First time designing a business card

Hey guys I am a Broadcasting and Electronic Media major at Eastern Kentucky University. The vast majority of my course work has to do with the business of shooting and editing video, I am currently in a design class though and have absolutely no idea what I am doing lol.

Anyways I digress. This is my first attempt at designing something like a business card or logo and I thought I might as well see if anyone on here had any thoughts on the matter. I don't even know if anyone even uses business cards anymore.

Unless your business is trying to attract a specific clientele, or it will specialize in a specific genre or look, I'd avoid unusual fonts and the grunge aesthetic (or at least tone it down).

Keep in mind that contrast plays an important role in design, whether that comes from size, color, tone, texture, etc. That contrast can play an important role in information hierarchy as well. You want to determine which pieces of information deserve what sort of attention, and then design them accordingly.

Get all your content away from the edges. This will serve two purposes: content too close to the edge usually creates a tension that you don't want in something like a business card; there's a mechanical need for "safe area" as well, due to printing tolerances which can end up chopping off your content, or at least trimming the border too close to it.

Give yourself a title. Doesn't really matter what, just something to identify your relationship with the company and/or the role you play.

People generally can recognize an email address and a telephone number, so ditch those words and just put the content. Or use illustrations/symbols to represent them.

Think about how the eye will move through the content on the card. This will be influenced heavily by the information hierarchy you use, as well as the layout.

You said you're in a design class. How about asking your classmates or professor to critique it for you?

What's on the back?

Thanks for the input, It's appreciated. I have cutoff zones in the original PSD, I just cropped them out so it would give people more of an idea of what the final product would look like. Having the cutoff areas there seemed to confuse a few people I showed it to at first. They wanted to know why there was so much room around the sides and why everything was in the center.
I will be getting critiques from my professor and class. Was just looking for more opinions from anyone who might have some experience.'

I haven't thought about the back yet. If I were to end up coming up with something that I thought was usable do most places that print cards offer front and back printing without doubling the cost?

I'm not talking about bleed, I'm talking about the live area (safe area). When doing a full-bleed print, you have three spaces to account for: live, trim, and bleed. Trim is the final size of your card when all is said and done. Bleed you know about already. Live is the area within your card that you place anything you're not willing to accidentally have lost to the trimming or registration process.

How much space should I be leaving? The way I set it up was to make a canvas that was 3.75 x 2.25 inches. Then I flagged off 35 pixels from the side which I thought would for sure be cut off, then another 35 inside that which I placed everything inside of. I guess what we are seeing here is the crop inside that innermost line.

Does that sound like their is enough on the outside for safety?

Nightdiver13 has done a great job of explaining everything.
Therefore, I will only answer your question about business card print pricing.

There is heavy competition in this area - therefore, you will find that most printers don't charge double the price for printing double sided. They shouldn't anyway - as double the amount of paper isn't used.

Another important factor is to make you you understand the quality of the card you are ordering (mainly the underlying paper stock). You may have a fantastic design - however, if it is printed on something that looks very cheap - it wouldn't give you a good impression.

You should also go for a low quantity. You will see many offers for 250+ business cards.
However, unless you are a good networker - you will probably use 20-30 cards and have the others piling dust. This also gives you the flexibility to choose another design - as you may well get more comments from the actual recipients of your cards.

We do printing, but I am not going to tout my services here - I'm sure it isn't allowed and it is my first post - so I am sure people will be cynical! If you would like a quote then please PM me.
Otherwise, any more advice, then please reply to thread.

^ Thanks for the advice. If I come up with anything that I feel like it would actually be nice to print I will PM you while I am shopping around, I really know next to nothing about this kind of design or printing. This assignment just seemed like a good excuse to try and come up with something that may actually be worth doing.

If I do come up with something I want printed what is the best way to deliver the design to the printer? Do they just want a jpg/png? Also is there a standard area I should leave for bleed and the other safety areas that Nightdiver13 discussed? After reading his comments I tried to do a little research but I didn't come up with a very consistent number.

solepatch wrote in post #15601670
^ Thanks for the advice. If I come up with anything that I feel like it would actually be nice to print I will PM you while I am shopping around, I really know next to nothing about this kind of design or printing. This assignment just seemed like a good excuse to try and come up with something that may actually be worth doing.

If I do come up with something I want printed what is the best way to deliver the design to the printer? Do they just want a jpg/png? Also is there a standard area I should leave for bleed and the other safety areas that Nightdiver13 discussed? After reading his comments I tried to do a little research but I didn't come up with a very consistent number.

Every printer will have their own requirements for bleed and safe area. You can generally cover all bleed contingencies by making your bleed 1/8" or 3/16" around all sides. Some printers will only need 1/16th. Safe area will have a larger variance among printers, so I'd figure out who you're printing with and get their specs. But regardless of the safe area, I'd still move your content in for the sake of the layout.

Your pixel comment makes it sound like you're working in Photoshop. Do you have access to Illustrator? If so, use it. It's meant for this sort of job. Good luck.

Rules for effective business cards:
Keep things clean and easy to read.
Limit how much information you try to pack on the face of the card (Much like you seem to be with this design)
Keep things clean and easy to read! (Important and often forgotten, worth mentioning twice.)

Collect other people's business cards in your area and get a feel for any local variations on common practice. The vast majority of business cards I have collected over the years have the prime identifier (Company name/distinctive logo, etc) in the top, top-left, in large easy to read print. Why? Because at the end of the day if I go looking through my stack of business cards I'm going to be fanning them out and flipping through them. If the important key information of who I'm looking for doesn't jump out at me easily when flipping through a stack, then my memory is more likely to be jarred by one of your competitor's cards following the 'rules'. If I've remembered your competitor, and can't quickly find your card again, then you are at risk of me forgetting you and going with the contact I have easy access to.

Stand out, but don't be different.

Thanks for all of the feedback guys I appreciate the help. I will probably be working up another design for a card once I have a logo that I really like, and can decide more permanently what I would like to call myself. Thanks for all the tips, I'll be sure to post up again once I finish it.

I don't have illustrator yet but I will very soon. I plan on getting the Adobe Production Premium CS6 once my tax return comes in. Coming from currently ownly owning lightroom 4 and PS CS4.

The card reads well, with good contrast between the text and the field. However . . .

Unusual and "creative" fonts often give an unprofessional impression. If I were looking for a video production specialist, and someone gave me your card, I think the font that is there would make me think that you are not a very serious businessman, and I would probably look elsewhere for video production services.

Also, the white graphic that is on the upper right corner and the lower left corner of the card is distracting, and looks as if the surface of the card itself has been scuffed and the color worn off. Like the font, it is creative, but not very professional in appearance.

Keep it simple!

Here's a couple of cards I have done for some friends - on the expensive side (UV overprint and Matte laminate...):
http://creativeduck.bl​ogspot.co.nz/2012/06/i​dentities.html

You need a heirachy - Logo, name, position then contact details. Any more information will go after that, either small or on the back.

If you have Photoshop, you should consider a trial version of Indesign and Illustrator? Indesign is best for layouts, you can set your bleed, trim and margin areas easily and keep to them. I generally never go outside 5mm inside the trim area for copy or important things, unless I want it cropped.

Your card needs to stand alone as an advertisement for you, so use your imagery/screenshots from videos etc, clients sometimes need to see a snapshot of what it is you do. But keep it simple - there's the challenge

Good luck