Designing Great Business Cards The goals I look for in a...
Designing Great Business Cards
The goals I look for in a top-notch business card: a gorgeous logo; a crisp logotype; and clean, spacious contact info that leaves room for the customer to jot down a note.
Business cards are objects in themselves. Unlike a magazine page or a sheet of photo paper, a business card isn’t a medium on which one displays content. The card itself is the content. It’s a tangible artifact. This is why the best cards tend to use things like thick paper stock, letterpress, and foil stamping. Cards that don’t use these things are an imitation of a real card.
Some cards that I think accomplish the important goals:
- Mike Hall
- Unboundary
- Weway
- Milky
- Vief (pictured above)
Photographs on business cards are uncommon, at least among high-end cards. The reason is that a photo is an abstraction that detracts from the tangible experience of a well-made card — like the difference between solid wood and a veneer.
A photo on a card is easy to get wrong. When it’s done well, a photo can help enhance the desired experience. Look at the Vief card pictured above for a great example. Notice how the photo is blurred, and fills the frame. The photo wasn’t included to show a picture of a flower, but to add texture and color behind the stark clean silhouette of the logo. Imagine feeling the edge of the foil-stamped logo under your thumb as it slides across the back of the card.
For the curious, here’s the business card I designed for Splint:
Tony Gruenwald on Season 5 of Mad Men
My good pal Tony and I had a good email exchange about this season of Mad Men. I was getting worried that with all the strong flavors they were flirting with the shark. Tony thinks otherwise:
In the last ten years or so, good dramas are not considered good dramas unless they have an overreaching season long story arc. So now when we sit down to watch our favorite show, we are essentially reading a chapter of a novel. This is the intention of the showrunners, networks, and everyone involved with tv dramas nowadays. Failed novelists who know some actor buddies and a guy with a camera.
I say fuck that.
I’m getting sick of it.
This fifth season of Mad Men seems to be saying, fuck the novel, here’s some short stories. Good old fashioned episodic television with the same characters every week.
Because of that, because I don’t have to remember every single plot point and have to wonder how this is all going to tie in at the end, I’m really enjoying this season. Yeah there are some dumb things.
But this is not the show we started watching four seasons ago. It’s reflected in the show too. Things are changing. And I dig it.
If you don’t know who Tony is, head over here for more. Tony always has a refreshing opinion.
Meet Dr. Rick I finally had the opportunity to meet the...
Meet Dr. Rick
I finally had the opportunity to meet the inimitable Dr. Rick today at the NIST-ONC conference on EHR usability. Unlike the rest of us whiny doctors and nurses, Dr. Weinhaus tries to move the conversation forward by writing thoughtful, substantive suggestions on how to improve the usability of existing EHRs. See his most recent posts here, here, and here.
Dan Benjamin Responds to 5by5 Fans About The Talk Show
Dan Benjamin Responds to 5by5 Fans About The Talk Show:Heartfelt, genuine, and open: classic Dan Benjamin.
Big week? Huge week!
Big week? Huge week!