes will also help your design look clean and uncluttered.

3. Having a plain white card: White cardstock with black printing. How original! So many people use this format for a business card that if you do, yours will be hard to find in the sea of white. Make your card a nice cream cardstock, or gray, or go crazy and go for black or some other color that still fits your brand’s image. I love the colors of this card and the design is still simple with the bright blue.

4. Crazy shape: I actually like creative business cards that aren’t rectangles. They look good. But it can be a big design problem because then where do recipients put your card? If it doesn’t fit in a wallet, your business card has a much higher death rate (e.g., being thrown away). Rounded corners are okay because the card will still fit in a wallet or Rolodex, but beyond that you’re pushing it. This business card is almost pushing it, but I think it would still have a high “keeper” rate because it’s the traditional size with rounded corners.

If you wait to redesign and print new cards when your current stash runs out, will it be worth it to lose a few new clients along the way? Clients that you might have gotten if your business card had been more impressive? I don’t think so. Business cards are one of the cheapest marketing tools you’ll ever use, so think of new cards as an investment in your business.

Business Card Design Ideas

In a time of dwindling budgets, many people go back to what has always worked. And business cards are one of those marketing tools that always work because they’re simple and people know how they work. Techies might disagree and think email and contact info on a computer is better than a business card. But you have to have a computer to access your email and your contacts’ info. A business card can be carried with you everywhere and no one needs special equipment to read it.

Business Card Design Basics
Less is more is the mantra of good business card design. You don’t have much room, even if you use the back of the card. That means you must use clean font that is easily readable, colors that don’t make people’s eyes hurt and a design that is logical. People should immediately know what to look at first (your name) and what to look at next (usually your title or your company; it’s up to you which you’d rather focus on next). The basic info you need:

Name
Title
Company Name
Address
Logo
Phone/fax numbers
Email address
Company URL
(Optional: tagline)

I put tagline as optional, because in my opinion, it’s not a deal breaker when it comes to business cards. And, I don’t think people will really remember your tagline from seeing it on your business card. Plus, if it’s longer than a few words it could really take up some prime real estate on your card. If it’s short and people know the tagline, though, I would include it. Everything else is essential.

Design Ideas
Now, the reason I’m bringing up this topic is to share some interesting business card design ideas. Anymore, white cardstock with black ink just won’t do it. That’s boring. Black cardstock with white writing, now that’s more interesting. If you want people to keep your card, it’s best if it’s interesting. You’ll seem more innovative, as will your company and brand. If you have a boring card, your company and brand will seem boring. Your business card is a direct reflection of the personality of your business.

A simple turn of the direction of card to vertical could be all you need to make an impact. I love this card, not only because it’s turned, but because it’s also clear. That’s different. That’s something people don’t expect. It could possibly cause confusion if it’s laid on top of a dark surface, but I’ll bet that whoever takes this card will keep it in their wallet or somewhere organized so that they can reference it.

 

http://www.crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/31.JPG

 

If there’s a way for you to capture the essence of your business with your card design, by all means do it! That could mean a carpenter creating a card made out of a thin piece of wood, or cardstock colored to look like wood. For a photographer, it could mean using film, such as this card. Film is an integral part of a photographer’s life, and the design is still simple, clear and effective.

 

http://www.crazyleafdesign.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/9.JPG

 

Another one I like is this envelope supplier’s card. It’s simple, yet effective because it represents a part of her job, and makes it look professional and innovative. If she has a great card like this, what else can she do?

 

 

That’s the kind of thinking you need when designing your business card. You need to impress people into wanting to contact you for more information and to find out what you can do for them. Use interesting textures, fonts, and shapes, but keep it clean, simple and clear. A confusing business card or a card with bright colors that don’t coincide with your brand will just confuse people. Think about your brand’s personality first, and then design from there.

How to Get More Exposure, Professionally

Once you are on top of the corporate world, you don’t have to do much work to get good gigs. They just come to you. Of course, you have to work your way to the top to … not work. Or at least not work for your gigs. Here are some ways to claw your way to the top at work or just in your professional life to boost your career.

