This past week I finally put together a decent business card. Initially, the plan was to go get some of the perforated sheets and make my own on my printer. Well, after attending a entrepreneur workshop, that is the last thing a person should do. Giving out business cards with tiny perforated edges and ones that look like a person did them on their home computer is well.... not too professional looking..... Well, I thought that it was a good idea and a great way to save some money. Back to the drawing board.
Off to Office Max I went to check out the kiosk for making cards, labels, envelopes, brochures, letterhead... One step at a time for this girl, please. I had a couple of options in ordering cards: use a template and fill in the blanks (a very basic one), pick one of their photos and do the same or use one of my photos, and thirdly, design my own. I did check out the designs that were available, but nothing seemed to "sing" to me. So back home I went to design my own.
If one is going to design their own business card, make sure you get the measurements required for designing it. Office Max had a bleed measurement and a cut measurement. On top of all that, when I got their and downloaded my card into the kiosk, there was an extra mm (millimeter) whacked off that came pretty darn close to cutting off the bottom line. I did not feel like going home and moving the line up to be "real" safe. I really wanted that line as close to the bottom as possible.
In the workshop, the leader stated to "please do not use those perforated cards. If a person wants to present a professional image, get ones where the edges are cut smooth and on a decent card stock and nice print". I not only opted for color, but a glossy one. I must admit that I could never make these look like this on my home computer with my regular ink jet printer. (By the way, I really did not want to waste archival ink from my Epson printer on business cards.)
I also opted to design my own card. I used one of my photos as the background. This is an actual photo that I took on my front porch of a dragonfly resting in the hanging basket with a fushia. I love how the rest of the photo is out of focus, but the dragonfly is center stage. In Native American culture, the dragonfly has special meaning: longevity, richness, prosperity, infinity, wisdom, power and fiery. All things that are good omens for one starting a business as an artist and I need all the help that I can get.
Besides, dragonflies love to eat mosquitoes and when a person lives where I do, along side a river, there can never be too many dragonflies in one's life.
Next maybe a brochure.....one step at a time.
What are other's experiences with business cards and other promotional literature, such as, brochures? Is it worth it? Comments are welcomed.
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