Business Cards

[vision]

I did a search on this but the only threads I found were a couple years old. Can anyone out there recommend a company that does a good job with printing business cards? It would be nice if there either had templates for musicians, or did custom graphic design.

Thanks!

[BassJedi]

If you have a good computer and printer I think you should consider printing your own. That's how I do it. My sister-in-laws father has been a printer for Avery for almost 20 years now and almost the same software available to us is what they use to set up the plates to print with. I went to Office Max and bought an Avery Click and Create Packet with clean edge business cards with NO Perforated edges and they come out sweet. Not to mention the fact that you can print as many or as few as you want at a time. I like the fact I can change my mind on what I want on my business cards at will and I am not stuck with another few hundred. Also came in handy when I had to change my cell phone number!!! Most printers have minimum orders now-a-days. This Avery deal is real cheap to so you wouldn't really be out much to experiment a little. You really can do a lot. BTW, whatever image files you have 0n your computer can be put on the cards as a background or foreground image with back ground and whatever color and style fonts you can think of!!!!

[vision]

Here's one good site I found with a ton of music templates, has anyone used them before?

VistaPrint

[vision]

Originally Posted by BassJedi

If you have a good computer and printer I think you should consider printing your own.

I thought about this, but i really want some nice double sided glossy cards...can the software handle this?

[BassJedi]

I have semi gloss so that is all I can say about the gloss. Double sided is easy. How I did it was designed what I wanted on the front and printed. Then designed what I wanted on the back, loaded the card sheet back in the printer upside down and printed. They really came out nice. As far as what I put on them, I just did a yahoo image search until I found a picture with a bunch of random bass clefs turned at every which angle and used that as my background for the front.

[basskababble]

Originally Posted by vision

Here's one good site I found with a ton of music templates, has anyone used them before?

VistaPrint

Ehh... I have. I'm thinking of using them again because they're cheap. They're not fast. I don't know if they're still doing it but they offer "free" business cards from their template. You pay S&H (5.95) and get their logo printed on the back of the card. I never gave one out. I printed them as a graphic designer though, so maybe that's why. For a musician I wouldn't imagine that they would be particularly a bad thing...Just don't get caught up with all the extra stuff they want to sell you along the way. Between the business card holder (cheap material and way overpriced) and the extra 500 that I wasn't going to use anyways I paid regular price for template cards I could have designed myself....

If you need someone to throw together a cool design for you I'd be willing to do it pro-bono as long as I keep about 95% creative control and you seriously plan to print them. It's called PK graphics http://www.pkgraphics.com/ but I would recommend you find a printer in your own area that you can see the quality of their work. Unless you have someone else print it and ship it to you... like a graphic artist... willing to do it pro-bono... ::::

There's a Miami based printer that does 1000 flyers for $30... they're business card sized. I'm going to go over there within the week to check them out and see if they're worth it. I'll keep you posted.

EDIT:
DIY IMO looks like you're not investing in yourself what you feel others should by having a business card. It's good for experimenting. I highly recommend seeing your final product in it's intended state, but for the money after the ink and paper you're spending MORE than you would if you went with a company that lets you upload your own design and have them do it. It will also look less professional. For a musician's bcard that might not be bad, and it depends on who you want to give it to. A college bar owner will probably throw it away and listen to your demo, a downtown happy hour club/bar or wedding in-a-tux band might pay more attention to professional appearance...

[vision]

Originally Posted by BassJedi

I have semi gloss so that is all I can say about the gloss. Double sided is easy. How I did it was designed what I wanted on the front and printed. Then designed what I wanted on the back, loaded the card sheet back in the printer upside down and printed. They really came out nice. As far as what I put on them, I just did a yahoo image search until I found a picture with a bunch of random bass clefs turned at every which angle and used that as my background for the front.

Nice! I do like the convenience factor of being able to print them out whenever I want to.

But looking at this Vista Print website, it's probably cheaper in the long run to have them do it when you consider the cost of print cartridges...they can do an order of 250 glossy double sided full color cards with my custom uploaded images for $20.00 including shipping. (That's around the same as one color print cartridge for me.) Or I could have 1000 printed for $36.00 including shipping.

