pietruszka Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Hey every one. Not sure if this is the right section for it, but lets try it any way! Im going to be getting some business cards printed as a working bass player. Who here has some and what do yours look like? I was thinking of doing mine with name, number, email and bass player written in lower case in pale grey on black card. Simple and clean, but I don't know if this is a good way to go in aesthetics. How do yours look and does that make a difference to how much work you get or the impression it gives? Im really putting this up to get an idea of what people have. Thanks for any help/ cards people put up given! Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
endorka Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 No sure about black card... sounds a bit funereal to me :-) Something I've found important with respect to the design of business cards/flyers etc. is that a large percentage of people's eyesight is not particularly good. Therefore I would make clarity of print a priority; no point in having something that looks lovely but is difficult to perceive. Grey text on black background could well suffer from this. Jennifer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toneknob Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 (edited) I've got my avatar pic on my card, along with name, number and email address. I got 50 printed as a special freebie (all I paid was postage) offer from moo.com via the popbitch mailout, so it's got both of their names on it in very small print (I could have paid for a non-ad version). Very good quality, highly recommended. (btw my avatar pic was drawn by an computer games art friend where I used to work, based upon some well-known prog rock artwork for a band I was putting together that sadly came to nothing) Edited January 11, 2011 by toneknob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pietruszka Posted January 11, 2011 Author Share Posted January 11, 2011 Thanks Jennifer. I dont want to order a few hundred of these and realise they look bot! So would you reckon white card with clear black writing would look best then in your opinion? Or perhaps, an off white card and black writing? This should take the harshness out of the contrast and be easier to read, or am I reading too much into all this?! Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toneknob Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 [quote name='pietruszka' post='1085545' date='Jan 11 2011, 02:39 PM']I was thinking of doing mine with name, number, email and bass player written in lower case in pale grey on black card. Simple and clean, but I don't know if this is a good way to go in aesthetics.[/quote] Be careful - the more black in you have on there, the more it's likely to smudge (depending on ink and paper quality of course) - especially so if it's in your wallet rubbing up against more cards or other stuff) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul h Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Most of these are really impractical but there are some nice ones too... [url="http://creativebits.org/cool_business_card_designs"]http://creativebits.org/cool_business_card_designs[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pietruszka Posted January 11, 2011 Author Share Posted January 11, 2011 Thats really good, theres some great inventive ideas! Thanks for ideas everyone. Its one of those things thats important to get right. I have heard of moo.com several times and they seem to be the best place to go to. Please keep the suggestions and thoughts coming, the more the better! Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_Stu Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 [quote name='pietruszka' post='1085545' date='Jan 11 2011, 02:39 PM']I was thinking of doing mine with name, number, email and bass player written in lower case in pale grey on black card. Simple and clean, but I don't know if this is a good way to go in aesthetics.[/quote] It wouldn't be "grey" as such - it would be done as a tint of the black - and the printer would hate you for it because it would be hard to print & hold the tint with all the black around it. IF you had it done as a separate special grey then he'd charge extra for it. If you had it done digitally then it should be better but possibly expensive to get perfect. You'd need something that would look that bit different, maybe on a textured board, or coloured (dayglo even) plastic - I've seen a lot of good cards done in a thermo technique on plastic - though it's an oldish idea now it still stands out. You could also consider a cutter, for eg. a bass clef the depth of the card on the right hand side with the curve cut off rather than a square edge. You could do the cutting yourself after you get them done (cutting round a jam-jar on the kitchen table kind of thing) - it's expensive to have a cutter made by a printer. A foil block clef - or simple image, in gold or silver? It's extra cost - but not as bad as a cutter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimR Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Goto Staples. They've got good rates and you can see and feel lots of examples. The ink doesn't smudge. I think its really unprofessional to have free ones with the makers website address on it. Steer away from logos unless you've had one properly designed - I think they can look too home made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimR Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Also add yourself to your own phone book in your phone. Then you can just text your "electronic business card" to someone you meet. Save all that spelling out your name and waiting for them to type your name into their phone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mog Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 [quote name='TimR' post='1085952' date='Jan 11 2011, 07:32 PM']Also add yourself to your own phone book in your phone. Then you can just text your "electronic business card" to someone you meet. Save all that spelling out your name and waiting for them to type your name into their phone.