Business Cards
Creating business cards is an added aspect to preparing myself for the professional world upon leaving university. Along with all social media platforms that I use such as my website and platforms such as instagram and tumblr, creating business cards is a physical aspect in addition to the promotion of myself and my work. Business cards are something which I can hand to almost anyone, whether it be at an interview or just to someone I meet on the street. As I have recently started to get together a physical portfolio of my work, business cards are yet another physical item which should help not only promote my work but help to put me in better stead as a professional who is new to the industry.
I feel it is a professional gesture and would show a future employer I take myself seriously and have considered carefully how I can promote myself, if I were able to hand over a business card after an interview, meeting or just in conversation. An aspect which I really like about business cards is that by handing one over to someone you are able to leave some what of a lasting impression. If my business card is handed to a professional they may just happen to reach in their pockets at a later date and find my business card there, which would be another reminder of me and my business/work.
When looking to create business cards I simply used google search engine. I had a look on a number of different websites to see which website I felt best catered what I want and need.
The first website I looked on was 'vista print'. One of the top search results to come up on google and a website I myself already knew to be popular and reliable for their products. When looking on here however, the price seemed very reasonable, at only around £20.00 for a batch of 500 business cards. Although this seemed cheaper than I had been expecting, 500 business cards is defiantly far more than I would need just to get me started. When looking at the designs which can be seem below, nothing really caught my eye. Ive found through looking at several websites that you are normally given the option to either upload your ready made design to the browser or you can use a template provided by the site. Although I really would like to create my own business cards and feel I could do so quite easily using the skills I have with photoshop, I would like to keep the designing of my own business cards to possibly when I have my own logo created for my brand and I am further on in my career and know what it is I need ect. As at this early stage in my career, Im very unsure what I want to do, I therefore feel just a small number of suitably made business cards that don't take too much time or money to make are more so what I need.
Vistaprint
http://www.vistaprint.co.uk/
Gotprint
The following website I looked at charged only £6.00 for 100 business cards! This was obviously very cheap and I am looking to produce some business cards at an affordable amount, however I know that for business cards to be this cheap, the quality would not be brilliant. I am willing to pay more than this for business cards providing I get what I pay for and the quality is of a good standard. I contented to look on the site regardless of the price, and I found that the templates on the website were very basic and did not look as professional as I would hope.
Moo
The final webiste I decided to actually make my business cards on was moo.com. The first attraction which brought me to this site was the offer of 10 percent off. When I went further and looked through the site at the different options and layouts for the business cards I was really surpassed. There was a lot of options in terms of papers, quality, shapes and sizes of business cards. All of the layouts were very modern exactly what I was hoping for in terms of a pre made layout for my business cards.
The site gave an option to using a pre made deign or uploading your own design which the other sites seemed to also offer.
The design I chose to go with was the design which can be seen below. I already knew from making my website that the only colours I wanted to use would be grey, white and black. I also knew I wanted to use the font 'Georgia' as this was the font I used on my website too. I feel it is important to brand yourself in this business and paying attention to small aspects like this is key in the visual industry. I feel it would be off putting and I myself would question it if I were to see someones business card and it be completely different to their website in terms of various colours or fonts.
The design is extremely simple however it looks clean and professional and should definitely do its purpose in terms of getting across my contact details and portraying my myself as a photographer professionally.
I see this design as s starting point therefore the simplistic design is perfect for this. I ordered 50 cards to start with, and what is great about this site is that it saves your layout and the changes to made to it so you can order as many more as you wish after the first batch if necessary.
For the 50 cards I ordered I ordered them as the 'super' option on the webiste. This was the most expensive option, so it was affordable to me however still very good quality at not just the basic option for quality and thickness. The cards I chose were 400mg in thickness, and the total came to £16.00.
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