[vision]

Originally Posted by basskababble

Ehh... I have. I'm thinking of using them again because they're cheap. They're not fast. I don't know if they're still doing it but they offer "free" business cards from their template. You pay S&H (5.95) and get their logo printed on the back of the card. I never gave one out. I printed them as a graphic designer though, so maybe that's why. For a musician I wouldn't imagine that they would be particularly a bad thing...Just don't get caught up with all the extra stuff they want to sell you along the way. Between the business card holder (cheap material and way overpriced) and the extra 500 that I wasn't going to use anyways I paid regular price for template cards I could have designed myself...

Yeah, I saw the free offer that Vista has but I wouldn't want someone's logo on the back of my card. The option I picked out is full color front and back with my design on both. You said they are slow, do they not deliver within the shipping times they state? (14 days for standard, 7 days for priority for around $6.00 extra)

[nsmar4211]

Gah.......i hate vistaprint cards.......simply because I can tell you in a heartbeat that you had them done there. Everyone picks the same design! Don't do the red background with the old style microhone please .

1/4 of my business comes from business cards at work.... stay away from those print yourself kits-those get me half my business because people realize how crappy they are. Seriously, unless you have a color laser printer...they look like cards you printed at home. Slightest bit of dampness and they run and bleed all over whatever might be touching them. And what you're going to pay for the kits and ink and frustration, you can get a couple hundred cards done for you.

I work for Staples, and we're running a double order promo, whatever you order you get double the amount. Full color (bleed and all) cards are 100 for 29.99 (you get 200) up to 500 for 53.99 (you get 1000) on matte, $10 more for glossy. Made in a day or so, faster if you do the templates from online. Matter of fact I just found out today they gave us a TON of templates online and I spent 40 minutes cruising through the musician ones .

http://www.staplescustomprinting.com...dDecision.aspx
It's cheaper if you have em delivered I think too, can't vouch for the timeframe that way though. Chose the instore option. You can play with the text settings and colors and add logos and stuff, it's pretty self explanatory...

You can design your own and use those too. PM me and I can give you instructions on margin settings for Microsoft publisher if you have it, that's what I use at the store when I"m designing stuff for customers. Or you can take it in as a high quality .jpg and they'll upload it and use it.
The only thing not available is double sided glossy (doesn't run through the laser copiers) through us. If that's what you want, check around at the local printers .

The last complaint about VistaPrint is that you can't change the size of the text very well and it's *really* small. Personally, I like the text on a card to be big and simple, save the fancy stuff for the background or a logo. You want the drunk guy squinting by the stage lights to be able to read the band name and contact info .................or the bar manager who's had a long day and doesn't feel like looking for their glasses......

[vision]

Here's a screenshot of a quick business card proof I did on VistaPrint...

[vision]

Originally Posted by nsmar4211

I work for Staples, and we're running a double order promo, whatever you order you get double the amount. Full color (bleed and all) cards are 100 for 29.99 (you get 200) up to 500 for 53.99 (you get 1000) on matte, $10 more for glossy. Made in a day or so, faster if you do the templates from online. Matter of fact I just found out today they gave us a TON of templates online and I spent 40 minutes cruising through the musician ones .
...

Nice, yeah there are some nice templates on the Staples website, that's a good option...

[nsmar4211]

Ooooo I forgot to mention, something else to consider-laminating. We laminated about 100 of our cards to give to the actual owners and things-the unlaminated ones are the ones that get to hang out by the tip jar and stuff. Costs $1 per page for the thick stuff at work (Staples), and I do 10 on a sheet-$10 bucks and nice water proof cards! This is important when dealing with bars, because you know darn well that card is going to get set down on a wet bar (another reason not to do inkjet cards) or get handled by sweaty hands etc.
What I did is when I design the cards I left a bit to trim off (2mm or so), trim them down a bit, and then laminate. When I cut the back out of the laminating, I had a 2mm border of clear laminating around them and they still fit in a wallet. Bit of work but worth it. I've yet to see truly waterproof cards from a printer (a few claim to be but didn't pass the dunk test).
You could also laminate the ones you print at home, just tear them out first. If you laminate a whole sheet and then cut them out, the laminating can peel apart (because it's so thick, it's 3x thicker than the stuff schools use).
Run far far away from that self laminating sticky stuff. Don't waste your money! Ditto for contact paper. Looks like......contact paper. Unless of course the name of your band is Contact Paper .

