The Blog

At Vantage Studios we like to mould the young minds of our interns and challenge them to see the bigger picture. The other day I asked our current intern, Sharon Mak, who is about to emerge from her scholastic cocoon, to write us a blog post. The topic: What makes an epic business card?
Here was her response:

Whether you’re starting your own business or just offering a service, here are some reasons why it’s important to have an epic business card:
Number 1) It provides people (or potential customers!) with information about who you are, and how to reach you.
Number 2) It’s a piece of your identity – that’s how people are going to remember you by when you leave a business meeting (or draw people to your booth if you’re at a convention.)
Number 3) Most importantly, your business card should not only provide your information, but it should also say something about your personality. It should leave a lasting impression, just like you.
So, whether you are designing your first business card, or re-designing an existing one, ask yourself, “What do I want people to remember me by?” and that’s what your business card should be able to say about you.

Here are some things to keep in mind:
Colour – different colours give business cards different feelings. For example: blue can mean relaxing and red can mean upbeat.

Font Face or Typography – different fonts have different meanings and feelings. A bold chunky font, like ‘Rockwell’ can make a bold statement, while something like ‘Edwardian Script’ can mean something elegant and formal. When choosing a font stick with something that represents you, and is easy on the eyes.

Paper – the quality of your card also is important.  You wouldn’t want a business card on regular printer paper because that wouldn’t last that long. And if people are in a hurry and just stuffs your business card in their pocket. It definitely won’t last in the wash if they forget about it.

Shape – If you want to represent that you are a soft and gentle person, make sure your card has a silky touch to it and has rounded corners. If you want to represent that you are a corporate person who is very structured and ‘to-the-point’ you probably should have a hard business card with pointed corners.

Below are a few websites to inspire you when designing your business card. There are some pretty epic business cards out there, make yours one of them and starting wowing people!

Inspirational Links:
Beautiful Business Cards
Really Creative Business Cards
Funky Business Cards

PDF is an acronym for Printers Don’t Fool around.

Just kidding, we fool around plenty. PDF actually stands for Portable Data Format. Although we also accept ZIP, EPS, JPEG and SIT files, sending and receiving PDF files pose the least amount of complications for you and for us. Have you ever received a file from someone then tried to open it only to have your computer tell you it “doesn’t recognize the file?” Sucks, doesn’t it?

Portable Data Format (PDF) was created in 1993 so documents could be readable in any operating system, whether a computer contained the program the file was created in or not. It works by encapsulating a complete description of a fixed-layout flat document, including the text, fonts, graphics, and all that fun stuff we need to print your files so they look the way you intended them to.

We wish we had superpowers to proof read all of our clients’ documents before they go to print. However, even though we’re super-printers, we’re no superheroes; no one knows what you want or need your documents to say better than you, which is why we send you a proof for your approval.
Spelling and grammar mistakes can be costly and embarrassing… Yikes!

Here are some tips we recommend for checking your proof:

• Read it out loud and also silently
• Read backwards to help you focus on spelling
• Use spell-check but never rely on it
• Have others read it out loud to you
• Check that all necessary logos are present
• If there’s an email address, check it for errors, then send an email to make sure it goes to the correct account
• Point with your finger to read one word at a time
• Proof things separately– do one proof for spelling, another for missing spaces, location of imagery, links, fonts, etc.
• If there is a QR code on your document, scan it to make sure it works
• Double-check proper names

When you’re sure you’ve checked everything, do it one more time for good luck!

These little guys can be tricky if you don’t know what you’re doing. Crop marks tell us where to cut or trim your document and if set up improperly they’re not easy to fix down the road.

If you’re confident that you know how to include proper crop marks in your documents then please do. Crop marks are your friend.

If you’re unsure however, consider crop marks your foe and leave it to the pros (that’s us).  When sending us your files, indicate the final size you would you’re your document to be, include your bleed (if you have one) and let us know that you’re unsure about the proper crop marks.  We’ll make sure everything comes out peachy!

If we ask, “do you have a bleed?” we’re not suggesting you put on a band-aid.

In print and design language, the term bleed refers to getting something to print right to the edge of the page. In order to do this, colours or images need to extend past the perimeters of the page by 1/8” with crop or trim marks.  We then print your document on a larger piece of paper and trim off the excess.

For example, if you’d like to print an 8.5 x 11 poster with an edge-to-edge background you would need to make the document 8.75 x 11.25. We would then trim off the excess, leaving you with a clean and tidy 8.5 x 11.