Att-i-tude
You have to have some attitude to get those high-roller jobs. Don’t be afraid to give others your opinion, but state them in a non-condescending way. You want to be authoritative without belittling others, especially the higher ups. When you’re in a meeting, don’t be afraid to speak up or to disagree with management. Just make sure you have sound reasoning and facts to back up your position. People that speak up are seen as leaders and will often be chosen as leaders later on when a new project comes up.

Create some controversy
Call out your boss or another company by criticizing something they’re doing wrong. Only do this if you know how to do right and you have the confidence and know-how to do it better. It seems counterintuitive, but by calling someone on their mistakes and telling them how to fix them, you’ll be seen as a fix-it person, a go-to kind of employee. Many people have been hired for telling a company what they are doing wrong and how to fix it. If you can argue your point effectively, you’ll stir up the waters but then you’ll have the power to calm the waters back down.

Get involved
If there is some kind of industry event going on, ask your boss if you can attend. If you’re your own boss, go to as many industry events as you can to hobnob with the higher-ups at other companies. Get your business card out there, along with your face. By going to events, you also get to impart the info you learned back to your boss or your colleagues. You might even get interviewed for the company newsletter or company Web site. This could lead to the CEO of the company calling you for a briefing or for lunch to discuss what you’ve learned.

Another way to get involved at work is to sit on committees and actually contribute to ideas and events. This is a great way for other departments to get to know you and vice versa. The more people that know you at work, the more authoritative you seem. Why else would everyone know your name?

Stand out from the crowd
Whether this is a crowd of peers or a crowd of job seekers, you need to differentiate yourself so that employers take notice. You can differentiate yourself through your clothes, actions or thought process. Elvis was famous because he was doing something no one else was at the time. Try to channel your inner Elvis and find some way you can stand out that makes you better, not weirder.

How to Organize Your Business Cards for Maximum Networking Capabilities

For many small businesses, networking is one of the biggest ways to market your company. In addition to having nice business cards printed and handed out to colleagues, you should make sure you have the business cards you’ve received organized so that you can quickly call or email someone when needed. By knowing where your contact’s information is, you’ll be able to quickly call on someone when you need help, have a great partnering idea or just to do some more networking. All of these situations are vital to small business marketing.

There are many different ways to organize your received business cards so that you can access them quickly as needed.

The first question is old school or modern?

You basically have two choices when it comes to organizing business cards:
Old school: keeping your business cards in a card file, like a Rolodex. You can also buy a portfolio-looking book that has business-card–sized slots so that you can have all your business cards in one neat book. The slots are clear, like plastic portfolio sleeves, so you can see the front and back sides of the cards easily. The bad thing about old school systems is that they’re not too pretty and can be a pain to lug around. A good trait is that you don’t have to worry about losing your info in a computer crash.

Modern: keeping the business card info on your computer. You can buy a computer program to keep your contacts organized, like Microsoft Access, or you can just use your email program, like Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes. One nice thing about storing info in your computer is that your office will be neater with no piles of papers and business cards everywhere. You can also find someone easily by searching for their name, company name or business location in a matter of seconds in a computer program. You can also record the date you met the person and where you met him.

The electronic method helps you by being more portable – you can either email your list to yourself for use at home or another location, of if you have a laptop, you can have your list with you at all times. Just remember to back up your system every night!

The next question: What to organize by?

The most popular method is to organize your business cards in alphabetical order. Whether you do that by the contact’s last name or business name is up to you.

You can also organize by the date you met the person, which makes it really easy to keep track of people in the old school system: the people you’ve known longer will be at the front of your Rolodex or book and the people you just met will be at the end. Make sure you stick to one system though; you don’t want to confuse yourself by alphabetizing by business name one day and then contact name the next!

Another question: When to update and organize?