Vision: If you decide to go with that card, I'd change the typeface-that font is hard to read. Your email looks like jphDps!
Stick with easy to read ones... Tahoma is good, Georgia is ok but small, Arial is good. Script ones are sometimes ok, but stay away from Old English . Easy to read.......these people are going to either be halfway in the bag or in a dark environment . And btw.......thats another popular background . A picture of you actually playing might be better to use too, tends to remind people what you do (pictures louder than words! and most people look at the picture first).

[Freddels]

There's iPrint.com, Vistaprint, Staples, and don't forget your local printer. I think that the business card is just a way to get your contact info into other hands for future reference. As far as trying to impress with your business card . . . you're not trying to get an audience with some Wall St firm or Trump (at least I don't think you are). So long as it looks like it wasn't done with a crayon I think it should be nice.

The proof that you posted looked fine. Maybe a little more smile in the pic you use so that you come across as friendly, approachable and less serious (just an observation).

[Dave Muscato]

I've been using Vistaprint for years, as a real estate broker, session player, and also for my bands. You can pay a small fee to have the back of the cards blank, and that's only on their free cards anyway - their premium cards (which, if you're looking into getting actually useful cards for giving out, you should consider, anyway) use better paper, inks, etc. They ship pretty quickly - I've never had it take more than a week, and they have rush services available. They also have a TON of discount codes and closed-door sales - Google it for the codes. I'm very happy with them.

[vision]

Originally Posted by nsmar4211

Vision: If you decide to go with that card, I'd change the typeface-that font is hard to read. Your email looks like jphDps!
Stick with easy to read ones... Tahoma is good, Georgia is ok but small, Arial is good. Script ones are sometimes ok, but stay away from Old English . Easy to read.......these people are going to either be halfway in the bag or in a dark environment . And btw.......thats another popular background . A picture of you actually playing might be better to use too, tends to remind people what you do (pictures louder than words! and most people look at the picture first).

Yeah I'll have to change the font, good point. As far as a picture of me playing, the back of the card is gonna be a huge action pic of me on a gig...

[vision]

Originally Posted by Dave Muscato

I've been using Vistaprint for years, as a real estate broker, session player, and also for my bands. You can pay a small fee to have the back of the cards blank, and that's only on their free cards anyway - their premium cards (which, if you're looking into getting actually useful cards for giving out, you should consider, anyway) use better paper, inks, etc. They ship pretty quickly - I've never had it take more than a week, and they have rush services available. They also have a TON of discount codes and closed-door sales - Google it for the codes. I'm very happy with them.

Cool! Yep I'm gonna go with the premium cards...

[Dave Muscato]

Leave the back of the card blank. You might need it to write extra info. I can't tell you how many times I've written a useful website, a phone number, a name, etc on the back of a card. If you want a shot of yourself playing, put it on the front. A better idea might be one of you holding your instrument. Also, if your face is angled right, put it on the left side of the card (so you're "facing" toward the center of the card). If you want your pic on the right, use a pic where your face is angled left. It helps with balance and to keep the reader's attention on the card's text.

I would also recommend that you get a real email address. You can forward to Gmail if you prefer it (that's what I do), but putting a Gmail account address on your business card just looks bad. My published email address is mail@davemuscato.com, even though it just goes to my Gmail account anyway. Setting up your own email address is really easy and only costs about $7/year if you go through Godaddy.com, etc. They can talk you through it over the phone if you call; the number is on their website.

Hope this helps,

[Kenny Allyn]

Here are a pair of cards I designed myself





These were then uploaded to ... you guessed it Visa Print

Working on a new one today, so I was surprized to see this thread.

... So you can't always tell a Vista Print card as mine are custom and have NO Vista Print logo on them.

[Dave Muscato]

Some examples of my business cards:






I think it is important to have an eye-catching card. Photos go a long way. Unless you are an attorney, etc, it's nice to have a photo, but don't overdo it. Zoomed-in photos where part of the image is cropped out are popular right now (I intentionally avoid this so I don't look trendy).

Here's an example of a traditional headshot. This is a friend of mine, Jocelyn Thomas, an opera singer:



and here is an example of a trendier, zoomed-in/cropped photo:



It just depends on what you're going for. If you want people to remember you as a musician, show your instrument, though - people remember pictures (and the picture will help reinforce the text) a lot better than just text by itself.

[eotpr]

I just made some in Power point. I put a characture of me on it and they look pretty nice. I am going to print them myself.