How simple are you willing to go on your biz cards?

Apr 9, 2008

gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards" Today I was curious about business cards.  I asked my Twitter friends just how simple (or minimal) in design or information they felt they could go with their business cards.

Of course most businesses include their corporate or brand logo and color scheme on the business card.  Information on the business card has grown from the traditional company name, tagline, person’s name, title, and phone number.

Now you’ll find people’s business, mobile and sometimes home phone numbers.  You’ll sometimes find more than one fax number.  Most often there are more than one email address.  Add to that the corporate web address and the space has gotten quite cramped.

For us social media types, you now start adding things like a Twitter address, or your LinkedIn, or Facebook URL.  Some people may feel that their FriendFeed, Plaxo, or Xing URLs are of use to people requesting their business card.

With all these things taking up the limited space on a business card and you can see why full color bleed to the edge, and use of both sides are features offered by professional printing services.  Seems like too much information to me.

Here were some answers from my Twitter friends to the question “How simple are you willing to go on your biz cards?” (Clicking on the the links below will take you to the individual “tweets” on Twitter.)

@davehuston

@amypalko

@davidpcurrie

@ryankuder

@davehuston

@davehuston

@amypalko

@Sourcerer

@kevinfarner

@ryananderson

@jerryloss

@txaggie94

@sbspalding

@rjacobse

@susanreynolds

@kevinfarner

As you can see, we had a pretty good conversation on business cards with a number of great viewpoints and ideas.  Wondering about that card of Brian Shaler’s that Ryan Kuder mentioned?  Check it out here.

Want to have some fun with your business card?  Check out GapingVoid where Hugh MacLeod draws “cartoons on the back of business cards“.

Prototype of Rick's business cardWhat am I thinking of doing on an upcoming version of my business card?  I guess this is a first rough draft.

Those of us in the social media sphere have the luxury of expecting people to know how to find us.  Google is our friend!

For the rest of the business world, however, the expectation that their time is valuable.  That they shouldn’t have to go searching for the information that a “proper” business card should provide.  My belief is that there is more information about me that I want a person to find by searching than I can add to my business card.

What’s your take on the topic of business cards?  How simple or complex are you comfortable with?

Artwork credit: Hugh MacLeod

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