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-- business cards
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quote:

Originally posted by Invasionmix I'm planning to get some business cards myself. I've seen some really nice frosted/transparent ones from like graphic designers, etc. What's your opinion upon receiving one or seeing one... Tacky? Stylish? Catches your eye? Too much? Kinda like this:

ive been given one of those once. they are very nice but a little too much (in regards to showing off/making an impression).

the coolest biz card I ever got was the Guv metal V.I.P card..

I wonder if they still give it out...

quote:

Originally posted by DeleteFromUsers Sounds expensive and difficult to write on. But very cool. Post a pic?

when i get home

quote:

Originally posted by Shaya007 the coolest biz card I ever got was the Guv metal V.I.P card.. I wonder if they still give it out...

vip cards are not business cards though.
they serve a totally different purpose.

4by6.com is pretty good place to process your biz cards. Satin finish is quite excellent and durable....

make sure the people you get it printed from will give you a proof before they go ahead and make 1000 of them.

I had a printer do flyers for me without a proof and it looked like ass (the black wasn't black.... more like green) and then found a printer who was so into his work that we could talk for hours about foiling and rounded edges and designs and everything else.

I designed my cards myself, but finding a good printer who will do good quality cards for cheap and who will be able to give you a good honest quote is key. If these are your first ones, then stay simple, but once yuo start developping your cards and your identity, ask your printer about different types of paper, different grades of white, printing techniques, etc, and experiment.

If you're looking for an easy out on this go here:

http://www.moo.com/products/minicards.php

I've used www.overnightprints.com with success in the past.

my cards were just shipped via UPS from hong kong. i'll let you guys know how they turn out.

quote:

Originally posted by chinamon my cards were just shipped via UPS from hong kong. i'll let you guys know how they turn out.

...carbons? I think I just heard the Earth cry.

I believe the least expensive way to get business cards is design and print them yourself on pre-cut business card stock (from staples). With that said, you would still need a)a good designer and b)a decent printer. I've done this myself and they can look pretty good. Mind you, I happen to be a designer

If you want to design them yourself you should try and avoid publisher and especially photoshop. Photoshop is great for graphics but doesn't work well for text, especially small text. You need to keep the text as text (vector) in order to preserve the resolution. If photoshop is your only option then make sure your resolution is set very very high. You'll still loose the option for kerning(text spacing) though.

With that said, if you want them professionally designed there are a few ways you can save money. In my opinion I wouldn't recommend using a template as I haven't found many of them to do much from a branding perspective. Do you have a logo?

quote:

Originally posted by LittlePoonzgirl ...carbons? I think I just heard the Earth cry. I believe the least expensive way to get business cards is design and print them yourself on pre-cut business card stock (from staples). With that said, you would still need a)a good designer and b)a decent printer. I've done this myself and they can look pretty good. Mind you, I happen to be a designer If you want to design them yourself you should try and avoid publisher and especially photoshop. Photoshop is great for graphics but doesn't work well for text, especially small text. You need to keep the text as text (vector) in order to preserve the resolution. If photoshop is your only option then make sure your resolution is set very very high. You'll still loose the option for kerning(text spacing) though. With that said, if you want them professionally designed there are a few ways you can save money. In my opinion I wouldn't recommend using a template as I haven't found many of them to do much from a branding perspective. Do you have a logo?

photoshop is probably the best way to design a business card, provided the designer knows what he/she is doing. mine are .psd files at 300dpi. i know nothing about photoshop but my sister does (she went to school for this kind of stuff) so i trust her with it.

as for printing your own cards with perforated cards by avery it may be the cheapest and easiest method but it is also the ugliest and most ghetto. ive been handed those cards a few times and i was even embarrassed to receive one, i would hate to think how the other person felt.

quote:

Originally posted by chinamon i actually just sent in my cards to be printed at www.print100.com (based in hong kong). i looked at their sample cards and they are amazing printers. i only ordered 300 (i really dont need that many personal cards) but i got the matte lamination and rounded corners free. my sister even looked at the print quality and said its one of better ones that shes seen.

yeah, Print100 is insane - the cheapest business cards on the net you can possibly find (and I've looked, trust me).

the only drawback to them is that they don't have thick card stock, so you can't get those thick feeling cards, but everything else is top notch, really!

