Topic: Business card

...Wild attempt, it doesn't hurt to post it in those cosy padded cells :

And while I am at it...





(Laying them out this way is great for comparison, for you and me - so, another shot, I am mostly happy, and I especially like the blue one)


Now, one final iteration for today : I think I am "done", but let's see how it resists time before going to print
(eg. if I get bored of it two weeks from now or not) :


(Edited by argo navis on 01-06-2008 17:35)

(Edited by argo navis on 01-06-2008 19:14)

I prefer the (last) ones without the overlapping lines.

Would be nice if the lines were of uniform width throughout, assuming they're not as they are now by design.

Yeah, I like the last versions as well. Blue is definitely the best color here, I think.

No, you're right reisio It was an incident. I will rework it asap (charged week ahead though).
I wanted to post some basic contact info on http://www.mauro-colella.com/ and get my marketting friends (two wonderful ladies with a temper) busy
on some really real branding.

This should also act as a permanent "choose your kind of display" page, with RSS, web 2.0 and "Rich Media" (aka JavaFX/OpenGL) options, for the upcoming site.

The last one uses "Impact" font all the way : designing such a "brand id" is way more difficult than a white rabbit logo.

I wrote down a few concepts I wanted to convey first... quality with the diamond shape, technology (pseudo-circuitry) and integration (blended lines and meeting ends)
were on the list also - plus the shape makes for a nice hint at a "cycle", life cycle in the case of technology.

It should say the right things. Graphic arts were not, until recently, more than a hobby to me : but as I get to be my own "master and commander"
at work, I figured the least I could do was to get my hands on the branding side of things.

(Edited by argo navis on 01-07-2008 01:59)

mmh I'm skeptical about that business card:

• it's unclear what service you provide
• to me the logo says "building" company, not web development. Sorry. Something about the geometrical shape and the 3 parallel strokes I guess.
• Impact ... seriously ? Can't you use a font that is more slick or subtle. I'm certainly biased but to me Impact is pretty close to Comic-sans in term of branding / identity. You should play with the typography or colors to bring life to your business card.

Dunno exactly what service you plan to deliver ( if design is only a minor part, you should go for a slick and simple card ) and if you want personal or non-personal branding ( Actually using just your last name could be a good compromise ).

You should look at the GoMedia Arsenal calling card competition and The GoMedia Arsenal Calling Card Competition Winners!.

Also, remember there is two side to a business card. One for branding/design, the other one for contact informations.

Regarding contact informations, you can drop the http://. People should recognize it's a url



(Edited by poi on 01-09-2008 23:36)

The Last Blue one is probably my favourite complete design.

I actually like the tan/brown coloured card too, but the colour of your name should be different, it seems over-saturated making it brown too, but I feel it suits the logo.

Correct me if I'm wrong but the size seems a little irregular for business cards, your designs here seem a little chubby, not long enough, where did you get the size from?

I also agree with Poi about the font choice, you could do much better looking for a free strong font over at dafont

Cheers,

Thanks people, good ideas all the way. I got a few more : beware about the audience, though, the Swiss market is -not- about creativity
(banks, pharmaceutics, etc..).

I got the size from a spontaneous compromise between using my card as a front door to the new website,
and the print version - so it was a quick 640x480 / 150 dpi rendition.

Price is unfortunately a bit of a concern for things like this : high color resolution means more expensive - I should keep it as sober as possible.

Also, I am not targetting webdesign, it should be a byproduct : I have contacts up to the CNRS about my project app, cause the algorithms behind
are smart and audacious (not anything I have posted or showed to anyone yet.. it's COSA 3d, but the visible beta is nowhere near to the product in development
in my lab).

quote:

---

( if design is only a minor part, you should go for a slick and simple card )

---

In short : KISS.


Pick a slick font, use a plain-ish background with your branding and a short description of your activity in front, and your coordinates on the back ( you might want to tune or invert the luminosity between the 2 sides to differenciate them and add a "creative touch" ). Voilà.



(Edited by poi on 01-10-2008 13:27)

Might be, may do it for you, I am all ears, but I am myself - I have hard times with KISS in some contexts, namely expression ,) Ask summary_of_argo_navis about that.

Ok. More info, more ideas.

1) Poi's point about KISS will not work - I want something that stands out AND I want a logo, forget bland black white.
2) Plus I want people who type the url written on the card to smile at finding the same, cleverly used as the front door to my professional website
- so I need a logo, might as well expand on this one.
3) I cannot retain the calling card concept - it won't work with the local industry, and that is certain,
trust my experience working for the biggest ones around (may be wrong in a few years, but..).
4) I will retain the color and remove the http://, good points.
5) I have rephrased the concept to :

Development.Integration.Support (to show on the card with the dots).

The standard size of an international business card is here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_size

And in 300 dpi, according to this standard, I have picked a few cool fonts and compared. I need your help "font voting" :
which one matches the Development.Integration.Support moto best in your opinion?

