Netwink
Probably about a year ago, I decided that I wanted a new business card.
My original business card was...well...OK, but not great.

It served the purpose that I thought it should at the time I made it.
My original business card had the name of, my company, my name, my phone number, my website, and my email. Sounds good, right? All the elements were there so if someone wanted to get in contact with me they had all the information necessary.
 
After about a year of using this practical business card, I realized that I needed a better business card. 

With a mission of making a better business card, I started out pretty much with nothing in mind.

To develop an idea, I decided that in every network meeting I went to I would analyze other peoples business cards and when I saw a business card that had an element that caught my eye or that I just particularly like I would save it in a special place in my binder.
 
After a few months of saving, I took out the business cards and started to analyze what I liked and this is what I found.

First, a noticeable color tended to get my attention. Very few, again, very few of the cards that went in the 'like' pile were plain white with black ink. I had quite a few colored cards that drew attention such as, any shade of red, purple, neon green (actually any neon color), and bright blues and I had one bright yellow, very noticeable. 

The second thing that seemed to draw my attention, was the print. Large print on the card and on many of them the print was taking up much of the real estate and in a contrasting color. Some of the large print had some fancy curls but nothing to drastic. The card was still easy to read and I could read it at a glance without any eyestrain.

Third on the list that got my attention was material. Some of them were very unique and made of non-traditional as well as traditional material. Non-traditional such as leather, fabric, hard plastic, wood, hard acrylic, metal, cork! If you are trying to come up with ideas, just take a walk around your house or apartment and start jotting down all the different materials in your home and what might work for you.

I had a few cards in my like pile that was made entirely from recycled materials. One was recycled plastic and another was recycled paper.

The plastic one was interesting, it was somewhat transparent and that was neat. The problem with the plastic one was I could not write on it. It need maybe a matte finish on one side that will accept ink. 

The recycled paper was better for accepting ink. You could see the fibers from the different paper and it had that nice 'feel good' green thing that is so popular right now. With the recycled cards the card owner did have a notice on the card that let people know they were practicing 'green' by having small print that said, 'We are a conscientious company and practice recycling all the way to our business cards' .
Recycling may not be something you can fit into you image but it is something to think about. I say, if you just want to be green then go for it.

It was not in my pile but I do remember getting a business card that had seeds imbedded in the card. The idea was that you could plant it in your garden. Nice idea but like I said, I no longer have the card and I can't remember who gave it to me. Guess why I don't have the card....I planted it!

That's it for Part I of having a great business card.
Next time, I'll be sharing more about developing the content of your business card.
If you decide to become a member of my site. I just want to thank you.


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