Top Things To Avoid

We have heard the good side and certain matters to be taken care of when preparing or making business card. Now this time, I share with you what are the most important things to avoid dealing with business card from an article.

Avoid These Mistakes When Doing your Business Cards
Author: Lynne Saarte

Your business card triggers the first impression your target clients get about your business and so it's very obvious that nothing is more important than creating a splash when handing out your business cards. Aside from communicating your name and contact information, more importantly, business cards send out an overall picture on what your business does and how you do it. It's no secret that almost every business differs from another in even the smallest way. No two businesses are exactly the same. This being said, it was very ironic for me to uncover a gold mine of websites offering generic business card designs online AND for free.

It’s not that I have something against these “free business card design” websites. But for business owners who actually patronize these sites, it makes me wonder how is it possible to choose a well-fit “generic” business card design to exude a distinguished feel for your business. The irony.

The most important rule when creating your business cards is to make sure that your overall visual appeal reflects how you want your target clients to see or remember you by.

From the point of view of the brand, the look and feel you have for your printed business cards should also match those of your logo, corporate image and target market. What I'm talking about is consistency. When coming up with designs for any of your promotional materials, always think about the big picture. Every marketing arm should be attached to one unifying body and that would be your company's overall tone, your motto, your mood and target audience. You can't be strongly corporate in your flyers and then wildly hip and modern when it comes to your postcards. Promoting your brand's identity requires the teamwork of all marketing collateral to communicate the same message with the same beat. With this unique and consistent beat of your business, a more solid identity is formed in your audience's minds.

Now that we have design covered, here are other popular mistakes you should avoid in your business card printing project:

1 – Low-quality business card paper stock.

Low-quality flimsy paper stock for your business cards may help you save money but it can also make your business cards look less professional. Not only does low-quality paper stock look cheap, it also has a way of rubbing you different when you feel it. You don’t want to be remembered as the company with the rough-feel business card paper, do you? High quality business cards may cost you a couple more bucks but the respect and reputation your business gets in exchange for this tiny sacrifice is priceless.

2 – Your business card design template and logo do not match.

Your business card printing design and logo should always match. Consistency. Plan your design with your logo and corporate identity in mind. Most online templates are developed for generic purposes and usually don't match your well-defined logo. If the business card printing template seem unrelated to your logo, don’t use it.

3 – Using too much color.

Too much color makes for an undesirable wild card. You look like you're trying too hard and it looks cluttered and messy. Use no more than two color shades in your business card printing project and match them with your logo to get the most out of your color scheme.

4 – Too much individuality and uniqueness in your business card.

I understand that you would want your business card printing piece to stand out. And the way to get attention is to come up with something unique and different. But don’t make it difficult for your target clients to carry or keep your business card printing piece that they get frustrated and throw it away. (Imagine putting your business card shaped like a star in your pocket.) The golden rule: function is more significant than form.

5 – Using a huge logo.Use an appropriate size for your logo.

Don’t make it too large that the other elements found in your business card printing piece is overshadowed or worse, covered by your company logo. If you want to bring attention to it, try using white space in your business card printing project and you’ll surely put emphasis to your otherwise humdrum logo.

A simple trick: always start simple. Then work you way up from there if you think you need to add more elements to your card. And know when to step on the brakes. There is such a thing as over-designing. Keep it simple, send a clear message, make it effective.

For comments, inquiries and further info about this article, visit: Business Card Printing

About the Author:
Lynne Saarte is a writer that hails from Texas. She has been in the Internet business for some years now, specializing in Internet marketing and other online business strategies.

Branding Image Yourself With Business Card

Picture yourself. Imagine what do you want people to see about yourself. Have you ever thought this matter carefully?

Branding yourself is the most essential part in networking and doing business. I show you how a business card can make your dreams come true with great tips from an article.

Brand Building 101: Does Your Business Card Build Your Brand?
by: Krishna De

Are you losing credibility and damaging the brand of your business through lack of attention to one of your critical marketing tools in your business, your business card? Discover how your business card can enhance your brand and ensure that you stand out from your competition. When we are at a networking event or meeting a client, it's almost guaranteed that we will exchange business cards.

Very often, without realising it, we are assessing our colleague by their business card, and asking ourselves:

- Is the business card professionally designed?

- Is the business card crumpled at the edges?

- How does the weight of the business card feel - substantive or flimsy?

- Does it look like the business card has been made on their PC

- or worse still does it have a message at the bottom of the card to say where you too can access free cards?

I have collected thousands of business cards over my time in business and every time I am sub-consciously assessing the professional status of them and their business when I receive their business card. We review someone's card at least 3 times:

1. once on receiving it

2. a second time when we put it in our pocket, folio or bag as we leave the meeting

3. and a third time as we make a decision to keep it, transfer the information into our data bank or bin it!

Our business card is a critical part of our marketing collateral and even if you can not afford to put in place other marketing materials, short changing the investment in developing a professional business card is definitely not something we should do if we are looking to develop a professional brand. When meeting someone in person, alongside how you present yourself in person, your business card can enhance or devalue the strength of your brand and how you are perceived by others.

