A confession: Hello, my name is Nubby and I’m a business card junkie.
While some people dislike business cards and have never owned one (I know some folks who think they’re tacky and unnecessary), I think these compact pieces of thick paper deserve more credit than they often get! In the digital age where thank you cards and personal correspondence have been replaced by email, I love the old-fashioned exchange of a beautifully designed card.
The weight of the cardstock, the choice of typography and the finish all send signals about who you are (or, who you’re striving to be). Last year in NYC, I met a stunning girl with a perfect sheet of white blonde hair and she handed me her Kate Spade business card; the cardstock was impossibly thick and featured a subtle embossed logo and shimmery green ink. She (and her card) immediately won me over!
Last week I decided to order a new set of cards that feature my tagline and a more direct mention of my blogging (I love it and I’m not giving it up any time soon). It was important to keep the instant recognizability of the graphic shoes and typography from past designs (as to not mess with the brand equity I’ve established) while still putting a fresh spin on things.
The pink bar was originally transparent, but once the design was uploaded, it became muddy so I went opaque:
To drive home the relevance of business cards, MoreMerchant uses the example of how it’s possible to gain a significant blogging audience by regularly handing them out:
Have a goal to give away 10 business cards a day, and you better believe that most of those will come. They come because they are interested. If you get half of these to come this will translate to 150 new visitors a month to your site. 1850 visitors a year! Many of these will come back many times resulting in thousands of daily views.
In my opinion, it’s way more professional when meeting someone new to hand them a card than to haphazardly doodle your information onto a napkin or drink coaster! I’m one of those folks who carries a business card case in my purse at all times. And believe it or not, I’ve been contacted by people who took my card many years before!
What’s your take on business cards in the modern age? Hopelessly old fashioned or still relevant?
