Please Help Critique These Business Cards

All done by me, including the logo and planning to just print a couple to see how they turn out using photo paper through Costco (fit 2 cards into 4"x6" and cut them out after print).

Please help to let me what you thinkabout them. Should I stick with just one or print both? Thanks for your advice in advance.

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They both look boring to me, especially the font. What is the "logo"?

Being honest they do nothing for me and the background image on the 2nd is just distracting.

Also, you have a www.com domain so why are you still using a gmail account - that smacks of being amateur to me.

Even if you want to use the gmail account you should set up a proper email account with your host and have it redirected to the gmail - just make sure that all of your o/g emails refer to your .com address and not the gmail one.

I would never buy from anyone who is trying to run a business from a gmail / hotmail / yahoo type email address.

Plain and simple. Looks good. The font works great. Easy to read without all the fancy text crap you see so much. I like it.

I like the first one out of the 2. Plain and simple. A business card is just to give out your contact info. No need to place fancy photo on it and the color rubs off in there wallets. If they want to see your work, they go to your website.

I am going to assume the squiggly is a PQ for photoquest. I'm not saying you should remove it, but it took me forever to figure out what it was.

Hikin Mike wrote in post #11418226
They both look boring to me, especially the font. What is the "logo"?

Thanks for helping Hikin Mike. I used simple font for easy to read. The logo is a P (photo) connecting with a Q (quest) and become a S (studio). I blind tested a handful of friends without telling the name and they got it and like it.

Nightstalker wrote in post #11418299
Being honest they do nothing for me and the background image on the 2nd is just distracting.
Also, you have a www.com domain so why are you still using a gmail account - that smacks of being amateur to me.
Even if you want to use the gmail account you should set up a proper email account with your host and have it redirected to the gmail - just make sure that all of your o/g emails refer to your .com address and not the gmail one.
I would never buy from anyone who is trying to run a business from a gmail / hotmail / yahoo type email address.

Thanks for helping Nighttalker. .com is in process of putting together and gmail is active currently and yes I am an amateur. I need about 100 cards this weekend so I am going with this trial. Maybe I should just left out the www.com but just the gmail and phone number.

crimsonblack wrote in post #11418300
Plain and simple. Looks good. The font works great. Easy to read without all the fancy text crap you see so much. I like it.

Thanks for helping Crimsonblack.

raiyo wrote in post #11418349
I like the first one out of the 2. Plain and simple. A business card is just to give out your contact info. No need to place fancy photo on it and the color rubs off in there wallets. If they want to see your work, they go to your website.

Thanks for helping raiyo. Very good pointers. Thanks again!

jtschell wrote in post #11418352
I am going to assume the squiggly is a PQ for photoquest. I'm not saying you should remove it, but it took me forever to figure out what it was.

Thanks for helping jtschell. You got it... PQS

Tigerkn wrote in post #11418377
Thanks for helping Hikin Mike. I used simple font for easy to read. The logo is a P (photo) connecting with a Q (quest) and become a S (studio). I blind tested a handful of friends without telling the name and they got it and like it.


Thanks for helping Nighttalker. .com is in process of putting together and gmail is active currently and yes I am an amateur. I need about 100 cards this weekend so I am going with this trial. Maybe I should just left out the www.com but just the gmail and phone number.


Thanks for helping Crimsonblack.

Don't even think about putting your website info out in the wild until it's finished, and having your contact information is part of having it finished.

Thanks Austin Fern for helping. You are absolutely correct about the website. I decided to keep it simple (no background) and remove the website until it is up and running. For now, I am just going with what I can use since I need some cards this weekend. Here is what I ended with:

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It screams amateur, I did this myself on microsoft publisher. I hate to be harsh but a business card is normally the first impression to give to a client when meeting them. Do you want your first impression to be that of an amateur? My advice would be to hire a professional to design your branding for you.

Also, do you have more than a facebook page for a web address? This says amateur to me as well as the gmail address for email.

Check out the business card thread that is like a 1000 pages long for inspiration. Also a place like 99designs.com could help on the design end.