Opinions on Business Card.

James Random

James Random

Member
This is an initial idea, I just wanted to sound off on you. It's a personal business card for yours truly

It's designed to represent what I do: Take a complicated idea, or design, and simplify and streamline it whilst adding unique elements:

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Seems to be missing some info, surley you need an email address on there? Also It dosent say whay you do, what services you offer etc.
 
p.s After seeing the second attempt, I think the front works better with the smaller logo, and I think you should see how it looks with both front / back in black.
 
DeanZappy said:
Seems to be missing some info, surley you need an email address on there? Also It dosent say whay you do, what services you offer etc.
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Glad you asked about the email. I generally never give my Email out. Only if I absolutely have to.
The reason for this is that I don't generally term myself as a designer. Primarily I am a communicator. I just use design/typography to communicate.

I'm quite old school. I prefer to hear a human voice and meet with someone rather than read an email. When I get a client it's all about generating a rapport with them.
The better I understand them as people, the better I can design stuff for them. I've always been able to communicate more effectively and deliver my personality, which is an important part of being a designer, with an initial phonecall from/to the client and then arrange a face to face meeting somewhere.
 
sorry but that back is just ridiculous. There's a reason that most business cards are done in the same or similar way, it's for making things easy to read and understand at a glance.
 
Hi James Good Morning..

"Take a complicated idea, or design, and simplify and streamline it whilst adding unique elements:"

James, for me personally the business card is completely opposite from your statement..I like the edgyness of the card and its unique and different from all the other cards I have seen. I think the front of the card is ok, but the contact number with "oh seven..." etc is just too complicated..
defo

You will get a lot of mix reviews and critiques consider them all, but end of the day its up to you, keep what you like its your business card and it has to reflect you and your style of work.
 
Okay, well I think using a landline number instead of a mobile number would be an idea, as it would be the only point of contact.
 
I wouldn't say its ridiculous, i love the fact your trying to be different!

But I agree you need an email on there at least, not everyone is comfortable getting on the phone, especially if they are not confident or are not sure exactly what they need.

Otherwise keep with it, I like the general concept!

Brett
 
Yea i would put an email address on there, even if someone did email you, you could just call them back instead of replying :)

Give me a shout when you have your design done and looking at getting them printed :D
 
i like the front james, i prefer the first version of it though. it does look really similar to the work you have shown on here already though and id be careful about that. you dont want people thinking thats all you can do.

Im not sure about the back, its cool to be different and all, but if your mission statement is that you see yourself as a communicator, your contact details seem to disagree. i had to read it a few times to get my head around it.

An email address is a must, and if your serious about running a business then an address always gives potential clients confidence too. in this day and age, you are going to miss out on so much business by not including your email, and if you dont want to pass your current address around, why not sign up for a new address that you can just use for work?
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LovelyPeppy
 
Ok. With the advice taken to heed, here's No.3

There was no @ glyph for the typeface, but I still thing using AT worked out quite well.

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Nice idea James :)

Levi said:
sorry but that back is just ridiculous. There's a reason that most business cards are done in the same or similar way, it's for making things easy to read and understand at a glance.
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I disagree with Levi on this one, whilst there is a reason that most are done in a similar way for ease of communicating that information, that also means within the conventional format of 'Tel: xxxx..' it's hard to stand out or become memorable. A design like this will be memorable if nothing else, and surely that's more important when handing over your card, I would love to get the reaction of 'I'll remember this card/company' when handing over a business card, over 'I'll put this card in the stack and probably lose it'.

Like I said I like the idea, but perhaps the typeface is too much on the reverse as well, is there a lighter version you could use, or perhaps a simpler version that compliments the other?
 
Greg - I don't know about everyone but a fair amount of people nowadays use an app on their phone or a pc scanner (or webcam in some cases) to allow them to scan the info into the contacts. The days of the old spinning business card things are gone for most people now we're in the digital age. With the current choice of font that information would never work with the scanners so you would need to type it in manually.

Also I would put money on a fair few people (who aren't designers) asking what those numbers are for, it's not clear, we assume it's a telephone number.

You've also got language barriers to consider, digits have no language barrier but words do, one is not one in france for example.

If there isn't a reason for it why is it that all big companies use plain understandable text/fonts for their important contact information, a design can be memorable while still being clear to understand. Even the thread we had with fancy business cards all had easy to read contact information.

I'd also love to see what Berry reckons to the contact info side.
 
Levi said:
Greg - I don't know about everyone but a fair amount of people nowadays use an app on their phone or a pc scanner (or webcam in some cases) to allow them to scan the info into the contacts. The days of the old spinning business card things are gone for most people now we're in the digital age. With the current choice of font that information would never work with the scanners so you would need to type it in manually.
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A fine point. But I generally don't aim for the big businesses. And most of the small independent wouldn't use such technology, I fancy.
I can at least test drive the idea. If enough people say 'Hey what's the numbers for?' I can change it easily enough.
 
James Random said:
A fine point. But I generally don't aim for the big businesses. And most of the small independent wouldn't use such technology, I fancy.
I can at least test drive the idea. If enough people say 'Hey what's the numbers for?' I can change it easily enough.
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You'd be surprised how many phones have this app these days, it's readily available on iphone, android, win mo and symbian, with a fair few touting it as a feature (or atleast they were). Then all you have to do is plug your phone in and sync with outlook (or whatever)

Like I say it's just the back I'm having issue with, the front is fine as it's more about your branding.
 
Levi said:
You'd be surprised how many phones have this app these days, it's readily available on iphone, android, win mo and symbian, with a fair few touting it as a feature (or atleast they were). Then all you have to do is plug your phone in and sync with outlook (or whatever)

Like I say it's just the back I'm having issue with, the front is fine as it's more about your branding.
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Yeah. But I'm reluctant to let gimmicks affect the way I design.

I don't think the future is that we designers can only do certain things in certain ways because of lazy iphone users.
I don't fancy the idea of my number being idly scanned into a phone and then promptly forgotten about because
the action of scanning in the card means they pay less attention to it than if they'd had to type in the number by hand.

If someone is canvassing design companies for the best price (or something) what's to stop me becoming just one
of ten or eleven scanned numbers and not really standing out? The one that wouldn't scan, of course.

In my opinion anyway.
 
James Random said:
If someone is canvassing design companies for the best price (or something) what's to stop me becoming just one
of ten or eleven scanned numbers and not really standing out? The one that wouldn't scan, of course.

In my opinion anyway.
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Ive got to disagree. In this situation if your card wouldnt scan, it would go in the bin, people arent being lazy using scanning technology, they are trying to work productively. Ive worked in crazily busy studios and the best bits of tech are always the ones that makes your everyday chores easier and quicker so you can spend more time on actually working.
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VAPORIZER REVIEW
 
davewill said:
Ive got to disagree. In this situation if your card wouldnt scan, it would go in the bin, people arent being lazy using scanning technology, they are trying to work productively. Ive worked in crazily busy studios and the best bits of tech are always the ones that makes your everyday chores easier and quicker so you can spend more time on actually working.
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Like I said. I'm unwilling to let gimmicks rule my designing.
But I can meet it half way by producing both a lettered and numbered version
and handing them out as applicable.
 
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