Nerds for Hire Business Card Update

[JosephLeo]

Okay, well I thought I might as well post my new business card as well now guys.

So far it's missing a couple things, first and foremost it's missing elements that makes you know what I do instantly. I might figure out a way to throw a broken computer in there, or maybe some OEM logos or something...I can think of A LOT of what it's missing, but I want it to be uber simplistic.

Now then, here goes.

As far as I can see, so far the biggest problem is the phone contact information on the back might be a bit too small when printed out...still trying to figure out a work around.

Still, I've been staring at it for about an hour and a half now so what seems normal to me may seem like a glaring mistake to others.

 

[Hooked]

Okay, well I thought I might as well post my new business card as well now guys.

So far it's missing a couple things, first and foremost it's missing an elements that makes you know what I do instantly. I might figure out a way to throw a broken computer in there, or maybe some OEM logos or something...I can think of A LOT of what it's missing, but I want it to be uber simplistic.

Now then, here goes.

As far as I can see, so far the biggest problem is the phone contact information on the back might be a bit too small when printed out...still trying to figure out a work around.

Still, I've been staring at it for about an hour and a half now so what seems normal to me may seem like a glaring mistake to others.

Personally I give people enough credit to at least read the title of a card, so I don't see the lack of something that screams "computer guy" as a negative. I quite like a minimalist look myself. I do like your card a lot, though, especially the front - splash of colors whilst maintaining its minimalistic look, it compels me to be impressed.

I personally wouldn't run to make it look more technology oriented, but that's just my personal taste. Looks great so far =)

 

[JosephLeo]

Thanks for the input and the compliments.

I agree that it's pretty much worth it if someone just simply looks at the business card, but then again that's what the bright and shiny colors are for . I just personally feel it's missing something just not sure what.

By technology oriented you mean like a bitstream (1's and 0's) and maybe a pile of junk computers or something, or do you mean like adding more wording?

 

[0ldfart]

I really like the look of your cards!

The only comment I would make is about the address being on them. I do on-site repairs and found I had customers turing up at my house at all sorts of rediculous times wanting PC repairs. While Im happy to have people bring their machines to me, I much prefer for people to at least make an appointment first. I guess this isnt relevant if you have a shopfront and want walk in trade. But if you are based at home, its something to consider. Just my 5c worth.

 

[Hooked]

Thanks for the input and the compliments.

I agree that it's pretty much worth it if someone just simply looks at the business card, but then again that's what the bright and shiny colors are for . I just personally feel it's missing something just not sure what.

By technology oriented you mean like a bitstream (1's and 0's) and maybe a pile of junk computers or something, or do you mean like adding more wording?

I just mean making it jump off the card stock as "computer guy," whether that be a bitstream (might confuse some people) or some C code or whatever. I personally think it's great as it is.

I agree with Old, you might want to rethink your address being on there. Also, you might want to have joseph@mynerdsforhire.com (I assume you already have that or you can get it easily) for your business card. It adds a personal touch. I would say have support@ on your website and flyers, etc. and joseph@ on your business card.

 

[JosephLeo]

I had customers turing up at my house at all sorts of rediculous times wanting PC repairs.

Thanks a lot for the advice, never really thought about that. Maybe I'll just change that to "follow me" and open up a twitter or something like that. Oh and thanks for the compliments.

I just mean making it jump off the card stock as "computer guy," whether that be a bitstream (might confuse some people) or some C code or whatever. I personally think it's great as it is.

I agree with Old, you might want to rethink your address being on there. Also, you might want to have joseph@mynerdsforhire.com (I assume you already have that or you can get it easily) for your business card. It adds a personal touch. I would say have support@ on your website and flyers, etc. and joseph@ on your business card.

I understand now, glad you like it the way it is. I think I might just consider it finished and fix the colors now (In the back the "top" gradient looks nothing like the colors in the front). Oh, and thanks for spotting that out about the email address. It is supposed to be JosephLeo@....etc.

