In this academy entry, we have two intentions: to remind you how important a good business card is and to explain the advantages that a personal design has over a premade one.

Although individuals and businesses are being ever more presented through digital means, we cannot forget the traditional methods of communication. We still need to maintain relationships with people in the current, real world. In this respect, the business card is a fundamental tool. It is more than a simple document that provides personal or business information, it puts you in direct contact with a person or business. Taking this into account, we can say that a business card is a contact document as well as a hand delivered cover letter. When you give someone a business card you aren’t just giving them a telephone number or an email address, but so much more. A business card gives a little insight into your image as an entrepreneur or the image of your business, as well as defining the values you want to put across. For this, it is extremely important that a business card is as personal and precise as possible. Ultimately, it is a part of the corporate image that cannot afford to contain any errors and must have every detail taken care of. Amongst others, this is one of the reasons why it is fundamental to leave the design of a business in the hands of a professional.

Whilst being true that predesigned business cards might seem like the most convenient option, it’s quite probable that the final results speak for themselves and say the exact opposite. The advantages that are offered by different predesigned business card portals and companies are almost always the same: ease, convenience, speed, personalised design… but as we aren’t convinced by these arguments, we shall explain why we don’t agree.

EASE AND CONVENIENCE

When presenting these two factors as advantages of predesigned cards, the same argument is used: You can make your own business cards from the comfort of your own home. This may sound good, but realistically it will be you who has the task of searching through all the designs, testing your logo and information in each one, seeing which one is best, choosing between the different types of paper… and all of this without the help of a designer. Ultimately, this is easy to sell but in reality you have to do the work, they are just in charge of the printing. Ultimately, they give you a standard design which you have to modify yourself, not a personalised one.

SPEED

We don’t really understand this advantage as, even though you can be at home, you must dedicate substantial time on everything that we mentioned above (looking at designs, trying different combinations, etc…). When you get a business card from a design studio, everything is done for you. The only time you need to invest is in picking up the telephone and asking them to create one for you.

PERSONALISED DESIGN

The personalised designs that these companies offer are usually available for infinite usage for many people. In fact, in most cases there are business cards flying around that are the same as yours. This is completely imbalanced with what we said earlier about your business card being like a cover letter, creating part of your image and needing to be completely personal. Imagine you are at an important event and you come across at least ten people who are dressed the same as you. How awkward and impersonal! Ultimately, these are standard designs that you have to modify yourself, not unique, personal designs.

In a studio, professional designers are working to create an exclusive and unique design for you. They do this by starting from scratch and taking lots of things into account, such as the sector of the company, the target client, the needs of your business, etc. On top of this, you also have the security of knowing that you are leaving something as important as you corporate image in the hands of an expert. They will advise you on any doubts that arise and will prevent you from making any mistakes.

The most important thing is that in the end you get the best result possible. Here you can see a small number of examples of business cards created by factoryfy. It is easy to see the time and care put into the making of these cards.