Here are four tips to enhance your brand through your business card:

1. Ensure that you work with a professional designer to develop your business card. It's not whether you like the design, it's about whether it will represent your business effectively and professionally to your target audience

2. Ideally have your business card printed on 400g card and by a traditional lithographic printer. Yes it is more expensive than digital printing, but the quality is worth investing in and a litho print gives far greater definition to your corporate identity and the colour of your brand

3. Matt laminate your card on the reverse for extra stability and style. Don't laminate both sides as people will not be able to write on your card - we often note down things to remember about the person we met on their card

4. Use the valuable real estate on the back of your card to provide a call to action, for example, how to access your white paper or special report on your web site.

Take action: Over the next 30 days, take the opportunity to review the business cards of your contacts and assess their card against yours.

1. What can you learn from other peoples business cards?

2. How could you take those learnings and further enhance your business card? Your goal is to ensure that your business card is a positive reflection of both you and your company, and it represents a strong brand. Invest in your business card, distribute it widely and you will be sure of expanding your professional success.

About The Author
Krishna De invites you to join her in conversation with experts from around the globe to discover how to build your brand and grow your professional services firm at http://www.bizgrowthlive.com/. You will also receive access to Biz Growth Express a weekly newsletter bringing you strategies, inspiration and tips to grow your professional services practice. Register today at: http://www.krishnade.com ©Krishna De, Oneocean Ltd 2006. All rights reserved Worldwide.

Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article providing the article is printed in it’s entirety, you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in anyway and include the copyright statement.

1001 About Business Card

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Physical Image of Business Card

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Anything you need to know about Business Card

From Answers.Com we will learn the A-Z on Business Cards.

Its meaning from Dictionary:

A small card printed or engraved with a person's name and business affiliation, including such information as title, address, and telephone number.

The noun business card has one meaning:
Meaning #1: a card on which are printed the person's name and business affiliation

Business cards are cards bearing business information about a company or individual. They are shared during formal introductions as a convenience and a memory aid. A business card typically includes the giver's name, company affiliation (usually with a logo) and contact information such as street addresses, telephone number(s), e-mail addresses and website. Traditionally many cards were simple black text on white stock; today a professional business card will sometimes include one or more aspects of striking visual design.

Business cards are frequently used during sales calls (visits) to provide potential customers with a means to contact the business or representative of the business.

Business cards evolved from a fusion of traditional trade cards and visiting cards.
Visiting cards (also known as calling cards) first appeared in China in the 15th century, and in Europe in the 17th century. The footmen of aristocrats and of royalty would deliver these first European visiting cards to the servants of their prospective hosts solemnly introducing their arrival.

Visiting cards became an indispensable tool of etiquette, with sophisticated rules governing their use. The aristocracies of North America and the rest of Europe adopted the practice from French and English etiquette.

Visiting cards included refined engraved ornaments and fantastic coats of arms. The visiting cards served as tangible evidence of the meeting of social obligations. The stack of cards in the card tray in the hall was a handy catalog of exactly who had called and whose calls one should reciprocate. They also provided a streamlined letter of introduction.

With the passage of time, visiting cards became an essential accessory to any 19th-century upper or middle class lady or gentleman. Visiting cards were not generally used among country folk or the working classes.

Trade cards first became popular at the beginning of the 17th century in London. These functioned as advertising and also as maps, directing the public to merchants' stores, as no formal street address numbering system existed at the time.

Businesses used their cards as marks of distinction and thus introduced the first modifications in their design. Later, as the growing demand for the cards boosted the development of color printing, more sophisticated card designs appeared, making the cards works of art.

The trend toward fanciful trade cards was balanced by the pragmatic need of a growing group of private entrepreneurs who had a constant need to exchange contact information. These users often started to print out their own cheaper business cards.

In print
Business cards are printed on some form of card stock with exact parameters dependent on national or local norms, the desired effect and method of printing, and cost. In general business cards use stock that is 400g/m² (weight) or 12pt (thickness).

High quality business cards without full-color photographs are normally printed using spot colors on sheetfed offset printing presses. Some companies have gone so far as to trademark their spot colors (examples are UPS brown, Los Angeles Lakers' purple, and Tide's orange). If a business card logo is a single color and the type is another color, the process is considered two color. More spot colors can be added depending on the needs of the card.

To simulate the "raised-print" effect of printing with engraved plates, a less-expensive process called thermography was developed that uses the application of a plastic powder, which adheres to the wet ink. The cards are then passed through a heating unit, which melts the plastic onto the card.

Full color cards, or cards that use many colors, are printed on sheetfed presses as well; however, they use the CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) four-color printing process. Screens of each color overprinted on one another create a wide gamut of color. The downside to this printing method is that screened colors if examined closely will reveal tiny dots, whereas spot color cards are printed solid in most cases. Spot colors should be used for simple cards with line art.

Some terminology in reference to full color printing:
4/0 - Full Color Front / No Back
4/1 - Full Color Front / Black & White Back
4/4 - Full Color Front / Full Color Back
These names are pronounced as "four over zero" or "four over four."