and you can't complain for getting a set of 300 laminated, rounded corner cards for what, $30, shipped to your door!

p.s. - anyone figures out who does those transparent cards, I'd love to know as well! I'm sure they cost like $2-3 per card.

quote:

Originally posted by Crazy Serb yeah, Print100 is insane - the cheapest business cards on the net you can possibly find (and I've looked, trust me). the only drawback to them is that they don't have thick card stock, so you can't get those thick feeling cards, but everything else is top notch, really! and you can't complain for getting a set of 300 laminated, rounded corner cards for what, $30, shipped to your door! p.s. - anyone figures out who does those transparent cards, I'd love to know as well! I'm sure they cost like $2-3 per card.

We provide two type of paper stock for card products:
1. 230gsm glossy stock paper (with matt lamination)
2. 250gsm Super white stock paper

For letterhead, envelope, memo and compliments, we use 100gsm Woodfree paper.

And for sticker, we use 100gsm Sticker.

the same that i saw for 230gsm glossy stock paper with matte lamination was pretty damn thick. i mean, it wasn't flimsy.

i just received my cards from UPS.
i sent in my card for printing last friday and i received them today. exactly one week. not bad considering it came from hong kong.
the 230gsm card stock is a little on the thin side but thats okay cuz that leaves room for a few more cards in my waller. the print quality is very good. im happy with print100.

Go with Digital Propaganda. I work at a design studio in Toronto and we use their services often.

quote:

Originally posted by chinamon photoshop is probably the best way to design a business card, provided the designer knows what he/she is doing. mine are .psd files at 300dpi. i know nothing about photoshop but my sister does (she went to school for this kind of stuff) so i trust her with it. as for printing your own cards with perforated cards by avery it may be the cheapest and easiest method but it is also the ugliest and most ghetto. ive been handed those cards a few times and i was even embarrassed to receive one, i would hate to think how the other person felt.

At the risk of sounding like I have a stick up my ass (and I'm sure you'll think it's the size of tree after you read this)...

Photoshop doesn't allow you to track or kern your lettering. This downside is in addition to turning your letters into pixels (a very bad idea from a typeography point of view). 300dpi is standard for all colour prints so I would recommend going higher than that for smaller text in photoshop (ie. not a headline size) IF you are going that route. But really, designing the GRAPHIC part of the business card is great in photoshop though it should be linked into a layout or design program (InDesign, Quark, Illustrator) to preserve the integrity of the text.

I understand you trust your sister...perhaps she was only using photoshop for part of the process? As an industry professional all I can say is that I would highly discourage my company (or a future client if I choose to stop working in-house) from putting small size text into photoshop.

And yes, the do-it-yourself cards can look a bit ghetto depending on what brand you use and how they are designed but if you're a poor student with great ideas then it can still work.

P.S. All the agencies I've worked with use .tiff for high-res rather than .psd as it's not application specific

Business cards make awesome joint filters.

quote:

Originally posted by Crazy Serb yeah, Print100 is insane - the cheapest business cards on the net you can possibly find (and I've looked, trust me). the only drawback to them is that they don't have thick card stock, so you can't get those thick feeling cards, but everything else is top notch, really! and you can't complain for getting a set of 300 laminated, rounded corner cards for what, $30, shipped to your door! p.s. - anyone figures out who does those transparent cards, I'd love to know as well! I'm sure they cost like $2-3 per card.

I can complain!

1) Outsourcing like this hurts our local economy and especially small businesses.

2) Think of the environmental impact! Locally manufactured products cuts down our energy/carbon consumption. If you wanted to make even the shipping of this product carbon neutral (and forget about the original materials) it would no longer be an economical option compared to the competition.

Then again who cares about the Earth these days, right? All it did was give us a place for life

quote:

Originally posted by Cosmic Fur Business cards make awesome joint filters.