[/quote] We do something similar a a lot of gigs. Netbook and bluetooth. Spam everyones phone/pda. I find that white/cream cards with bold dark text look best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3V17C Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 I got some done last year as was playing a few decent venues with decent bands so thought may as well.... got them from vistaprint and free apart from the postage.. so 200 cards for about a fiver.. [attachment=68545:chjBusiness_Card.jpg] (incidentally - ignore the fact the my website is pointing to a myspace page... a temporary measure!!) peace c Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stag Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 I do believe Mr Dood recently got some done that were nice and shiny? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimR Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 [quote name='3V17C' post='1086489' date='Jan 12 2011, 10:44 AM']... (incidentally - ignore the fact the my website is pointing to a myspace page... a temporary measure!!) peace c[/quote] I was going to suggest something like that. Getting a domain is not expensive and you can point it anywhere you want. So when myspace finally implodes you can point it to facebook or anywhere else really, even a self built free on-line one will look more proffesional with a proper address. You can probably also set up email forwarding so [email protected] can be forwarded to [email protected]. AND you don't have to reprint all your business cards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farmer61 Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 [quote name='endorka' post='1085791' date='Jan 11 2011, 05:39 PM']No sure about black card... sounds a bit funereal to me :-) Something I've found important with respect to the design of business cards/flyers etc. is that a large percentage of people's eyesight is not particularly good. Therefore I would make clarity of print a priority; no point in having something that looks lovely but is difficult to perceive. Grey text on black background could well suffer from this. Jennifer[/quote] +1 I had a whole batch a cards done, really professional, execpt most people couldn't read the email or web addresses. Make sure it meets it's purpose as opposed to looking nice. A real case of less is more IMO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skol303 Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 Your business card should ideally reflect your 'character' or 'brand', whether you're a business or a musician. So a black, funerial card might be ideal if your genre of music is "Doom Metal", but perhaps not if it's Gospel ;-) My main tip would be to keep it simple and avoid anything too 'flashy': the purpose of a business card is to pass on your contact details first and foremost. Nobody is going to hire you on the strength of a card, so don't worry about it too much either. Sw***y cards often indicate a particular word that has caused the word 's.w.anky' to get automatically moderated in this post... if you get my gist! So my advice would be to keep you cards plain and simple, and let your music - or your gob - do the talking. I work for a graphic design company, so if you want to post your proposed design(s) I'd be happy to comment on them, for what it's worth... PS: if you want to be really flash, a friend of mine once had a bunch of iPods customised with his name engraved on them and a selection of his music ready-loaded. But then he was pitching his services to major bands in the US...! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 It would be worth looking for website design tips for accessibility because a lot of them are applicable. Poorly sighted people and dyslexics are the ones who benefit from clear appearance - IIRC the advice is for pastel background, black foreground, and sans-serif fonts (I admit to using a black background on one of my bands' websites, but we are a rawk band after all). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu-khag Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 [quote name='3V17C' post='1086489' date='Jan 12 2011, 10:44 AM']I got some done last year as was playing a few decent venues with decent bands so thought may as well.... got them from vistaprint and free apart from the postage.. so 200 cards for about a fiver.. [attachment=68545:chjBusiness_Card.jpg] (incidentally - ignore the fact the my website is pointing to a myspace page... a temporary measure!!) peace c[/quote] +1 for vistaprint Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimR Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 [quote name='Skol303' post='1086873' date='Jan 12 2011, 04:26 PM']Your business card should ideally reflect your 'character' or 'brand', whether you're a business or a musician. So a black, funerial card might be ideal if your