There is a lot of stock placed in having a professional and high quality business card. If you hire a graphic designer and tell them to pitch you a couple of ideas, you are asking for an amalgam of randomness that, more often than not, will verge on overly creative and difficult to disseminate. You need a card that people are going to be able to easily read, want to hold on to and most importantly, symbolizes the image of your company to people who come in contact with it.
You must always remember that a business card is often the most tangible thing you leave people with after meeting them. It will speak volumes about you long after the initial conversation is over. If you have a simple egg-shell card with raised lettering, like every other generic card out there, it will just sit in a pile next to all the other generic cards in someone’s desk. However, if you leave people with a tasteful, creative and memorable card they will look at it, they will examine it and they will remember it.
When people want to contact you, they no longer look in their rolodex for your business card. Most people will type your name into their phone or email and will rarely look up your information physically. Your business card functions more as a preview to the style and type of work you produce than a piece of paper with contact information. That is why the first question you must ask yourself is, “Who is my client base and what is likely to appeal to them?” If you work in visual arts, design or a creative field it is much more appropriate to have an artistic or even cartoonish style card. If you are someone who works in finance, it would be more appropriate to have a professional and serious looking business card that would implicate you run a tight ship. It’s all about the message you want to send.
Once you have an idea laid out, you need to make sure your card is readable. If you use crazy colors, or difficult to read type people will just get a headache from your card. Most people want a card to be hip and modern while still being legible. If your company already has a predetermined color scheme in its logo, it’s highly advised that you stick with the themes, styles and motifs your company currently uses already. If you are starting from scratch you need to think hard and evaluate your business’ style. Are you a bold and straightforward firm? Are you smooth, sleek and stylish? If you can come up with the themes and adjectives that characterize your company these words can easily be translated into a visual style for your business card.
I would advise against novelty business cards, there are cards made out of stretching rubber, beef jerky, sponges, or can be folded along perforations to make origami. All of these cards are “cool,” but they aren’t easily manageable and would take up too much space in a wallet. No one is going to hold on to beef jerky for more than a few weeks. You need a card that says you mean business while giving a preview of the type of business you run. Your card will define you, whether you like it or not, so you better give people a good definition.
