Business cards are a means of direct contact to let us know, indicate who we are and what we do and, above all, leave our cover letter to be found when we are not in front. For this very simple reason, and thinking that the first sensation is what counts, we must flee from the typical impersonal templates and create our own original business cards .
Why do we need a business card?
We live in a time when the ease of communicating through the internet is replacing the traditional way in which things used to be done. Electronic procedures, online correspondence or videoconferences are examples that we all know.
This type of communication always requires an important factor, knowing the recipient. You cannot send emails to accounts that have not given their express consent (beware of the new European data protection law GDPR), or establish an online communication if we do not have the account of the other party.
Any progress that helps you prosper will always be welcome, as it will help us keep the customers, users or acquaintances we have. But we must be very careful not to isolate ourselves from the world, sitting in front of a computer, and neglecting face-to-face relationships.
There is a huge world outside our borders where many potential clients or users who do not know us could be found. We must leave our comfort zone and present ourselves to them.
I can’t think of a better way than to offer a business card with our data, and if it can be accompanied with the design and printing of flyers as reinforcement of the services or products we have, we will have a perfect tandem. If you would like to receive a Clipping Path service, contact them.
The business card as a cover letter
I will focus on the original business cards, and especially on the adjective ” originals “. There are many sites that offer predesigned cards for a small fee, they may seem like an attractive product, but in the end they are designs that thousands of people have access to and therefore lose ownership of the original.
As I said before, cards are our first contact with a client that we don’t know or know (regular customers, or those who already know us, don’t need cards or already have them). For that reason you have to dedicate them a special care, to ensure that they do not get rid of it at the first exchange rate.
Tips for designing a business card
First of all, forget about the computer, take pencil and paper and put our head to work. No automation or pre-configured models.
Think about what you want to put on the card, logo, texts, data, colors … Everything has to make sense, if you have corporate colors you should use them, and do not add more information than necessary (for example, if you have an online store it is possible that the name of the web is enough, but if it is a fruit store you will need a phone number and an address).
A very important design element, and that people who do not engage in this do not value it, are the blanks . The fear of leaving something empty or filling in any gap “because it fits”, often lead to confuse the recipient of the card. A minimalist design in which the force falls on a single element, such as a name or a logo, is able to carry and convey the message better than an excess of content.
Make changes to the same idea, change the position data, try to make it horizontally and vertically, on one or two sides … there are many variations that you can try and see in a paper sketch as it would be.
Offset printing
By far, offset printing is the one that offers the best results when it comes to printing the original business cards, but the method of printing through plates and inks separated in four-color, can increase the price for small quantities. On the contrary, for large quantities, the price per unit is quite reduced.
A system to reduce costs is to print different cards on the same plate, but this directly affects the reproduction times, since printing will not begin until there is a minimum number of different cards. If we are not in a hurry (depending on the importance of the printing press it can take more or less) it is an option to achieve the highest quality in small runs.
This type of printing allows you to choose and use exact colors based on Pantones, or use the full range of colors offered by four-color (CMYK), even if we wish, use special inks such as gold or silver.
You can choose between any of the types of paper that exist in the market, including the thickness (grammage = grams per square meter of the paper in question). But for original business cards, a thickness greater than 350-400 gr. I would make them inelegant.
Digital printing
Digital technology offers impressive qualities, we are talking about machines that simulate offset printing, that mimic the printing by frames and that can modify the linearity of these frames. But although it is a feasible and recommended option for certain jobs, it has its limitations.
The most notable factors are the speed with which you can have the business cards ready to deliver to the customer, in less than 24 hours you will have them in your pocket, and especially the price, very economical for small runs but it can go up a lot for large runs
The reproduction of CMYK colors is fantastic, but we cannot reproduce exact colors or based on Pantones, they will always be the mixture of primary colors.
And finally the paper, digital printers support a maximum paper weight of 350 gr. and the type of ink used (usually «toner» with different pigments) is not compatible with all the papers, especially if they have textures or are very dilated with the heat of the «fuser» (heater that fixes the ink) of the machines.