A business card can also be coated with a UV glossy coat. The coat is applied just like another ink using an additional unit on a sheetfed press. That being said, UV coats can also be applied as a spot coating - meaning areas can be coated, and other areas can be left uncoated. This creates additional design potential.

Business Cards can also be printed with a digital copier, which uses toner baked onto the surface of the card. Generally these cards have to be printed on lighter stocks so as to not damage the copier. To compensate for this a UV coating or plastic lamination can be applied to thicken the cards up and make them more durable.

UV coats, and other coatings such as Aqueous Coatings are used to speed manufacturing of the cards. Cards that are not dry will "offset" which means the ink from the front of one card will end up on the back of the next one. UV coatings are generally highly glossy but are more likely to fingerprint, while aqueous coatings are not noticeable but increase the life of the card. It is possible to use a dull aqueous coating on uncoated stock and get some very durable uncoated cards.

When cards are designed, they are given bleeds if color extends to the edge of the finished cut size. (A bleed is the extension of printed lines or colors beyond the line where the paper it is printed on will be cut.)

This is to help ensure that the paper will cut without white edges due to very small differences in where the blade cuts the cards, and it is almost impossible to cut the cards properly without. Just being a hair off can result in white lines, and the blade itself will pull the paper while cutting.

The image on the paper can also shift from page to page which is called a bounce, which is generally off by a hairline on an offset press, but can be quite larger on lower end equipment such as a copier or a duplicator press. Bleeds are typically an extra 1/8 to 1/4 in to all sides of the card.

Bleed Size: 3.75 x 2.25 in (1/8" bleeds) (95.25 by 57.15 mm)
Cut Size: 3.5 x 2 in (89 by 51 mm)

Other formats

Recent technological advances have made CD-ROM "business cards" possible which can hold about 35 to 100 MB of data. These cards may be square, round or oblong but are approximately the same size as a conventional business card. CD business cards are designed to fit within the 80 mm tray of a computer's CD-ROM drive. They are playable in most computer CD drives, however do not work in slot-loading drives. Despite the ability to include dynamic presentations and a great deal of data, these discs are not in common use as business cards.

Most handheld computers have the ability to "beam" (send through infra-red or Bluetooth communication) an electronic business card, eliminating the need for the recipient to re-key the contact information. This is also done via SMS on most mobile telephones.

There are also specialty business cards that are made from plastic (PVC), metal, cloth, magnets and even real wood. For the most part, these special material business cards are the same size as standard but typically are rounded on the corners / edges. Although paper business cards are by far the most used, these "other" material cards are popular amongst companies that require a unique look.

Collecting
There are a small number of people who collect and trade business cards, especially antique ones.

Business Card: The History

Before we are going to discuss whether Business Card is necessary or not, let's find out everything about it. We shall start from the history, how Business Card ever popped out in our society. I quoted an article from Ezine Article below.

A Brief History of Business Cards
By Natalie Aranda

Business cards are a common form of advertising and of the exchange of contact information between businessmen and the public. They have a long history that dates as far back as the 15th century in China. The business card began as a “visiting card” or a calling card. It was a social convention that was bound by some very strict etiquette rules. The visiting card was introduced to Europe in the 17th century during the reign of Louis XIV who was known as the Sun King. In the same century the practice began to take hold in English society.

At around the same time, the card moved from its social beginnings to a business purpose with the introduction of the trade card. It was a period where newspapers were an undeveloped resource, and the media that is the center of today’s advertising did not exist. The trade card was designed to direct the public to a merchant’s location and usually contained a map and directions. This was at a time when the current system of street numbering did not exist. These early trade cards were printed by woodcut or letterpress methods of printing, and were generally monotones or contained a small amount of tint.

In around 1830 lithography became the printing medium of choice and colors became more important. In the United States, the visiting card tradition caught on and became very popular. For a short period there was not much distinction between the business card and the visiting card. Gradually, the two types of cards began to separate. The rules of etiquette that came into being during this period began to make the idea of a card that stressed a business function unacceptable as a calling card. In fact, when a person left a business related card during a social visit to a home, it was seen as an attempt to collect a bill or debt.

As time has passed, it is the visiting card that has gradually vanished from the scene while the business card has gone on to become a business mainstay. With the introduction of new materials for the cards such as plastic and magnetic backed cards, and the wide spread use of color business cards, the business card industry has moved into the modern era in an exciting way. Business card templates exist now to make the design and mass production of cards inexpensive. A business card is a must for anyone who deals with the public today, and for many it is one of the most important advertisings tools.

Natalie Aranda writes about business. Business cards are a common form of advertising and of the exchange of contact information between businessmen and the public. They have a long history that dates as far back as the 15th century in China. The business cards began as a “visiting card” or a calling card. It was a social convention that was bound by some very strict etiquette rules. The visiting card was introduced to Europe in the 17th century during the reign of Louis XIV who was known as the Sun King. In the same century the practice began to take hold in English society.