genre of music is "Doom Metal", but perhaps not if it's Gospel ;-) My main tip would be to keep it simple and avoid anything too 'flashy': the purpose of a business card is to pass on your contact details first and foremost. Nobody is going to hire you on the strength of a card, so don't worry about it too much either. Sw***y cards often indicate a particular word that has caused the word 's.w.anky' to get automatically moderated in this post... if you get my gist! So my advice would be to keep you cards plain and simple, and let your music - or your gob - do the talking. I work for a graphic design company, so if you want to post your proposed design(s) I'd be happy to comment on them, for what it's worth... PS: if you want to be really flash, a friend of mine once had a bunch of iPods customised with his name engraved on them and a selection of his music ready-loaded. But then he was pitching his services to major bands in the US...![/quote] +100 Free professional advice but priceless all the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat Burrito Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 I have some from Vistaprint. They look cool as anything but I rarely give them out! Mine are brown and have an upright bass on them with a link to my personal MySpace and a list of instruments I play / styles I do. I added my address and mobile. Possibly less is more here as I have it all on there - had it just been a contact number and no address I'd hand them out more readily Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimR Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 (edited) [quote name='BurritoBass' post='1087245' date='Jan 12 2011, 09:10 PM']I have some from Vistaprint. They look cool as anything but I rarely give them out! Mine are brown and have an upright bass on them with a link to my personal MySpace and a list of instruments I play / styles I do. I added my address and mobile. Possibly less is more here as I have it all on there - had it just been a contact number and no address I'd hand them out more readily[/quote] Yes. Our drummer got the ones from vistaprint AND because you get up to X number of words, he used as many as he could. Arghhh. The free ones have "Business cards are FREE at vistaprint.co.uk" and their logo printed on the back which I think makes them look like you didn't spend any money on them and less professional - maybe that is OK for a solo musician but for a £1600 function band? The premium ones don't have anything on the back. Edited January 12, 2011 by TimR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pietruszka Posted January 14, 2011 Author Share Posted January 14, 2011 Thanks again everyone. Sorry for the lack of response, my internet has been down. Skol303, I may take you up on that offer. Ill PM when the time comes. Cheers aain. Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
algmusic Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 [quote name='endorka' post='1085791' date='Jan 11 2011, 05:39 PM']No sure about black card... sounds a bit funereal to me :-) Something I've found important with respect to the design of business cards/flyers etc. is that a large percentage of people's eyesight is not particularly good. Therefore I would make clarity of print a priority; no point in having something that looks lovely but is difficult to perceive. Grey text on black background could well suffer from this. Jennifer[/quote] I disagree with the black background, but not flash. Branding is important. My 1st and 2nd cards were child-like then quirky. My current is black with simple orange and white text in ariel, which is exactly the same as my myspace (www.algmusic.co.uk) and soon to be website. Thinking about branding helps as people realise you have made some effort in being a serious business not just some flakey musician. I think sometimes white is boring, which like a white car. But don't take yourself to seriously either. It is only a business card. Simple is the key, people just want your name, instrument(s), telephone, email and website, all the other stuff, no one notices.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
algmusic Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 [quote name='3V17C' post='1086489' date='Jan 12 2011, 10:44 AM']I got some done last year as was playing a few decent venues with decent bands so thought may as well.... got them from vistaprint and free apart from the postage.. so 200 cards for about a fiver.. [attachment=68545:chjBusiness_Card.jpg] (incidentally - ignore the fact the my website is pointing to a myspace page... a temporary measure!!) peace c[/quote] I've done the same thing, but it's easier for someone to type in a personal url rather than www.myspace.com/pauljonesbassplayermsuic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3V17C Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 incidentally... what the hell have myspace done recently?! my page was nicely laid out with some decent subtle graphics, header image, colour scheme etc but now since myspace's latest 'improvements' its turned into a bog standard profile page which doesn't seem to be very customisable, and even more of a nightmare to navigate and add stuff than it used to be... i know most people have turned their back on myspace now anyway but it was always handy for easily posting music, videos, gigs etc but now they've completely screwed it up!!! peace c Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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