

Ask HN: Business Cards -- Designers / Printers - veyron

Asked many years ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=163191<p>I'm in a position where I need to print business cards.  Two questions:<p>1) Who do you use to design business cards?  Alternatively, if you design business cards, I'd definitely consider using your services<p>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)
======
scottyallen
I designed my own using <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.

------
tptacek
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
"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> (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
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

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

~~~
bhousel
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
Is this what you were talkingabout?

<http://about.me/offers/cards>

~~~
bhousel
Yes, that's it..

------
abcd_f
Flip through <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.

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

~~~
4midori
I've had good results with JakPrints.com for a printer.

