New Business Card Design. C&C Please.

[SGPhoto]

Ok everyone,
I think I have settled somewhat in Virginia and needed to get some new Business cards, since I have had so many requests for them but unable to hand any out. So I decided to hop in Photoshop and see what I could come up with.

Also any GREAT place to have these printed where they come out looking AWESOME would be greatly appreciated as well. I know you have MPIX, Vistaprints and Overnight and tons more but of the 3 above some one please give me your honest feedback where I would get the BEST QUALITY?

I came up with this and need your HONEST Feedback if at all possible.

Here is the Front.



Here is the back.



Please let me know what you think before I order :)

Thanks,

Stephen Gibson

[Davidtxs]

looks great I used Overnight and had great luck
one thing though why not your your regular website stephengibsonphotography.com for your website and email also
i think its looks a little more professional

[SGPhoto]

Originally Posted by Davidtxs

looks great I used Overnight and had great luck
one thing though why not your your regular website stephengibsonphotography.com for your website and email also
i think its looks a little more professional

David,
Thanks for the quick response and the only reason I am not using my stephengibsonphotography.com website at the moment is because I am in the midst of REVAMPING EVERYTHING. I kind of like it but its not POPPING YET if you know what I mean. Until I can get it all figured out I am using PBASE to host everything I am shooting and hopefully I will get the other one fixed SOON.

Thanks again and I think I am gonna try Overnight Prints to see what I get.

Steve

[DeLeon]

I like it! What font are you using?

I have been using www.gotprint.net. I like them alot.

[Sonny]

it sucks redo the whole thing.

[OversighT]

Hey Stephen--
I'm going to offer a dissenting opinion. As designs go I think this is too busy and your font is too hard to read. I know that you are trying to convey that you cover a wide variety of types of photography, but I think you'd be better off choosing 1 image that has impact and using it on one side of your card and put your contact information on the other. You can always make different batches with different photos so you can hand out the appropriate design to the prospective client.

Also, beware of the bleed area. Your photos and text appear to be too close to the edge of the card and not in the "safe zone". Be sure you design it to your printer's specs as all of the labs that I know of print full bleed and you could lose some of your content to trimming. I've used Overnight Prints for cards in the past, but I have everything done at WHCC now.

Of course this is all my opinion so feel free to take it or leave it.

I also think that Sonny was a bit harsh with his feedback.


T.

[LonestarMan]

Regarding the website. I agree that your regular domain name would look more professional. I would create a page with a link or redirect them to your pbase site from that domain.
The thing that bothers me is the Contact phone number being a different font size. I would make it the same as the email or change all three to a more basic font. I like the font on the Concert, Portrait, Senior... line and would leave it as is.

[Sonny]

It's OK Troy, Steve and I know each other. I'm just giving him a hard time.

[asyouwish]

I like the font, but would keep it only for
Stephen Gibson Photography
I'd use a different font for the other text....especially the web and email addresses. I'd also experiment with putting the "details" in a light-to-medium gray so the important stuff like your name stands out brighter.

I also find the red lines a little harsh/distracting. Is there a reason you went with that exact shade? Maybe that can be just a little deeper red so the eye is drawn to the photos instead of the borders?

"Contact:" and "Email:" are not necessary.

I totally agree on the domain name. Get the domain. Get a single page up with at least the same information that is on your card while you build the site. Let your web and email addresses be professional.....it makes a HUGE difference.

-Lori

[OversighT]

Originally Posted by Sonny

It's OK Troy, Steve and I know each other. I'm just giving him a hard time.

Of course you do... it makes sense now


T.

[brad]

Ditto about the fonts and the "busy" of the graphics... cards need to be simple and eye catching.. and the font with the contact information needs to be easy to read.

Example.. the 1's look like 7's in the phone number (unless they really are 7's).

The font for the website address and email are easily mis-read as well.

[Norma_S]

I agree with the comments about the font used for email address, URL, and telephone number. Remember, the people who go to your site will have to type in the URL letter-by-letter. Make it easy to read and as easy as possible to type. Same is true for your email address. You don't want to lose a potential client over a typo.

I use the domain normaschutt.com, but I also have two other domains that are common misspellings of my last name (normashutt.com and normashut.com). I have domain forwarding set up for those two to hit a webpage (normashutt.com goes to normaschutt.com/normashutt.htm and normashut.com goes to normaschutt.com/normashut.htm) and each of these two pages say you have reached this page due to a misspelling and that you will be directed to the correct page in a few seconds. This has worked out so far just fine.

[SGPhoto]

Thank you everyone for the great comments and after taking everyone's advice and THANKS TO SONNY for BEING HARD CORE, that is what I love about this site IF IT DOESNT look good people will let you know about it. I can take critisizam well. If it needs to be something that is going to turn business away that is not the intent I NEED ALL THE BUSINESS I CAN GET :).

I like the idea of One Photo but I'm just not so sure about putting my name and "Saying" on someone's face, and as far as creating seperate business cards for the seperate events I like to cover,

Can I ask Why?

I mean if you gave someone your business card for sports they would think you only did sports and wouldnt know any different unless #1 you told them or #2 they asked, so why not provide it all upfront also there is extra cost involved on my end for ordereing seperate cards, I mean if this is something that is done on a regular basis by most photographers I'd look deeper into it but I am not so sure there are that many that give out seperate cards.

Anyway here are 2 sepreate other designs I came up with nothing really different except a few minor changes with everyones suggestions.

Let me know if these work any better or if I need to start all over again.

With a Drop Shadow.






Without Drop Shadow.






Thanks again everyone I appreciate it very much.

[brad]

You don't have to put printing on their face.. you just have to either shoot with a card in mind or do some photoshop trickery...

[J Eddington]

Don't forget you can do double sided and it doesn't cost that much!