Here are a couple of business card designs I’ve put together, please leave a comment with which one(s) you like best and why.
Constructive criticism is very much welcome.
A.
B.
C.
D.
Back
The template from GotPrint with explanations about the border lines.
UPDATE: Pointed D to the correct URL and added another back.
I like c. and d.
I like C
A few thoughts:
1. Maybe put a title. However, I would be careful on that one, beucase some people see a “big” title on a young person and they assume that you are serious. That’s why I’m an Account Manager 🙂
2. Fax #?
3. I like C becuase it has “web development | …” too often I have business cards, and I forget what that business is.
I’d have to say B is the best.
Why? Because it’s focal point is in the center of the card. That whole idea from Art class back in school where you’re suppose to keep everything at a centered focal point, and not try to draw one’s attention to a certain portion of the picture. It’s suppose to let them see the “whole thing” with just a glance, and “B” does it very well.
The others draw my attention more to the left, or right side of the card whereas it’s more cluttered which I think is bad.
I’m a fan of A. I like the way it is all lined up nice and straight and you can read down a line to get all of the pertinent info. On the other cards, I find my eyes darting back and forth too much. Too distracting. (I would add your website address to the front of A, though. I realize it’s on the back, but you may as well have it in both places as you do on the other cards.)
Can I make a comment about covering the back with gray? Depending on what kind of printing process you’re going to end up using, I see that screen rubbing off on people’s fingers, dirtying other cards in your wallet, and leaving marks inside a plastic “card organizer” binder if someone uses one.
I don’t have a constructive replacement idea, though 😉
Another possible problem: the variance caused by the trim marks on the bottom may mean that your “Web Development User Interface Design Consulting” line won’t be centered top-to-bottom in the blue bar, depending on how good a job your printer does.
Otherwise, I think the cards look great!
I like B.
I like D the best. Don’t even have the text at the bottom without the blue stripe. (my opinion).
Good Luck!
Are C and D the same? Anyway, I’d have C (or D), with your name left aligned with your phone number (not the phone number label), so all the data can be read nicely. I’d also have “voice”, “email”, “web” in a lighter gray, most people can tell the difference between an email address, web address and phone number.
For the back, I recommend keeping it white, with your address in small(er) print at either the top or bottom. Why? Because business cards are excellent for writing notes on. Someone asks for a meeting, write the date, time and location on the back – your name and everything else is already on the front.
I completely agree with Kenny (comment 4). B has the simplicity and whitespace that seems to attract me to a and b, and b has the central focal point allowing viewing of the entire card at a glance.
A picture speaks 16 words.
Though you probably won’t be doing is in
mspaint.I think C+D are the best. Clear presentation of the info and good use of space and coloring to group the various pieces into understandable chunks.
Also, C+D, as far as I can tell, are the same.
C. I personally prefer ‘Tel’ and ‘WWW’.
C or D, the accent dark blue on the bottom looks nice and sets off the logo above it.
Just wanted to share one personal note. I have a company-provided business card. It has the company logo in the top left, my name and title in the top right, the mailing address in the bottom left, and my voice, fax, and email information in the bottom right. Personally I don’t like the way it’s laid out – there are four distinct things to look at, and I don’t know where to go first when I’m looking at the card. But then I didn’t get to pick it out. 🙂
As far as the ‘center’ idea that some others have mentioned. I can see how that might have merit in an art project, but on a business card that’s designed to convey specific information, I don’t think that’s the right approach to take. I think that your card should force the person viewing it to follow a logical progression from the most important information to the least important. That being said, I again think design A is good, but could be better if you laid out information in this order, from top to bottom.
Who are you? (King Design: Alex King)
What do you do? (Web Development | User Interface Design | Consulting)
Where can I find out more? (Website address)
How can I get in touch with you (Email and phone)
I think this would be the most straightforward and easy to digest layout. But then, that may simply be a reflection of the way I tend to process information. I haven’t done any hard research on this. 🙂
C and D look the same to me. My vote for a combo between B and C/D.
I like C. Can’t quite put my finger on it…. but it stands out, looks classy, and doesn’t feel cluttered.
Just my $0.02
A has too much empty space in the middle
B looks perfect, just it needs something on the right to fill up space… maybe an abstract drawing of some lines that look like they could be found in an architect’s sketchbook… high tech
C is ugly with the color contrast between the red border and the dark blue on the bottom… it makes it look so out of place.
D is looks identical to C.
The Back of D is ugly… the gray is too intense and again, color contrast of the red and blue borders with the rest of the card. A border is not meant to be the first thing the eye notices, in fact, maybe not noticed at all… Just to compliment the content and to fill things up.. Emptiness is ugly, visual business is ugly too. I’m thinking maybe have a paper that has flecks of colored paper in it, just to make it not be pure white… and the fibers of the paper should be big. Don’t make anything absolute white, it’s too bright on the eyes. That’s why books are not printed on white paper: It kills the eyes.