This is true! I think THC based part of their marketing on this very fact.

quote:

Originally posted by LittlePoonzgirl At the risk of sounding like I have a stick up my ass (and I'm sure you'll think it's the size of tree after you read this)... Photoshop doesn't allow you to track or kern your lettering. This downside is in addition to turning your letters into pixels (a very bad idea from a typeography point of view). 300dpi is standard for all colour prints so I would recommend going higher than that for smaller text in photoshop (ie. not a headline size) IF you are going that route. But really, designing the GRAPHIC part of the business card is great in photoshop though it should be linked into a layout or design program (InDesign, Quark, Illustrator) to preserve the integrity of the text. I understand you trust your sister...perhaps she was only using photoshop for part of the process? As an industry professional all I can say is that I would highly discourage my company (or a future client if I choose to stop working in-house) from putting small size text into photoshop. And yes, the do-it-yourself cards can look a bit ghetto depending on what brand you use and how they are designed but if you're a poor student with great ideas then it can still work. P.S. All the agencies I've worked with use .tiff for high-res rather than .psd as it's not application specific

a tree? i was thinking more along the lines of...



i understand what you're saying but im looking closely at the font used on my card and it looks pretty damn good.

aXePromotions
Dufferin & Steeles
416.AXE.INFO

Use them all the time, Very reasonably priced, quick turn around, and awsome design.

quote:

Originally posted by chinamon a tree? i was thinking more along the lines of... i understand what you're saying but im looking closely at the font used on my card and it looks pretty damn good.

LMAO

See, this is what happens when you hang around anal designers and super duper anal typographers too long.

Stick-up-the-ass typographic rules:

1)Don't use the following fonts in your design:

Arial
Times New Roman
Helvetica
Courier

2) Avoid repositioning your word to be vertical. The letters were not designed to look good this way. If you must do this, choose a font that has evenly sized block caps.

3) Do not select bold or italic in your current application. Only use bold or italic fonts that are already designed to be that way.

4) Bad kerning is ugly.

5) Do not warp/play with the dimensions of your letters. It changes the intended design and alters the readability

6) Rivers are bad, widows are worse

7) Avoid white type on black backgrounds. This makes the letters "sparkle" (Don't even ask me to explain this)

8) Only use decorative typefaces for headlines

9) Serif fonts are best for long copy as they aid readability

10) And NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE USE COMIC SANS!!! lol



Yes, I am ruined forever now having this stuck in my brain

quote:

Originally posted by LittlePoonzgirl I can complain! 1) Outsourcing like this hurts our local economy and especially small businesses.

No it most certainly does not. Outsourcing aides in natural (capitalistic) selection, stomping out dinosaurs who insist on the *old* way while providing inspiration for others to innovate.

Society ultimately benefits from this seemingly unnatural competition. We must fight to keep local business AND (whether the local business survives or not) the consumer ultimately reaps the benefits (i.e. lower prices, higher quality, more selection, better service, etc.)

quote:

2) Think of the environmental impact! Locally manufactured products cuts down our energy/carbon consumption. If you wanted to make even the shipping of this product carbon neutral (and forget about the original materials) it would no longer be an economical option compared to the competition.

You can't be certain of this. Locally purchased paper is not necessarily produced locally, nor is it necessarily produced sustainably or responsibly. Perhaps locally purchased paper came from old growth rain forest in Central or South America.

quote:

Then again who cares about the Earth these days, right? All it did was give us a place for life

Perhaps, but I'd be surprised if your lifestyle was considered environmentally sensitive in the context of the entire world. We enjoy a very high quality of life in Canada. Simply participating in society here makes a larger dent than in many other areas of the globe, regardless of the personal choices we are afforded as the final consumers in a vast and complex supply chain.

quote:

Originally posted by LittlePoonzgirl I can complain! 1) Outsourcing like this hurts our local economy and especially small businesses. 2) Think of the environmental impact! Locally manufactured products cuts down our energy/carbon consumption. If you wanted to make even the shipping of this product carbon neutral (and forget about the original materials) it would no longer be an economical option compared to the competition. Then again who cares about the Earth these days, right? All it did was give us a place for life

and your point is...?

in the end, nobody gives a damn about local economy if they're saving $50-100 on a set of cards, as that helps their own "local" economy (ie. their wallet).

just saying...

then again, if the locals were providing such service in that price range, I would be more than happy to support them

quote:

Originally posted by LittlePoonzgirl At the risk of sounding like I have a stick up my ass (and I'm sure you'll think it's the size of tree after you read this)... Photoshop doesn't allow you to track or kern your lettering.

I use Illustrator for all my type, but you're wrong here. PS CS3 has tracking and kerning.

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