You can KISS a business card and have a logo. I don't see any contradiction there. KISS means simple, clean, slick, not overdone ... in one word : PRO. I believe that's a good thing to communicate.

Using B&W is the easiest way. Of course other colors work great too. They play a great role in identity and typography.

Having a URL, email, phone # on the card is almost mandatory
And yes! the card and the site should share the same brading / identity.

As for the fonts, I prefer the 2nd one from the top.

Does PRO have to be BORING in your opinion ?-)

Downsizing and reworking the logo, no question.
...
Those froggies, as soon as they get over the fence, they tend to get BOSSY (private joke inside)

(Edited by argo navis on 01-12-2008 16:36)

Who said KISS / PRO == BORING

croak!

I am afraid this KISS thing from FROGS may be a sign of conspiracy
You may get to be a prince, but I am aiming for the trone ,) (so I'll use your advice - use and tailor, as opposed to accepting without questionning).

(Edited by argo navis on 01-12-2008 16:53)

*pop* - this thing goes to print next week. I definitely shouldn't be working on a Friday night, but
such a thing is key to business - the backside will include a competency list, your opinion is highly valued here
(as usual, and even more).





(Edited by argo navis on 02-01-2008 19:22)

Much better and cleaner!

Work a bit the letter spacing to increase the legibility. The phone number looks a bit weird in a different typeface.

I found a site with a couple of great fonts, free for personnal & commercial use. Might be worth the try.

Okay, thanks - and it mostly is thanks to your advice, turned into my effort - but enough for tonight
- a much deserved break awaits me (about the font, it's a pain to find free fonts with all characters
AND one that looks good).

Notice the benefit of laying out all my business card attempts in a single thread : instant comparison.

I have also found a very interesting "theory of colours" - much like Kandinsky, only more current
- and brown seems more in line with the "conservative"
audience I am dealing with.

I took the opportunity to rework http://www.mauro-colella.com accordingly, and will get back sometime these days to my other domain,
to fix the minor glitches (like those big phat rollovers, the slider 10px thingie - finally could see it myself - the player features, etc.)

Last but not least : I may be doing some advanced web stuff sometime soon for a customer, Ajax, JavaFX, and some Flash / Flex,
hence the web works - all my recent pages need to shine and scream "a pro to hire" (and I am a costly pro at that ,))

And now the backside.. much more of a pain in the rear than it seems, all advice welcome (print day - a few days) :


( EDIT : and now it can be flipped in it's public placeholder as well : http://www.mauro-colella.com/ )

(Edited by argo navis on 02-02-2008 15:38)

Don't know if I'll adequately explain this but I'll try.

Seems to me the most important information on any business card is where a potential client can find your business. More and more businesses can be found at a dot com. So I'd like to know why the www.xyz.com isn't more prominent on any and all forms for advertising, including business cards.

In your case you list impressive qualifications on what is almost universally referred to as 'the backside.' Well my twisted thinking concludes there is no backside to any business card. There is only one side to a business card and that is the side I'm looking at when I pick it up and that side will always be the front side.

Take a dozen business cards....shuffle them.... thrown them up in the air . When the cards land, as far as I'm concerned they're all face up and I should be able to readily and easily see your location which in your case is www.xyz.com.

I think Flyer type advertising is probably the worst. I don't know what it's like in Europe but here in Canada and the US the biggest retailers spend huge dollars on print advertising and big big money on e-commerce shopping cart sites. But when you look through the Flyers the name of the site is almost always buried somewhere, quite often with the bricks and boards address in a small font at the bottom of a page.
Even if the site is contained within the body of a page it rarely stands out.

And to conclude my little rant. =) .. Not everyone has 20/20 vision. No one should have to squint or put on glasses in order to read your business card just to find out where you are.

My eyes are tired now... =)

___________________________________________________________________________
?It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.? Voltaire

Not necessarily a criticism, but is it customary to put a mini-resume on a business card? I don't run into many people from your field, so I have no real frame of reference, but I was surprised to see it.

Maybe people in my field don't have impressive resumes.


___________________________
Suho: www.liminality.org | Cell 270 | Sig Rotator | the Fellowship of Sup

@Suho - no, read my explanation, it's not mandatory, and I genuinely am flattered you guys find it "impressive",
it says a lot to me about the potential impact - but I am not overdoing the content, and even was sorry I couldn't cram in
the whole "pack".
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@NoJive, the advice is not bad BUT..
Please, check the front side again : http://www.mauro-colella.com

Do you see the www.xyz.com? Do you see it easilly? (genuine questions)

I just took poi's advice at using the backside and it was good me thinks.

quote:

---

In your case you list impressive qualifications

---

All I know is that I've done these things professionally, in difficult contexts
(SSIS development and migration of a replicated/mirrored database cluster from one SQL server to the next for one concrete example..)
AND a lot more which seems less relevant to what I want to sell.

