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Ask HN: Business Cards -- Designers / Printers

5 points by veyron 15y ago

Asked many years ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=163191 I'm in a position where I need to print business cards. Two questions: 1) Who do you use to design business cards? Alternatively, if you design business cards, I'd definitely consider using your services 2) Who do you use to print business cards? I'm more interested in quality than price (I fully expect quality business cards to cost a pretty penny)

timthorn 15y ago
Take a look at Moo - they've a nice API too. http://www.moo.com/ http://www.moo.com/
- bhousel 15y ago
  Second this... Actually they had (still have?) a sweet deal going with About.Me, where you can get an initial batch of cards for free (you only pay $5 or so for shipping) If you have an About.Me profile set up, your Moo cards will have a QR code that goes straight to your About.Me page.
  - veyron 15y ago
    Is this what you were talkingabout? http://about.me/offers/cards http://about.me/offers/cards
    - bhousel 15y ago
      Yes, that's it..
abcd_f 15y ago
Flip through http://cardobserver.com http://cardobserver.com to get some ideas as to what is available in terms of original design. Most of entries has links to their designers and printers.
underdesign 15y ago
I design cards. Quality? In what aspect? Paper Stock? Printing? Design? There's many ways to bump the cost of printing. Offset (not gang) printing, spot tones (not CMYK), raised ink, gold foil stamping, etc. all raise the cost and quality of printing. Being that only one person cares about the 'quality' of the card (and they're often no longer in possession of it), I suggest you spend as little as you can afford. http://www.citycolors.com/ http://www.citycolors.com/ has a Wednesday $12 special that's great. Hit me up on my site if you want to talk design. http://www.undr.com http://www.undr.com
scottyallen 15y ago
I designed my own using http://www.moo.com http://www.moo.com. They've got a quick tool for making simple font/color/text choices, which were enough to meet my simple needs. The best part though, is that they'll print however many designs you want, evenly distributed across however many cards you order, at no additional cost. This has led to me a/b testing my card designs:) I order cards 50 at a time, and order 3 or 4 variations. Then, when people ask for my card, I tell them that I'm a/b testing my cards, pull out a couple, and let them choose the design they like the most. It's a great conversation point, a good way to talk about my love for user testing, and I'm gradually honing in on a design people seem to like (I'm on my third batch). P.s. If you're a hacker (or someone else) that hasn't haven't ordered personal business cards, you should. I can't believe how many I ended up giving out, and how much easier it makes making business connections when I meet people. Well worth the 30 minutes and $27. I wish I'd done it a year sooner.
niico 15y ago
1) Drop me a line if you need a biz card ;) 2) Moo.com
- 4midori 15y ago
  I've had good results with JakPrints.com for a printer.
tptacek 15y ago
Why are you so concerned about the quality of your business cards? As long as they don't look laser-printed, one card's as good as another. This is something that's easy to obsess about instead of doing real work, so I'd be cautious.
- veyron 15y ago
  "Why are you so concerned about the quality of your business cards?" <-- I'm definitely a details person. If you are going to put X > 100 hours into making a site look perfect or making a system behave exactly how you want it to behave, then spending half to make a high quality business card hopefully isn't obsessing. I guess I'm partially motivated by the van halen m&m's effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Halen#Contract_riders http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Halen#Contract_riders (tl;dr: they asked for a bowl of m&m's with all of the brown ones removed. The band wanted to be sure that the entire contract was read and followed, due to safety concerns, and this is a simple litmus test. Removing all the brown m&m's is a detail-oriented time consuming task) In my context, in regulated industries, attention to detail is critical. Now, the business cards in and of themselves aren't important, but a higher quality business card at least conveys the sense that attention was paid to every detail :)
iworkforthem 15y ago
2) The weight and type of paper used played quite a bit of difference. E.g. 260gsm Art Card, 260gsm Art Card + Matt Lamination (D), 260gsm Art Card + Matt Lamination (D) + Spot UV (S), 260gsm Art Card + Gloss Lamination (D), 230gsm Ivory White Card, 230gsm Fine Linen, 230gsm Fine Vein, 230gsm Modern Embossed, 200gsm PVC, 250gsm Platinum White, 280gsm Frosted Card. Personally I like the 260gsm Art Card + Matt Lamination (D) + Spot UV (S)(optional) best. Paper is thick and smooth. Price is not too expensive. If you are located in USA, overnightprints.com seems to print the cheapest with these quality paper. If you are in Asia, drop me a note. I can print for you. :P

