[...] First Video Post: New Business Card Design [...]

First Video Post: My New Business Card Design | Andrew Kelsall | Graphic Designer…

Article about how I designed my new Business Card, where I show a video of the Equest® card I used, 10mm round-cornering, Pantone® spot colors and typography……

The video was great. So no worries.

I suspect this is where your problem is. When I spec’d mine, I created the die and gave it them. They copied it exactly. Ask if you can supply your die, maybe? Anything ‘pre-fab’ in graphics/printing has tendency to be a bit buggy, in my experience.

Love your motto! You’ll go far with that…

The first design I had in mind was to use the cogs image to use in the background of the header, using Metallic ink in a Duotone image. However, I was dead-set against using coated stock, which would have made the ink “pop” as expected (coated stock would have given my cards an undesired ‘feel’).
Anyways, a few iterations later, I decided to let colour be the driving force behind the design, which I’m quite content with.

@Brian → After looking at some more of my cards, I think I chose the worst one possible to make a video with, lol. The others aren’t really jagged, but just a very slight “imperfect” curve. I’m mostly happy with it, but as all designers are, my perfectionism would want 100% accuracy.

@Rachel → No, I didn’t supply a die line, but selected a “round cornering add-on” service. This does beg the question in regards to whether there is a difference between an actual round-cornered die-cut, and a standard cut with round corners applied?

For example, mine were cut to size, then were put through a round-cornering machine at the printers. Maybe this method will always give a slight “jag” where the curve hits the plain side?

I wonder if some companies who supply an absolute perfect curve are using a business-card sized die-cuts instead? I’ll ask on Twitter, as now I’m curious. This is my Designer’s Moto:

I don’t like not knowing stuff

It’s not a great saying, but it works for me

Thanks all for your valuable input…

Re rounded corners: I used to have a round cornered card… there should be no visible break in the radius of the corner. You need to get on your printer (or find another one!) to do them smoothly. I’m in the US, so I can’t recommend anyone over there for you. I know plenty of people here who can do the job right for you.

Might have something to do with the die line. Did you create it yourself? Sometimes the in-house production people at printer’s are less detailed oriented (and sometimes they’re fabby, of course!) I would check that die and see if that’s where the problem is.

@David, what else do you have in that handbag of yours ya big girl’s blouse!?
Brian Yerkes´s last blog ..5 Things Clients Say and What They Really Mean

That’s a great idea to make your website the boldest information at the bottom. Way to direct the viewer’s eye! And honestly, it was a little bit of a comfort to me to hear that this design took you a few rounds of revision. I don’t know why but I always tend to think that everyone but me is able to just come up with a great design right off the bat the first time. It looks great, Andrew, and you definitely have continuity between the card and this site, which is always good to see.
LaurenMarie – Creative Curio´s last blog ..New Article and Portfolio Featured

Regarding the playing cards, I’ve noticd that one of my print suppliers prints them here: RCS Printers, Playing Cards

They’re really expensive though, but there are the real deal, with a proper metallic core on 300gsm Solar Block Card…apparently.

I have some samples at home, and they do look good, but the minimum number of packs is 25, with a minimum cost of…gasp…£433+VAT. Hope this helps…

I’m in the process of creating a suite of promotional cards, similar to playing cards, and wondered where you got those printed? Do you know anyone who could produce a small box for them to be placed in?

Hope you can help. Keep up the good work.

@Jonas → Yeah, I’ll learn from this one, and hopefully next time, I’ll use cue-cards or something…

@Danny → Hehe, I’m sure David has many spares in his wallet

Thanks everyone for your comments, they’re appreciated…

It is absolutely horrifying to hear yourself speak, all of a sudden you realize you sound like a complete git going “uh” and “ahem” every other word.

Lovely write-up… Err… Speak-up?
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In regards to the question you left on my blog, having the cards cut to 90mm x 45mm was peanuts, $12 per thousand I think from memory.
Andrew Keir´s last blog ..The machine that made us

@Andrew → Yeah, “eers”, “hmms” and slurrs. Needless to say, I think my next video will be an improvement. Been recorded did funny things to my mentality I think.

A 90×55 cut? That sounds unique. Do you have a link to the design on your site? I think that if we weren’t too critical, we’d never improve as designers. Designing for ourselves appears to be both the best and worst part of being a designer I reckon.

I’ve had 1 set of cards printed with round corners with similar results, some we’re fine while others had the slight corners David mentioned.

i had my own cards cut to 90mm x 45mm with some slight faults too. The cards were even heights but the content was slightly higher on some cards like they’d been cut too low.

I had the printer redo them, the content is now consistently placed but still a fraction too high. I wondered if I was being too critical or if it was time to get a new printer. Seems it might just be the way of it with non standard 90×55 cuts?
Andrew Keir´s last blog ..The machine that made us

Here’s something I learned since getting engaged: a fiancé refers to the male partner, whereas a fiancée (extra “e”) is in reference to the female partner.
David Airey´s last blog ..AIGA President Debbie Millman on spec work

I think I’ll send out a tweet to see who else has had round cornering done. The case deepens…

I was busy block-paving my garden patio when I decided to make the video, so I picked up the nearest [used] card that I saw, and probably isn’t one of the better ones I received.

Did your rounded corners turn out 100% on your own card (the Plike one)? Not having round-cornering done before, I don’t have a tangible example to compare my own to.

I knew it was a mistake telling folks of my info@ address As always David, thanks for commenting…

The 400gsm looks great too.

Are you 100% happy with how the rounded corners turned out? Maybe it’s just how they appear on video but is there a bit of an angle where they should be smooth?

*Heads off to tell everyone to use Andrew’s info@ address*
David Airey´s last blog ..AIGA President Debbie Millman on spec work