Think about it in these terms - I do need all the help I can get :
1) guy's a consultant, front page - straight to the point, name, services, location, phone, email
2) but what the hell is a consultant (many people just have no idea - highly adaptable expert advisor, to sum it up)
3) and what the hell can the guy help me with?

==> Flip the card, and there you go "ooh, yeah, Photoshop, I can use that! And Ajax? Oh and he knows (this/that) office suite"

I am NOT expecting anyone to read through the whole set of competencies, just a quick glance at the backside and the "ooh, yeah" factor.

The business card, my face, a suite, and direct contact - first impression - verbal promotion are my MAIN ASSETS in sales and marketing,
I am trying to "capitalize" here : I am trying to get the most of a piece of paper, and trying to mentally rehearse the reaction of the guy who gets the card.

Tough call : I think, in your case, that you jumped on the bandwagon and were faced with the "charged backside" firsthand, correct me if I am wrong.
And imagine the importance of this thing to me - imagine that this lil' PS work will carry the heavy burden of "spreading the word"
and backing up a first, live impression.



EDIT : some food for thought in the backside vs. no backside debate

(Edited by argo navis on 02-03-2008 14:16)

(Edited by argo navis on 02-03-2008 14:34)

I'm not saying don't use the backside but I think the dot com should also be on the backside.

quote:

---

Do you see the www.xyz.com? Do you see it easilly? (genuine questions)

---

Well I don't know...because I'm not looking at your business card. What size font will it be? Looks to me as if it's somewhere around a 10pt - - 12pt at most and for me that's just not big enough. But hey... what do I know... should have kept my mouth shut. Carry on. -_Q

___________________________________________________________________________
?It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.? Voltaire

Well. What I will do is print it out as is on some color printer and check for myself.
Until then.

..

Que sera, sera

Have you put much thought into the actual printing aspect of the card and you you want to produce it as well as teh cost of producing it different ways?

For instance If all this is done in Photoshop(If you did it in something else I missed it sry) you need to be prepared to pay for 4color printing. regardless off if you choose a pantone color in photoshop if you want to be able to print tis on a press as a 1, 2, or 3 color job you should consider putting it together in Illustrator. If you use only black and i mean Black as in C=0,M=0,y=0,k=(1-100) you can doa 1 color job from photoshop. even if the color they put on the press is not black but another pantone designing it using only black for that one color in photoshop is best. Just make sure you black isn't C=63,M=58,Y=78,K=89 or some other 4 color mix that makes up black on the screen.

if you do it in Illustrator use your pantone colors and screens of those colors at varying densities, NOT transparencies of them transparency and screen are not the same thing and do not always behave the same when being ripped to plate for printing. You can use gradients as long as you make sure every tab in the gradient slider is assigned the pantone a varying percentage of screen.

Have you taken the bleed into account on the design when preparing your files? If you were making a standard US business Card (which it looks like you are not but the same principles apply), for 3.5" x 2" card you would need to make your actual document size 3.75" x 2.25" allowing for the outside 1/8th" of the card to be cut down to 3.5" x 2". You would want to make sure any important data is at least another 1/8th" or so in from the 3.5" x 2" cut edge.

As for your design. I agree with keeping it simple the information and it's easy readability is the most important. However none of what I see here looks too over complicated to me compared to the many cards I have seen printed. Also Simple does have to mean plain in any way you just want to make sure the design does not overpower the information which is the key purpose of the card.

One last thought. I saw something about 150dpi. make is 300dpi minimum for printing at all times. High resolution should not cost any extra just whether it is a 4color job or a 3,2, or 1 color job. Even 4color can be done cheaply if the files are prepared correctly. Try 4over.com or NextDayFlyers.com for an idea.

Golden advice all the way The only thing I can say is : it's 300 dpi already.
I take the opportunity to ask the obvious questions : should I do it in CMYK already, and what is the difference
between pantone and standard cmyk?

(oh, and latest backside version, am holding from sending it to print in order to really make the most of it).


(Edited by argo navis on 02-07-2008 23:14)

uh, you're supposed to expand the background in the cut-off area to make sure you won't get a white gutter on the edges of the business card.

Some hints from someone who has been doing this a while.

1) YOur business card should not be your resume. The logo and the name is cool, but realistically you should have all your info on one side, with room to spare.

2) Never, ever, EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER... oh yeah, ever... send something to print with type done in Photoshop. Alwyas send type to print through Illustrator, or InDesign. I can't stress this enough, if you worked for a client and sent small type in done with PS, it could be a deal-breaker. Send it to Illustrator and make outlines so you don't have to include the font.

3)Remember the bleed and ask the printer what he uses.

I like it though, it's not a bad card. I LOVE the newer version with the simple front, but don't make the back your resume. Honestly, people don't really look at the back of business cards, they only pull them out when they're ready to contact you and call/email.

I would go 4 color though... it's worth the extra few cents and always makes for a better looking card.

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