Business Express

“Hi.  Nice to meet you.  Do you have a business card?”  It’s a very common verbal exchange at trade shows, networking events or even at the pub.  Have you ever reached into your pocket only to realize that you have run out of business cards, the details are wrong, or that you just never got round to making them?

Your business card is your main marketing tool.  People tend to keep them much longer than flyers.  The main purpose of a business card is usually to help people contact you, but a business card sized item can also be used for customer loyalty cards (such as a coffee card), appointment reminders (think dentists), gift vouchers, discount cards, referrals cards, or even to advertise a particular product or event.  Their uses are almost limitless.  Whatever your purpose is, make sure that you’re hitting the mark.

Things to remember with your card design:

• New Zealand standard size is 55x90mm.  Don’t be fooled by the free Vistaprint offer (not really free) which arrives from off-shore in non-NZ sizes.
• Use full colour and make it bright (nothing says “cheap company” like black and white).  I’ve read that using lots of red colour significantly increases the impact.
• Make it memorable – rounded corners, laminating, custom cuts, foiling, embossing and folds are a great way to make your card stand out from the crowd.
• Less is often more – don’t cram it full or over crowd it.
• Use a great logo and images.
• Be personal – you’re selling yourself too.  Photos are proven to increase the memorability and speedy recovery of your card.
• Make sure they know how to contact you (your fax number may not be a useful contact method these days so if space is tight then dump it)
• Get your own domain name (when I see hotmail or xtra on a business card I wonder if they are really able to service me).
• Tell people what you do (and make it obvious).  Consider including some tag line or slogan.
• Use quality paper – we use 300gsm coated white card.  It makes blacks and colours look really good and has a smooth surface that most people prefer yet can be written on if necessary, but doesn’t take up lots of room in your wallet.

Let us help you design a well balanced card which you’ll be proud to hand out.  For $25+GST we can create a basic business card from your existing logo and data, or for a bit more, we can have a professional graphic designer put one together that people will want to keep.

Our business cards are very affordably priced.  They are usually ready two working from the time you approve the proof.  Additional finishing options (rounded corners, laminating, custom cuts, foiling and folding) all add additional price and time – but what a difference they make!.

We recommend that you order about six-months worth of cards.  If you order more you could end up with out of date cards or they get soiled when lying around.  Most people order 250 or 500 cards at a time, but you can order any quantity you want!

Call us today for a quote on your next business card.  Ask us about our multi-order rate and easy re-order process.  We produce thousands of cards each week.  No job is too big or too small.

Design Considerations

Our low printing prices assume print-ready artwork.  The most common problems we get are non-standard sizes (NZ standard is 90x55mm) and no-bleed (see our page on bleed and safe zones – this page also includes tips on how to set up your software to do this).  You should delivery your print-ready artwork in PDF format using at least 300dpi.

Photoshop is not ideal for creating print-ready artwork – we suggest you convert to InDesign or Illustrator.  If you need to stay with Photoshop we need the canvas size to be 1062 x 649 pixels if you have no bleed (i.e., white margins on all edges) with no content within 35 pixels of the edge .  If you have bleed then the canvas size needs to 1133 x 920 with no critical content within 70 pixels of the edge.