5 points by veyron 15y ago

timthorn 15y ago

Take a look at Moo - they've a nice API too. http://www.moo.com/ http://www.moo.com/

bhousel 15y ago
Second this... Actually they had (still have?) a sweet deal going with About.Me, where you can get an initial batch of cards for free (you only pay $5 or so for shipping) If you have an About.Me profile set up, your Moo cards will have a QR code that goes straight to your About.Me page.
- veyron 15y ago
  Is this what you were talkingabout? http://about.me/offers/cards http://about.me/offers/cards
  - bhousel 15y ago
    Yes, that's it..

abcd_f 15y ago

Flip through http://cardobserver.com http://cardobserver.com to get some ideas as to what is available in terms of original design. Most of entries has links to their designers and printers.

underdesign 15y ago

I design cards. Quality? In what aspect? Paper Stock? Printing? Design? There's many ways to bump the cost of printing. Offset (not gang) printing, spot tones (not CMYK), raised ink, gold foil stamping, etc. all raise the cost and quality of printing. Being that only one person cares about the 'quality' of the card (and they're often no longer in possession of it), I suggest you spend as little as you can afford. http://www.citycolors.com/ http://www.citycolors.com/ has a Wednesday $12 special that's great. Hit me up on my site if you want to talk design. http://www.undr.com http://www.undr.com

scottyallen 15y ago

I designed my own using http://www.moo.com http://www.moo.com. They've got a quick tool for making simple font/color/text choices, which were enough to meet my simple needs. The best part though, is that they'll print however many designs you want, evenly distributed across however many cards you order, at no additional cost. This has led to me a/b testing my card designs:) I order cards 50 at a time, and order 3 or 4 variations. Then, when people ask for my card, I tell them that I'm a/b testing my cards, pull out a couple, and let them choose the design they like the most. It's a great conversation point, a good way to talk about my love for user testing, and I'm gradually honing in on a design people seem to like (I'm on my third batch). P.s. If you're a hacker (or someone else) that hasn't haven't ordered personal business cards, you should. I can't believe how many I ended up giving out, and how much easier it makes making business connections when I meet people. Well worth the 30 minutes and $27. I wish I'd done it a year sooner.

niico 15y ago

1) Drop me a line if you need a biz card ;) 2) Moo.com

4midori 15y ago
I've had good results with JakPrints.com for a printer.

tptacek 15y ago

Why are you so concerned about the quality of your business cards? As long as they don't look laser-printed, one card's as good as another. This is something that's easy to obsess about instead of doing real work, so I'd be cautious.

veyron 15y ago
"Why are you so concerned about the quality of your business cards?" <-- I'm definitely a details person. If you are going to put X > 100 hours into making a site look perfect or making a system behave exactly how you want it to behave, then spending half to make a high quality business card hopefully isn't obsessing. I guess I'm partially motivated by the van halen m&m's effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Halen#Contract_riders http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Halen#Contract_riders (tl;dr: they asked for a bowl of m&m's with all of the brown ones removed. The band wanted to be sure that the entire contract was read and followed, due to safety concerns, and this is a simple litmus test. Removing all the brown m&m's is a detail-oriented time consuming task) In my context, in regulated industries, attention to detail is critical. Now, the business cards in and of themselves aren't important, but a higher quality business card at least conveys the sense that attention was paid to every detail :)

iworkforthem 15y ago

2) The weight and type of paper used played quite a bit of difference. E.g. 260gsm Art Card, 260gsm Art Card + Matt Lamination (D), 260gsm Art Card + Matt Lamination (D) + Spot UV (S), 260gsm Art Card + Gloss Lamination (D), 230gsm Ivory White Card, 230gsm Fine Linen, 230gsm Fine Vein, 230gsm Modern Embossed, 200gsm PVC, 250gsm Platinum White, 280gsm Frosted Card. Personally I like the 260gsm Art Card + Matt Lamination (D) + Spot UV (S)(optional) best. Paper is thick and smooth. Price is not too expensive. If you are located in USA, overnightprints.com seems to print the cheapest with these quality paper. If you are in Asia, drop me a note. I can print for you. :P