 

[JosephLeo]

Okay, here is Version 0.2, It's a little more updated and decided to add some Twitter and Facebook info on the back. Also, despite warnings I've decided to keep the address where it is and maybe even hope people show up to my house at weird hours of the day. I'll just charge an "off hour" fee if someone comes to my door.

 

[ProTech Support]

As you already know Joesph, I am a big fan of your gfx work. I think the business card 2.0 looks absolutely amazing. It really gives off a modern and technical type of feel to it.

If you don't mind me asking, where are you getting these printed? Are you going through a local company, or one of the larger online companies?

 

[JosephLeo]

As you already know Joesph, I am a big fan of your gfx work. I think the business card 2.0 looks absolutely amazing. It really gives off a modern and technical type of feel to it.

If you don't mind me asking, where are you getting these printed? Are you going through a local company, or one of the larger online companies?

Thanks for the compliments, I still need to put a little more effort into them. Stuff isn't aligned, and I still didn't do color correction (or CMYK optimization yet) so I still have a little while to go. Maybe two more iterations and I'm done.

As for the printing company, well since I still do a little bit of printing work I can't exactly reveal my source to everyone. The company is not local but in Kentucky (California, Texas and the Netherlands as well) and I've been working with them for a long time so they have my trust.

P.S. check your inbox, I sent you a little info.

 

[Martyn]

Very nice card design there. Just one thing I never used to put anything on the back of my cards but then a couple of people offered to take card stands in their shops. My card fronts were the usual basic stuff, name, address, phone, website etc but nothing really to say about my services and i put a lot of my services on the back as I couldn't tell them as you would when handing a card over. Just a thought that maybe you could add some more to the back.

One other point @ oldfart about putting your address on. I thought I didn't want people knowing where I lived but I also would like to portray myself as a professional business so I came up with the idea of just posting the name of the company and the street without the house number. That worked well as most of my jobs are cash but it backfired when I did a job at my wifes work. They wanted to pay by cheque so I created an invoice 30 days to pay and waited for the cheque. £0 days later there was no cheque so I contacted them and they said they had posted it the day they received the invoice to the company name and the address(without the house number). Of course it never arrived and checking with the local postal sorting office proved fruitful. I'm still waiting for the cheque as the old one has to be cancelled

 

[JosephLeo]

Very nice card design there. Just one thing I never used to put anything on the back of my cards but then a couple of people offered to take card stands in their shops. My card fronts were the usual basic stuff, name, address, phone, website etc but nothing really to say about my services and i put a lot of my services on the back as I couldn't tell them as you would when handing a card over. Just a thought that maybe you could add some more to the back.

One other point @ oldfart about putting your address on. I thought I didn't want people knowing where I lived but I also would like to portray myself as a professional business so I came up with the idea of just posting the name of the company and the street without the house number. That worked well as most of my jobs are cash but it backfired when I did a job at my wifes work. They wanted to pay by cheque so I created an invoice 30 days to pay and waited for the cheque. £0 days later there was no cheque so I contacted them and they said they had posted it the day they received the invoice to the company name and the address(without the house number). Of course it never arrived and checking with the local postal sorting office proved fruitful. I'm still waiting for the cheque as the old one has to be cancelled

Ouch, that's exactly why I don't accept checks (that and the fact that they can bounce on you).

There is a reason I put my address on there. I want my card to feel "friendly", when I was a kid I became the local tech guy. Everyone would come to me for tech support and it was because I was friendly and open with everyone (plus I was free). Now, if I do that again I will have a wild success.

Putting my address gives the card a more personal feel. It makes it say "Hey, I live in your area. Let me be your personal tech guy". Okay, that might be going too deep but who knows for sure. All I know is that I like my address there and in the future if I get an office location I will still keep my personal address there, with my office location on the other side of the card.

Also, thanks for the compliments I really appreciate them.

 

[Martyn]

Ouch, that's exactly why I don't accept checks (that and the fact that they can bounce on you).