You should update and reorganize your business cards when you get back from a trade show or any place where you gathered a few business cards. If you’re keeping track electronically, it’s best to update your database as soon as you get a business card. If you have an old school method, you could keep business cards in an empty slot in your portfolio or Rolodex until you have four or five, and then reorganize those all at once.

By organizing your contacts, you’ll have a much easier time of thinking of business prospects or partners, and you can easily stay in touch with people without much effort.

A Collection of Unique Business Cards

I have been looking around the internet lately for unique business card designs, and I can tell you that there are plenty of them out there.  I have been amazed by what some people have done to their cards.  But I’m not complaining; not at all.  I think it’s great to have unconventional cards to get attention and to make them stand out from the millions of others out there.

I want to share some of the best ones I’ve seen on a few different sites.

From Dotcommogul.net:
This site has a nice collection of crazy business cards.  One such card was designed in the form of a cardboard cut out.  The customer could cut out a piece of cardboard in the shape of a car.

Another interesting card I found on this site was in the shape of a box of over the counter medicine.  Get what kind of company designed that one?  You guessed it: a prescription medicine company.

I saw another card that had a big bite taken out of it, quite literally.  It was designed (by a restaurant, no less) to look like a piece of paper that someone had taken a bite out of.

And perhaps the most unique of all the business card featured on this site was one designed in the form of a blood bag.  It looked just like a bag that would be attached to an IV in a hospital.  And it was used by a designer, no less.

From http://static.iftk.com.br/mt/2007/11/coolest_business_cards_ive_eve.html:
This blog post listed a lot of very unique business cards as well.  One of them looked like an x-ray showing a broken thumb.  It was designed and used by a debt recovery agent!  What a poignant message to get across, is it not?

Another business card was designed in the form of a very small piano.  This innovative card was used by a piano repair company.

And a locksmith had a business card designed in the shape of lock picking tools.  How fitting is that?  I love it when people find ways to make their business cards fit right in with their business.

And yet another business card featured on this site was in the form of a fully functional balloon.  I’m not sure what kind of company was using that one, but that sounds like a great idea to me.  If a customer blows up the balloon, they could end up looking at that business card for a week or more.

Design Basics: Business Cards

In looking for something to represent your business, it’s only expected that you want it to look its best. Print advertisements, big or small, represent your company and should not be ignored. Yes, even if it comes in the smallest dimensions like your business card.

Not only is a business card going to be what people use to remember who you are, but quite often you’re actually there when you hand it to them. You’ll see that person look right down at your card and you’ll have to deal with whatever their reaction will be.

Here are some of the basic tenants of any high quality business card. I don’t plan to get into anything too fancy, and really, you can design your own business card with ease if you know all of the basics for what makes a card effective.

The first thing to look for is the information you plan on putting on your card. Ask yourself what you want people to know about you. Obviously your name should be on it, but what kind of contact info? Do you want a phone number, an email address, a fax number, maybe a building number? Maybe you have an office phone, a cell phone, and a home phone that you might consider using, or multiple email addresses that would all work.

Wouldn’t that be a little too much information? Probably. A good business card needs to be concise enough that people can just glance at it and get all of the information they need. The more complicated you make your cards, the less likely it will be that people will bother wanting to sort through the mess of information.

Figure out only the best pieces of information and that’s what you’re going to stick with.

Now, let’s talk about the design. If you have a company logo you definitely want to make sure that’s on your card. Any good logo shouldn’t be overly complicated or too colorful. Where you place the logo is up to you, but I’d say it would probably be best to keep it close to your name. A colorful logo will be the first thing someone looks at, which means your name will be the second if the logo is close enough to it.

When it comes to something like font type I would try to primarily stick to a single style. You could probably get away with two fonts, such as having your company name in a different font, but any more than that will make the card look messy.

Also remember that white space isn’t always a bad thing. Don’t try to fill your card up with too much info or too many pictures. Sometimes I like to be able to write something down on the back of my business cards. Why rob people of the ability?

All of these things can be handled and designed in something as simple as Adobe Photoshop. You don’t have to be an expert in design to make your print business cards look professional.