Personalizing Your Business Cards

Personalizing business cards is no easy task and you may not know it, but an obscene amount of thought goes into creating them. For those of you who have already created your own business cards, you know what I’m talking about. I was seriously tired from the whole process by the end of it and I ended up treating myself to some cream soda… but that is besides the point.

Why are business cards so difficult to make? Because you have to personalize them. That means that you need to fit the essence of yourself, and demonstrate the level of skill in whatever chosen field, all onto one tiny little card.

And of course, your business card has to be eye-catching without being too busy, professional without being dull, and it has to be you. No one else should have the exact same card as you because no one else is you.

Now of course, I am speaking from personal experience. Unfortunately, I currently do not have any business cards to show, because I just ordered them today and they are being shipped to me. I can tell you, that I spent about three hours contemplating on the different elements: Composition; What image I wanted to use; What size I wanted the image– Among other details: Do I want to have my phone number listed or just email? Should I say a few words about myself?

The list goes on and on.

Allow me to give you the gist of what the fruits of my labor will look like.

On the front, there will be an image of this painting I made:

And then on the back my cards will read:

Janelle Krause

Artist and Artisan

janellelk.wordpress.com

my email

I feel like I followed the advice from all of my friends and the websites I visited fairly well. Because I am nice, I will tell you what that advice was.

• Don’t overwhelm the viewer with a lot of text. People are lazy and don’t want to have to read a lot for information.
• Try to find images of business cards that you find interesting.
• Keep it simple. Keep it classy.
• Be creative, business cards are a means of promoting yourself.
• Google is your best friend.
• Make sure that the card reflects you.

Now, should you want more advice than what I have said, these are some of the sites I went to:

http://www.creativebusinessadventures.com/id42.html

http://www.bopdesign.com/bop-blog/2012/05/successful-business-card-design/

And should you wish to get your business cards made at an actual store, go for it. Otherwise, I would recommend www.vistaprint.com.

And now (just for the hell of it), here are some really cool business cards that I have never seen in person but would like to.