After reading the last picture, I realize that the lines were just for reference of how to make a layout easily printable… Do include lines but not the above colors… Lines could look pretty if they match a theme… Say a dark blue, gray, off-white theme, with a gray-blue border line and a silver (yes, make it semi-shiny) border line
Wow, thanks for the great feedback everyone. I’ll respond to some of the comments so far now, but keep the feedback and ideas coming.
Chris – did you mean “are serious” or “aren’t serious”? What kind of title do you think I should give myself?
Kenny – What about the rule of thirds?
Peter – you’re probably right about putting the URL on the front too.
Brian W – I hadn’t thought about the rub-off effect. The back won’t be glossy, so it is a possibility. I agree with your assessment regarding the potental imbalence due to cutting, I’m leaning away from this treatment for that reason.
Phil Boardman – Good thinking (on the back), I think I can get away with keeping the URL in the middle though. WordPress has eaten the your image tag. For those interested, here is the link to his mock-up.
Peter – I agree with you on principle, but not on execution. When I go for a business card, I normally want to get the phone number or e-mail address (70+% of the time). It’s only when I’ve run across a card and forgotten who the person is that I need the ‘What do you do’ info. For this reason, I think the information is in the proper order.
IceArdor – I won’t call your suggestions stupid if you don’t call my designs ugly. 😉
Card A is definately my preference. It has the logical layout, reading left-right, top-down and doesn’t suffer clutter (as some of the others do).
Front (A): I like the simplicity and the symmetry.
Also the grey-on-white back.
Alex: “I agree with you on principle, but not on execution. When I go for a business card, I normally want to get the phone number or e-mail address (70+% of the time). It’s only when I’ve run across a card and forgotten who the person is that I need the ‘What do you do’ info. For this reason, I think the information is in the proper order.”
How many times do you really go for a business card after the first time you’ve received it? I don’t know about you, but typically when I receive a business card I take a first glance at it to learn about the giver, and then as soon as possible I proceed to the nearest terminal and enter the person’s data into some sort of portable, electronic contact list (PDA, groupware, etc). Then I usually archive the paper card away somewhere safe. I don’t refer to the card every time I need to contact the person. For this reason, I think that getting the information in an easy-to-digest form for the ‘first-glance’ occasion is key.
When I graduated from college, the alumni office gave each student a small business card album of sorts, with photo-album-like slots for business cards, and this is where I ‘archive’ any cards I receive. Some people might want to use an album like that as a contact list of sorts, but I see that as counter-productive. You have to manually organize and index the cards, and every card has a different format and layout, making it harder to visually scan through them to find a bit of information.
Again, it’s just me. But who else can I be? 🙂
I like the first one best, it’s nicely aligned on the left side and has style 🙂
For the front, I prefer B because it seems to be the easiest to look at and absorb all of the information on the card. The others have elements that tend to require my eyes to move around the card.
For the back, I prefer the gray background. However, I have seen some nice cards that have your blue as the background with reversed type.
Good luck. You can’t really go wrong with any of these.
Ok, now that you’ve updated D, I think I like D the best. It has the nice easy to read alignment that I like with A, but with a classy grey bar on the bottom. I’m ok with the text in the grey bar being centered rather than in line with the rest of the text.
What about D, except with your name placed exactly in the center of the card?
I prefer A and D because of the clean line up between the logo and your name.
But, overall I prefer the plain A look, over D.
I like the alignment & use of whitespace in A. The dark stripe at the bottom of D is nice, but the change in alignment bugs me. 🙂
C is well balanced, with critical data well segregated. Your business name is prominent, the blue strip at the bottom keeps that data separate. Your name is given extra, but separate emphasis.
blog: http://journals.aol.[...]MIandbeyond/
aren’t serious…
Possible Titles:
Account Manager, Lead Developer, Developer
Hmm, I don’t think I should be demoting myself – I was a Sr. Designer for 4 years when I worked at a BigCo. 🙂
Business Cards, Rev 2
Based on all the great feedback on the intial business card designs, I’ve settled on these two final designs:
A
B
Back
Please post a comment with your preference – I see it as spacing (A – hard left edge) vs. readability (B -…
[…] on all the great feedback on the intial business card designs, I’ve settled on these two final […]
I would have settled for B in the front, and the blue back. The blue back to add some variety (keep it from boredom) but B just seemed easier to read. Perhaps your name and what you do is more important than the company’s name. That might seem to be the wrong thing to say, but I think it helps to create a relationship with the client. They can relate to a person more than a business, and a business card ought to still feel personal in some way. Be that as it may, you’ve already chosen… but I thought I’d add some thought when you have to make another run or do something similar.