Photo business cards

[mercphoto]

I've created this business card for myself:

http://home.earthlink.net/~mercphoto/bcard_sm.jpg

It's properly sized at 2 x 3.5" and is at 300dpi. I'm currently printing a few on my R200 with premium glossy photo paper and cutting them up. What a pain. When I print them on a non-photo paper, like business card paper, the color gamut is so small it looks bad. So....

1) can you get business cards mass-produced on a photo quality paper? If so, where?

2) I'm toying with a 2x3" card instead, slightly narrower than normal, and putting four per 4x6 print. Would be much easier for me to cut up, and cost 17 cents per print at CostCo. An 8x12 print might be cheaper still.

Or should I just go with a simpler, non-graphic design?

Thanks.

[Nikolai]

Check this post on dpreview:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1009&message=9634747

HTH

Cheers!:1drink

[mercphoto]

Check this post on dpreview:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1009&message=9634747
Cool! Unfortunately, that service is down for the time being. :(

[Nikolai]

Cool! Unfortunately, that service is down for the time being. :(However it looks like they are simply upgrading, hopefully they will get back in a week or faster. My first batch is almost gone already, I would need to re-order soon..

Cheers!:1drink

[Mongrel]

I am in the process of setting up my 'business' for the spring sports season. Your recommendation came at a very good time.

May I ask, is your Smugmug site is a 'pro' account? Part of my plan is to setup a pro account with Smugmug to handle my galleries and printing needs. I like the look and flow of your site.

Thanks again for the link on the cards. I hope they are back up soon.

Tony

[Nikolai]

I am in the process of setting up my 'business' for the spring sports season. Your recommendation came at a very good time.

May I ask, is your Smugmug site is a 'pro' account? Part of my plan is to setup a pro account with Smugmug to handle my galleries and printing needs. I like the look and flow of your site.

Thanks again for the link on the cards. I hope they are back up soon.

TonyYes, it'a pro. Which already paid for itself:-). The benefits of the pro account are:

custom categories/subcategories
ultimate customization capabilities on a gallery level
wide customization capabilities on a home page level (aka cobranding)
HTH

Cheers!:1drink

[dkapp]

Thanks for the info. I've been printing my own cards for awhile now, but I'm running out of free time to sit & cut all night. I like the control I have over quality, but dang....it gets old!

I'll keep watching the site & order some when they come back.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the quality? Is the card stock nice and thick? I can't stand flimsy business cards.

Dave

[PerezDesignGroup]

I do ALL my cards at www.Vistaprint.com. Below are 2 examples. I end up paying about $20-30 for 500 cards or so. Since I'm constantly changing the design, it works for me.



They even have PSD templates to download so you don't have to guesstimate sizes, etc.

Let me know if you need help with the design, Dave.

[PerezDesignGroup]

Other design....

Needless to say, both came out beautiful with the glossy coating.

[Ann McRae]

Another option - Avery make ink jet glossy photo quality Business card stock. 8 per sheet, 2 " x 3 1/2 ", perforated. My package is unopened at this point.....:scratch
but I use their other business card stock successfully.

I believe a pack of 120 cards cost me about $10cdn.

If you need large quantities of a single design I think you are better served getting them printed for you.

ann

[mercphoto]

New idea for a business card. Should I continue working it?

http://mercphoto.smugmug.com/photos/23073288-M.jpg

[Shay Stephens]

Your camera can run? Shouldn't that be that they can't outrun you? Otherwise, you are promoting your camera more than you, and it's you that you want them to remember and want to do business with.

Sell yourself, not necessarily your equipment. Because all your competition has to do is say, hey, I use the same equipment, you don't need him...:wink

[mercphoto]

Sell yourself, not necessarily your equipment. Because all your competition has to do is say, hey, I use the same equipment, you don't need him...:wink

Good point. I'll need to think of a new tag line. Something about immortalizing your hobby, memories of racing, something.

I did take the background and desaturate it (quick and dirty black-and-white), which nicely deamphasizes that part of the image.

[mercphoto]

How about this one? Trying to keep it simple in test, and dramatic in impact.

http://mercphoto.smugmug.com/photos/31057107-M.jpg

[Shay Stephens]

Sweeeeeeet!!!!



How about this one? Trying to keep it simple in test, and dramatic in impact.

http://mercphoto.smugmug.com/photos/31057107-M.jpg

[DavidTO]

How about this one? Trying to keep it simple in test, and dramatic in impact.

http://mercphoto.smugmug.com/photos/31057107-M.jpg


You might want to spell the name of the company right....

[DavidTO]

Maybe I should give some more helpful advice...

I love the shot.

I think the tag line competes too much with the company name, drawing the eye away.

The ellipses is not used properly, I don't think. I believe it should just be three dots and no space after. If you're going to put a space after, try one before as well. I'm also not sure why the tag's in a different font. Not that it shouldn't be, it just doesn't seem obvious that it needs to be. I would guess that means that it's not the right font. If it was, it would just feel right. So I would either stick with one font, or find the right one.

Now, I'm not a big fan of selective color, but I think in this case if you made only the kart in the foreground in color and the rest in a monochrome or duotone, something more restrained, it might be cool.

BTW, have you ever read The Mac Is Not A Typewriter (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0201782634/qid=1123469664/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-8486014-7627900?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)? It's been years, over a decade for me, but it's a great read on type, very easy to understand and very helpful in creating good looking type. At least I remember it being that all those years ago. There's also a PC version. I read this book when I was working on my Macintosh SE and a dot-matrix Imagewriter II. It may help with your typography.


