Business cards – adding dimensions to your promotion
Business cards are no longer a way to simply give someone your contact details anymore, they are a promotional tool. After seeing a post on DailyPoetics about business cards becoming somewhat of an art form, and a massive gallery of some interesting business cards that really do make a statement about setting yourself apart from the other business cards out there, and just because the world is wrapped up in the internet and everyone must have a website doesn’t mean business cards are going to be obsolete.
Some things to think about when you’re going to design a business card, or contact someone to make one for you.
Move off the plain card and step into a world that’s looking at environmentally friendly ways to promote their business cards. There are plenty of designs out there that are using recycled paper or cardboard, it gives a rough look which some businesses are going for now. From perfect looking recycled paper, to something with a little more roughage to it, and right up to thick cardboard that adds a unique element and colour to your business card. Business cards don’t just stop on paper, card and cardboard. Look at clear plastic and use stickers with your details on it to give the business card a layer element to it. Or use tin/aluminium in the shape of a dog tag if you were advertising a business that involved dogs, or military supplies. Thick Perspex is another alternative to look at.
Think outside the square. No one ever said business cards had to be a rectangle, push past that tradition of business cards having to be the same size as everyone else’s. Or a rectangle for that matter. Corners can be cut off rectangle shaped business cards to give them a curved look, make them square, round, teardrop shaped, diamond, or the shape of an object like a surfboard or leaf depending on the business. Rotate which way the cards can be too, either portrait or landscape.
Subtlety can have its advantages. As said before, it will always come down to what business you’re trying to promote and how you want to promote yourself to a future client or associate. A lot of professional business like accountants, lawyers and stockbrokers will still go for that traditional style business card, these businesses are still in a traditional world and it suits them. But I also think a business in that field that breaks the trend will do more business as well. You will find a lot of these businesses still use the business card for contact details and not much of a promotional tool, they will still have thick cards with pastel colours, embossing or impressions into the card to emphasize something.
Sometimes less is more, and sometimes more is eye catching. I’ve seen some great ideas with business cards, especially when they’ve been themed to what they are trying to sell or promote. A great example was a business card for a journalist at a newspaper where a business card had been folded in half and made to look like the cover of a newspaper. Also I’ve seen a lot of business cards that have been folded to give another dimension for the person looking at the card, and just some great marketing ideas that match what their business sells.
Keeping it unique is something that everyone tries to have in a business card. But is not always successful, look at things like cut outs, colours, and if you ever had one of those books that popped up when you opened a page when you were a kid, how’s that for a great idea? Well people are using it in business cards now because it adds a unique element to the business card and something that the client or person holding will remember next time they are looking for a service similar to yours. Some people have gone past using a business card, there are also people using clothing pegs with their details stamped on them, or wrist bands with their details on them as a hand out to clients.
There you have it, some of the most unique and eye catching designs I’ve found (with thanks to DailyPoetics) and I’ll even be trying to look outside the square a little more when I design work for clients.
Coming soon will be a post about logos. Do’s and don’ts of logo design, and what kind of logo suits a type of business.
Does qualifications mean better in the workplace?
Do qualifications necessarily mean better in a work environment? It’s something I’ve pondered for a while, I guess it depends on what industry you’re in.
It also depends on what kind of work ethic your boss/employer has and if they praise people with a piece of paper or they praise someone for their hard work, initiative and loyalty to a company. If I was running a company I’d take the latter. I’d prefer someone who’s willing to work hard, and are loyal to the job. Even if they take an initiative to go ahead with something and make a mistake, they are going to learn from that mistake and not make it again.
I’ve always had the thought, whether someone is qualified or not, so long as they can do the job to the best of their ability then they deserve to be employed for it. A while back a friend of mine was made redundant by a design company in Adelaide after working there for 9 years. His brother who is another friend of mine said he used to cop flack endlessly because he wasn’t fully qualified. If he’s been there for 9 years, obviously he’s doing his job well enough, and it aggravates me that companies lay off people who have been loyal.
After working at a newspaper for 3 years, I came to the conclusion that if you can do your job as expected, and do it to what’s needed. Then does it really matter if you are qualified? I had about 6 staff members in my department to manage. I didn’t mind if they took an extra 10 minutes at lunch time to go to the post office and do things. So long as they worked hard, and got all the jobs done for the day. Read news articles or listen to music. It’s more productive to have a happy work environment.
If we put it into an example, If a job for a designer was advertised and 10 people applied. Say 9 of those were university qualified but no experience, and the final person had no tertiary qualifications, but 3 years working in the business. I’d most likely take the one with experience. Why? They don’t need to adapt to the job, they already know what they are doing in a real working environment. You don’t need to train them, they end up with the same work adaptations as any other person of getting to know their work colleagues and getting to know how things work. It will give them an upper edge, and also they won’t cost the company with mistakes because they’ve learnt from them before.
It all comes down to good management, and who’s managing. I’d be interested to hear some peoples thoughts on this too.
