Why Digital Artists need Business Cards 0
Think about it. You’re at a get together… you mention that you’re a digital artist of some sort – whether 3D, 2D, Web, or otherwise. People often times give me the “wow, that’s cool” reaction when I say I do 3D. Then I tell them I don’t do Pixar type stuff, but it’s still fun to know how all the technical mumbo jumbo works. (That’s one of my favorite quotes from “The Saint”).
Or maybe you’re an investor, or just a networker. Either way, you like finding yourself in these types of large groups, meeting new people.
Anyway, it won’t be long into a group like that before you meet someone who says “Do you have a card?”. Well… uh… no.. but I have a website/blog/online portfolio of sorts. And if you’re lucky you’re able to scratch the URL onto a piece of scrap paper, perhaps a receipt from your pocket or a napkin. Yay.
So you say to yourself… “self, I need a business card.” And you proceed to make something up, usually the first rendition (for me anyway) is quite nasty and not worthy of being shown. In the meantime, especially if you’re a freelancer of sorts, you think “I don’t have an official business name, or title or anything”. Who cares. Just put your name on the card with your skill: John Deadfoot – Illustrator/Animator/3D Specialist/Graphic Designer/Geek/Whatever. (I really like the geek option).
Then you go buy some perforated paper from the local office supply store. buzzzz! Wrong! Bad Idea. Don’t cheap out. This card is one of your first impressions to a potential client.
I made this mistake. Well, not with perforated paper, but I tried some inkjet photo paper. In handing my “fancy new card” to a guy I was talking to, he proceeded to destroy my card in the following 10 minutes or so while we were talking just by fiddling with it in his hands. I was shocked, and that night I tweaked my design and had a rush order of professionally printed cards on 100lb stock, double sided, color printed and delivered. I chose Vista Print, who I had heard good things of.
Vista Print allowed me to either choose one of their template designs, offer to pay one of their designers to do it for me, or upload my own. I chose the latter. They provided me with a PSD Photoshop template file, with margins, guides, etc for a full bleed. I finalized my design, made sure I was in CMYK color space, then uploaded it (front and back were two different images).
Needless to say I was extremely happy with the end product, the price, and the speed. What I wasn’t happy about was that I ordered 500, and while having still roughly 40% left, my phone number changed. Oh well.
Go check out what Vista Print has to offer – they even have lots of stuff for free.