EDIT: I was just browsing Amazon, and the author of that book has several others that I had not heard of before, but may be better suited. They're about design. You can link to them from the one I linked above. I'd recommend them by referral to her, she's great.

[mercphoto]

Thanks Shay. If you like it I'm on the right track. :) Cool ideas David. Round two:
http://mercphoto.smugmug.com/photos/31317884-M.jpg

[DavidTO]

Thanks Shay. If you like it I'm on the right track. :) Cool ideas David. Round two:
http://mercphoto.smugmug.com/photos/31317884-M.jpg


Very nice. I like how you made Mercury Photography just a bit bigger, and the whole thing is much more pleasing and easier to look at, IMO.

[DeanMcM]

Love the photos, but the font is not working for me. I would use a bolder more race car type font. IMO.

Maybe put most of the text on the back of the card. Keep your name and catch phrase on the front.


Dean

[tmlphoto]

I think you are really on the right track now (pun intended). For some reason the bottom text bothers me the way it is centered towards the left. Maybe try centering in the middle. You will probably have to change the position of the tiny copyright text slightly also if you do this. My 2 cents. Great looking card though. It has a lot of "drama" and I think it will really get thier attention.

[Angelo]

Thanks Shay. If you like it I'm on the right track. :) Cool ideas David. Round two:
http://mercphoto.smugmug.com/photos/31317884-M.jpg
Hey Bill - this last version is much, much better. I would only suggest that your title block is done with a font that's more in keeping with the motorsport genre. Also, are you only interested in offering kart racing photos? If not, you could drop that tag line, let the photo speak for itself, and you have a card applicable to any situation.

[mercphoto]

Hey Bill - this last version is much, much better. I would only suggest that your title block is done with a font that's more in keeping with the motorsport genre. Also, are you only interested in offering kart racing photos? If not, you could drop that tag line, let the photo speak for itself, and you have a card applicable to any situation.
For whatever reason, I chose that font over a year ago as a font that I have used for my company name. Good or bad, its kinda got a life of its own. I'm a bit leary to change it now, though maybe I should.

As per kart racing, I probably should remove the "kart" as suggested. Right now I have one card for karts, one for motocross. The motocross card has a bike in it, for example. At 16 cents per 4x6 glossy at CostCo it doesn't cost an arm and a leg for full-color b-cards. The only downside is they aren't a standard size for b-cards.

[Angelo]

For whatever reason, I chose that font over a year ago as a font that I have used for my company name. Good or bad, its kinda got a life of its own. I'm a bit leary to change it now, though maybe I should.

As per kart racing, I probably should remove the "kart" as suggested. Right now I have one card for karts, one for motocross. The motocross card has a bike in it, for example. At 16 cents per 4x6 glossy at CostCo it doesn't cost an arm and a leg for full-color b-cards. The only downside is they aren't a standard size for b-cards.Well I would agree. Brand identification is important and should be consistent. If you've been using this font for awhile then I'd keep it.

As far as size: "Standard" is subjective. 2" x 3.5" is a standard US business card but European cards are sized at: 2.125" x 3.3125" (5.4cm x 8.4cm). These are the size of my company's cards and we love them.

[DavidTO]

BTW, have you ever read The Mac Is Not A Typewriter (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0201782634/qid=1123469664/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-8486014-7627900?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)? It's been years, over a decade for me, but it's a great read on type, very easy to understand and very helpful in creating good looking type. At least I remember it being that all those years ago. There's also a PC version. I read this book when I was working on my Macintosh SE and a dot-matrix Imagewriter II. It may help with your typography.


EDIT: I was just browsing Amazon, and the author of that book has several others that I had not heard of before, but may be better suited. They're about design. You can link to them from the one I linked above. I'd recommend them by referral to her, she's great.

So I decided to replace my long-lost copy of the book, The Mac Is Not A Typewriter (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0201782634/qid=1123469664/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-8486014-7627900?v=glance&s=books&n=507846), and bought
The Non-Designer's Design Book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0321193857/qid=1123808016/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-8486014-7627900?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) at the same time. For me, the first book is like The Elements of Style (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/020530902X/qid=1123808059/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-8486014-7627900?v=glance&s=books&n=507846), a book that it's always good to go back and review from time to time. Both are simple, and can greatly improve your communication skills.

The Non-Designer's book is one that I wasn't familiar with, but bought because it's written by the same author. Just got it, and have only flipped through it, but I am very impressed, and I'm anxious to read it.

You may want to check out an excerpt (http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0321193857/ref=sib_rdr_ex/104-8486014-7627900?%5Fencoding=UTF8&p=S007&j=0#reader-page) from the book.

[DavidTO]

Thanks Shay. If you like it I'm on the right track. :) Cool ideas David. Round two:
http://mercphoto.smugmug.com/photos/31317884-M.jpg


K, so I'm reading through the Non-Designer's Design Book, and I came back to look at your card, and have the following ideas.

Keep all your type right justified to the right hand margin. I think it's confusing for the eye to bounce back and forth, and it would be stronger with a strong vertical alignment that was obvious.

I also think your phone number should be bold and larger, so that the two most obvious things in the upper portion of the card are your name and the number. The problem there is that the image itself dictates a lot of your design, and I'm not sure how to make you number larger without making a mess of it. You'd have to play with it if you agree that it's a good idea.

Also, when (if) you move your tagline right, make sure that your copyright moves to the left and is bottom aligned with your tag line. It's odd right now that the two lines are not aligned. One of the basic things that I learned is that everything needs to be aligned with something else.

I suppose that if you dropped back the opacity of the monochrome layer that your type could spill over the image more, and it might free you up to find a better layout for the type.

[wxwax]

Great books, David. :thumb Thanks for the links.