Uh, the dreaded business cards

[squids]

I know I have to make some. What would all y'all suggest I put on it? Something that represents my personality or toned-down business suit type look?What do all y'all's say? Do you list all the things you do or jes your name and contact info? And if so, what contact info? Jes a cellphone (no home phone)? Email addy? Website?Thanks for any insights. Honestly, PR makes me break out in hives and wanna go hide under the covers again.

[Casey H]

What business is the card for? Music or your other professional life? I might not answer correctly without that.In general, short and sweet with name, what you do (or title), name of company, phone #, email address, website (if applicable)... Photo is optional but that depends on the business. A music artist would probably have a photo- anything professional looking such as a head shot or you making music as you normally would. Put whatever phone number(s) are most important to you as far as contact. It's fine to have more than one. I just put my cell for music because I'd rather get calls there (why isn't it ringing like mad? LOL). For my day job I have phone, fax, and cell.For music, a link to a website or myspace page is a definite. There's no point in a card that doesn't point to your music. You can easily print up cards on your home PC. They sell sheets of blanks for the printer at office supply stores and standard software such as Word (or cheap/free downloads of other) supports this. Casey

[tower888]

Blow everyone out of the water with CD business cards! Have your music demo directly on your business card! Very cool.http://www.multishapecdrom.com/cd_showcase/?case=biz_01

[che]

Best I can advise is keep it matter of fact and easy to understand.Being in the urban/hip hop market, we see soooooo many cards that make me want to scream. We just went to a local event this past Sunday and some of the cards we got were so full of BULL. Ex: One card has front and back. Front advertises his production skills and that back is about his record label. I can handle that, but when he claims he's the "#1 R&B Producer/Engineer in Cincinnati".....I beg to differ. Went to listen...way over produced and out dated sounding music. He has many statements qualifying his supposed abilities. I feel that if you need to make that many statements about professionalism, Integrity etc... that you feel the need to prove yourself. My suggestion would be "Act like you've been there before" You can convey quality and professionalism with the cleaness and the look of your card. Straight forward, informative etc... You should definitely show personality also. Phone contact info as well as your web presence is important. Don't be boring....but keep it clean. Good luck,Tricia

[suzdoyle]

Simple and clean is always a good idea:Just name/ web URL/ phone, and a nice graphic (+ perhaps a tag line).Gotprint.com has awesome rates for biz cards (4 color high gloss printing on one side, blank on the reverse) . . . and you can do it all digitally. ,Suz

[mazz]

I've used VistaPrint with good results. It's all done online which is very convenient. I'm sure there's a few of those types of places. Some of them will even work with you on the design (for an extra fee, of course!). They even have things like magnets, pens, T-shirts, the usual swag.Enlisting the help of a graphic designer is sometimes a good idea. It helps if you are clear about your message so you can communicate it to them. I prefer clean, clear and to the point. A catchy graphic has worked for me, people seem to comment on favorably on it when I hand them the card.Once you get going, you'll get in the swing of it!! Your music is great and you ought to feel very good about putting yourself and your music out there!!Mazz

[southpaw]

Hey squids, I opted to design my own with a little mac software application. It was pretty easy to learn how to use, and i was able to use my own images... If you want something customized or something that might stand out a bit more, this is one way to do it.. Prbly least expensive anyway. Often different companies run specials on packages, so check around before you go with one cuz there is usually a really good deal going on somewhere... That said, they're not very expensive in general now with a lot of competitive online based services.... One thing that might help is to know they dont always come out the way you want or expected. So Id wait to make a huge order on them until youve tweaked it and are satisfied with how it looks in your hand.Here is a pic of my card that i composed:

[garrettmiller]

All great info. +1 for Vistaprint. I've bought from them many times. No complaints...Garrett

[suzdoyle]

Here's my biz card (with my phone # removed since this is a public forum!): SuzP.S. The music swirl is a real song of mine!

[mojobone]

Tip: cards with a blank reverse will stay in purses and wallets longer-folks tend to write important (more important than yours, that is) phone numbers on the back-plus, you never know when you're giving cupid a helping hand.