Posted 2 July 2007, by Aaron
Just over a month ago I designed and printed personal business cards for my graduation exhibition. In fact, I ended up printing a few more cards than I needed, but that’s another story altogether.
The design uses the coloured circular elements from my personal logo design, and the branding is consistent with my business website, printed portfolio and interactive-CV CD-Rom.
The cards are printed on a 400gsm silk stock and are ever so slightly narrower than a standard business card size. To be honest, I’m not sure I like the slightly unconventional size but it meant the cards fitted perfectly into my C-Shell CD cases whereas standard-sized cards would not have fit.
I won’t mention who printed the cards because, frankly, I don’t think they’re worthy of a mention. As I alluded to earlier, I had a few problems with the printing. This was in part due to my inexperience (lesson learnt) but also the printers complete lack of customer service played its part too. They were an Internet-based printers with attractive prices, but in future I will be seeking to develop a relationship with a good local printer. Another lesson learnt!
If anyone wants a card, drop me a line and I’ll happily pop one in the post to you.
Many thanks for the recent comments: Paul, Lorelle, David and Johno.
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Tags:Branding, Business Cards, Personal, Printing
Beautiful card Aaron! I like your circle motif. Working with a new printer always scares me. I hope you find a local one you’re happy with.
Great work, Aaron.
Developing relationships with printers is a great way of calming some nerves when deadlines are tight.
I used Splash Print in England for my business cards. Very customer-friendly.
It is very nice to see your card since the last time you showed us the initial drafts. I like the matted feel even on screen. The real thing must be really cool.
I use an award-winning printer here in Singapore and the slightly higher price is worth every cent. He would only deliver earlier than the date I wanted and not later. I never have to worry about deadlines. And he would quality check on every single copy for export order, and that’s unthinkable for most printers anywhere. He would call my creative colleague with feedback like “Your 5% magenta will show up on your mac and films, but they are too light to be caught on printing plate. Do you still like me to proceed?” or “Pantone metallic will turn out very strong on textured paper like this, your 20% will most likely look like 50% when printed.” He ends up collecting more mendals and getting more new clients. Go with a professional printer with skills and willing to share his knowledge with you.
Very nice work Aaron! I particularly like the way you’ve used the coloured circles as bullets… 
I use a lightly more expensive printer that’s (fairly) local to me if I’m in a hurry – and I have another who gets used if I can wait a few more days!
Both are professional, highly reliable, and top quality. They took me a while to find, but I put about £10k of work their way every year – so it was worth searching, even if only for my own piece of mind! I’ll be happy to give you their details if you like!
Randa – Thanks for the kind words. The important thing is to find a printer who I can pick up the phone and actually talk to.
David – Thanks for the tip – I’ll make a note of Splash print as I value your advice.
Vivienne – It sounds like you’ve found a gem of a printer. I’ve worked with a few printers in the day job who might phone up if they’ve spotted a rare typo that has slipped through, but never had quality control to such a granular level. As with all things in life, you get what you pay for.
Paul – I’d be very interested to know your printers details, just for reference really. Thanks.
I had a bad experience with a business card printer, probably the same one you used.
Since, I print my own. It is usually more expensive because of the cost of ink, but I have full control over the process. It doesn’t hurt to have a nice printer, either.
Scot – What kind of printer have you got? I must confess I’m yet to be convinced by digital printed business cards because normally you can’t run thick card (300gsm+) through them and I like to think I can tell the difference in the quality. That said I’ve seen some samples of amazing digital prints and it is getting better all the time.
Simple and easy to remember.. nice card..
Hi Aaron, recently I build business card generator. But unlike other business card generator on internet, I use flash technology due to its flexibility, easy to build, easy to customize, and secure. A visitor could easily customize the text and print it directly. the flash application would intelligently detect your paper and form the business card on a multiple images per sheet. Try it at: http://tubeprint.com or http://business-card.tubeprint.com
Thanks.
Hey Aron your card looks really Great with the colours and its really catchy.
Nice and Simple…Always easy to remember
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Randa Clay
2 July 2007, 10:52 pm