There is a reason I put my address on there. I want my card to feel "friendly", when I was a kid I became the local tech guy. Everyone would come to me for tech support and it was because I was friendly and open with everyone (plus I was free). Now, if I do that again I will have a wild success.

Putting my address gives the card a more personal feel. It makes it say "Hey, I live in your area. Let me be your personal tech guy". Okay, that might be going too deep but who knows for sure. All I know is that I like my address there and in the future if I get an office location I will still keep my personal address there, with my office location on the other side of the card.

Also, thanks for the compliments I really appreciate them.

Good luck just hope you don't have a fall out with someone like on one of the other threads recently. It's one thing having an altercation with someone at your shop but when they know where you live?

 

[JosephLeo]

Good luck just hope you don't have a fall out with someone

Meh, I can hold my own guard. 6' 3" (that's 1.9 Meters for all you metric folk) and about 285lbs. (that's about 84kg for all you metric folk, 13.21 stones for our British friends) I can definitely handle myself. Not to mention I've got in quite a few fights in my lifetime.

Also, my city (which should really be part of Brick, NJ) is one of the most safest cities in the U.S.A. It consistently hovers in the Top 10 safest cities in the U.S.A. and in 2006 was in fact the safest city in the U.S. So I doubt there will be any danger of any sorts here

 

[JosephLeo]

Okay, here is the FINAL business card. All that's left to do is stuff that won't be noticeable on screen (CMYK & Bleeding)

Changed the font, lightly adjusted some colors and did a little resizing and aligning.

 

[ComputerClinic]

Great looking cards. Are you a self taught designer?

A couple things:

-the phone number on the yellow side blends in too much. Maybe give it a white border or make it all white?

-the side with your info seems too busy. I would lose the logo, facebook, and twitter info. Also I would replace the address with a website. Or maybe lose the grey background. There's just too many elements competing for your attention and not enough white space. Just my opinion. Its already better than most the way it is.

 

[DarkServices]

The card looks amazing. Very vibrant and attention grabbing colors and great organization. One suggestion, on the back, you can make a little room and insert an appointment time line, or even something else.

 

[JosephLeo]

Great looking cards. Are you a self taught designer?

Why yes I am a self-taught graphic designer, does it show that badly?

The phone number does blend in a lot on screen but when printed it's actually clear as day. It's hard to see it right now but there is a white glow and a grey shadow around it. I agree that the side with my info is a little too "busy" but if I remove the logo it's just simply too plain, plus most people only see one side of a business card. For example, what if you have a stack of business cards and are looking for a particular one, you will only look at one side. Or say you put you business cards in a business card folder (like I do) you will only see one side. The logo must stay on both sides. I was considering removing the address as stated before and thought about replacing it with my website address, or even twitter information but thought I'd rather keep the address there instead. However I still never "got off the fence" so to speak about that issue.

One more thing, I do agree that there isn't enough whitespace. So I may consider removing the facebook and twitter info, however when printed it looks fantastic so I don't know quite yet. Also, the grey background is actually to keep consistent with the other side. If you pay attention the other side has a "globe" with a starburst coming from behind it, as does the white side. However, thanks for your comments and criticism. I will take all of the comments into consideration and see what comes from them. Again, thanks!

The card looks amazing. Very vibrant and attention grabbing colors and great organization. One suggestion, on the back, you can make a little room and insert an appointment time line, or even something else.

Thanks a lot, I'm glad you like it. I don't like the idea of writing on my business cards, it leaves a lot of emptiness if it isn't used and would look strange to someone who doesn't have an appointment. Still, thanks for the suggestion. You've given me an idea that I just have to do now. I'll make an appointment card now too, it will be this exact business card with a 2" rip-away portion for appointment times.

 

[kagman]

I love the card alot. Think its a great layout and just looks great.. Now i hate you.. lol..

 

[JosephLeo]

I love the card alot. Think its a great layout and just looks great.. Now i hate you.. lol..

I don't know why, but your post reminds me of this scene in American Psycho

 

[gravator]

NICE.. I like.. Good Job