BUSINESS CARDS

No, our prices are purely for the design of the business cards. You could speak to your nearest Jetline or Minuteman Press for quick and affordable printing or to www.bureau.co.za if you need special printing effects or larger volumens. You could also speak to your nearest printing company as you would be able to email the print-ready files to them. Shop around as prices and quality can vary a lot.

As the designers, we can create any special effects onto the artwork such as:

• Die Cuts – Cut the card into intricate shapes
• UV Spot Varnishing – Keep most of the design matte, but with certain glossy areas
• Embossing – A specific shape is pushed out of the card to create a raised texture effect
• Foiling – This is a shiny silver or gold reflective effect that can be applied in specific shapes onto the card.

Be aware that these effects will increase the cost of your printing immensely. We generally suggest to clients to focus on die cuts or even UV spot varnishing at most.

Embossing and foiling can become ludicrously expensive and may not be worth the temporary impact it may make on a client. Rather use the money on other marketing channels. Remember that business cards can make that first impression, but it is also very temporary. Most people refer back to contact information in email signatures.

We can suggest a business card printing company to you that can print within 24 hours. If you give the artwork to them before 12:00 on one day then they should be ready the next day. These are superior to the types of business cards that you would get at instant printing companies. These are good quality cards, but in 24 hours. They do not offer any special effect printing on the cards in the same time frame, but they do offer matte lamination and folding if required. It will depend on your budget and your time available.

You can make an appointment with a printer company directly to go and view their paper stock. You can then feel the paper and see if it is what you are looking for. Once you have the name of the paper type then the printer company will give you a quotation on your prints and they can print your business cards for you. Some paper can be quite expensive so just confirm the price with the printers while you are there.

Think about the next 1-2 years projection of the company, keeping in mind the hiring and title changes planned over that period. Also, think about how much contact the person has directly with clients who will need a business card. A receptionist might need some business cards to have readily available to clients who come into the reception area but a sales representative would need a lot more if they are going out to clients and will be giving a business card to each client. Most printing companies print in batches of 250, so try work around that when doing your planning.

Keep the business card design clean. Focus on your information hierarchy and group related pieces of information together. A business card is not a complex design, so do not throw a lot of information into it. Do not make the font size too small as there are some clients that may have bad eyesight. Keeping it to 7pt minimum will ensure readability. Make sure that the design has proper contrast. You can add products and services onto the business card design, but condense the information.

You may also include scannable QR codes on your business card design. These square barcodes are common and allows the recipient to instantly save your complete contact information on their phone.

Yes, we can design a business card at the size of credit cards, upon request. Credit cards are slightly taller and less wide than normal 9x5cm business card designs. They actually fit better in wallets and purses as the 9x5cm designs can sometimes appear slightly too wide and start folding at the edges.

You do get the source files for the business cards designed, but we are always available to create business cards for new personnel or make changes on existing designs. You can ask for a quotation when required. The cost is lower than creating completely new designs.