Click on the image for a closer view.
Blank ‘Business Card’ stock image by: Brian Lary, Madison, US

A page from my notebook

I don’t remember from where I got the inspiration for using a notebook page background, but I have successfully used it twice thrice in the past. First, for my brother, I designed prize certificates with ‘notebook’ background for “Melange 2006,” organized by University College of Engineering, Thodupuzha. Then a notebook page served as the background for my e-mail wedding invitation card. People liked this unique look.

For a final assignment/presentation of a Post Graduate Degree subject, I again used this background for the PowerPoint slides. Initially we (two of my friends and I) wanted to project the slides in ‘portrait’ format; but reverted to the traditional ‘landscape’ format a few minutes before our turn as its readability was better.

When we projected the slides, our Professor was surprised and she blurted out a “What is this?” Fortunately the GE Healthcare team, who were evaluating our assignment along with the Professor, liked it and we got an ‘A’ grade. In the clutter of plain vanilla and PowerPoint default templates, our presentation did manage good ‘brand recall.’

Because of these experiences, I wanted to use a notebook page background for our new business card.

The design

The logo, company name and URL follow the antzFx logo and typography standards. They are placed on the top of the page. The person’s name (14 pt font size), Mobile phone number (8 pt ) and E-mail ID (8 pt) are in a font called ‘Hand of Sean.’ The font color is a blue (#003399) that we usually find in gel ballpoint pens. The mobile phone number is given a yellow (#ffff30) fluorescent highlighter effect. A single ‘space’ is given at both the sides of ‘@’ for easy readability of the E-mail ID.

The reverse side of the business card has a green (#009f00) background. All the text is in ‘Trebuchet MS’ font, except the ‘Arial’ ‘@’ sign of Twitter handle.

Download a blank PSD template for this business card (ZIP, 64 KB).

Who printed this?

Many asked this question to me. I printed 96 business cards for Rs.185/- (This includes printing charges, cutting charges and VAT for double sided prints on four 300gsm A3 sheets, matte finish) from Print Xpress, Richmond Road, Bangalore. Their customer service is the worst among competitors, but they are also the cheapest in Bangalore.

Reactions

Click on the image for a closer view.

The few ‘lucky’ people who received my new business card generally favored the design and mentioned that the card is quite memorable. Well, what do you think?

Design Date: 03-Sep-2011

Can you decipher the following equation?

If yes, you are as smart as the symbolist Prof. Robert Langdon. You can stop reading this and continue with your intellectual life. Others, read on…

In the past 10 years, I had to attend a lot of job interviews. Some of them were enlightening; some others were embarassing to me as I repeat the “I don’t know” line for the nth time. Once in a while, I have faced challenging questions that need me to show creativity. Today I am going to discuss one such question.

“Design a business card for you without using any alphabets.”

Although I was expected to do only one design, I came up with four. Let us start with the obvious solutions.

FACE\OFF

My friends, who recognize my face, can have this business card. My mobile phone number appears in the card (No alphabets; that means, numerals are allowed).

Code Play

The idea was to encrypt my name and address as a barcode. This can be read using a barcode reader.

On second thoughts, from a practical point of view, this can be implemented using a QR code. Modern smart phones can easily decode them.

Gmail

This card features my e-mail ID as a screenshot of my Gmail account. Technically, this is disqualified as the screenshot — although an image — contains alphabets.

Ban Me!

OK, this needs some explanation.

If you don’t know it already, my name is ‘Anas.’ In the equation depicted above, the first image is ‘bananas.’ The second image is the ‘ban’ symbol that usually appears in ‘Do not smoke,’ ‘No parking’ boards etc.

What will be the result when I subtract ‘ban’ from ‘bananas?’ Now you understood the logic, right?

I agree that this is a little convoluted. But as a result of me coming up with this design, I landed in the job!

Image Credits

• Bananas: Elembis
• Empty Card: Ilker, Turkey
• Business Card: Vivek Chugh, India
• Hand with Card: Christoffer Vittrup Nielsen, Denmark
• Business Card: Brian Lary, US

What will you do?

I am very much interested to know your answers to this business card question. Inform me your ideas in the ‘Comments’ section.

Our Design

It is a minimum clutter design with a stress on the logo. The reverse side of the card features the tagline ‘you have seen nothing yet!’ and our twitter ID. Here is a comparison between the existing design and the new design.

The existing design resembled our website, complete with the upper and lower shadows.

Design Specifications

• File format: PSD
• Color Mode: CMYK
• Resolution: 300 pixels/inch
• Canvas size (Full Bleed Size): 95mm x 56mm.
  • Remember that the background colors and background images should extend to the full canvas size.
• Card Trim Size after cutting: 89mm x 51mm
• Design Area: 85mm x 47mm.
  • All the text should be placed within this design area.
  • When the file is released to print, don’t forget to rasterize all text layers and flatten the image.

  Download a blank PSD template for business card (ZIP, 384 KB).

Software: Photoshop
Design Date: 29-Jul-2009