Saturday, August 29, 2009

Business cards for artists




Today I've been cleaning up the studio as my tables seem to be invisible under a sea of paints, pencils and papers. I finally have regained some space and between sorting I played around with a couple of small watercolours - trading card size. I rarely work this small but its sometimes fun to try to see what I can fit on a small card.

I'm still tossing around ideas for a new business card. I have a layout in mind, just looking for the right graphic for it. A small piece might work for a card, but it has to be the right one.

There is so much differing advice about how an artist's business card should look. Layout, graphics, information...it becomes mind boggling after awhile. I want something simple, that will have impact. Something that people would keep instead of tossing, hence the thoughts around aceo size pieces and how they would translate into a business card. The image and name only on the front and the information on the reverse perhaps. Colour, paper, printing, embossed, plain, interactive??? There are so many possibilities now. Of course all come with a price tag and we all can't afford cards that cost $4 each to produce.

Here's an opinon about business cards.



What is your opinion? What do your business cards look like? Do you have a time tested card layout that works - i.e. people keep them? You get contacts from them?

Here are a few links to business card design and suppliers.

Live Studio: Artist Business Cards
Creative Bits

Print Business Cards
Vista Print

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

My! He certainly has opinions!
I agree with him on many counts, though it's been my experience that obscure sizes are a disadvantage. Good points though!

Tracy Hall said...

Gosh, he's excitable isn't he?! I agree with Tracy though, I thought odd sizes were considered a bad thing? But then I don't even have a business card so what I know is precisely diddlysquit.

Sydney Harper said...

I agree that business cards need to be noticeable. I tend to keep and remember the ones that are remarkable or unusual in some way. But if I were to get a business card that's larger than normal, it would probably get folded, crushed, or lost (because I would lay it down somewhere).

My office business cards have a sketch of me along with the usual information. People usually notice and remark positively about that.

Jeanette Jobson said...

Oh he is both excitable and opinionated Tracy W and Tracy H. But he makes you think too.

Finding just the right mix of graphics and words to make a card stand out is usually the winner Sydney and it sounds as if you have that mix in place. And of course, cost factors in as well. Different means investment of cash too which not everyone can do.

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