Hi guys, I have done a few weddings now and have a good few booked for this year… all which has come from word of mouth which is brilliant but I defiantly need business cards to hand out and for advertising. I have been meaning to do it for ages but finding it hard to know put on it in terms of design?

I think I would have a nice clean black back with white text but what do u put on the front? Name ok but, what’s the picture of? Camera? Bride? Bride and groom? Me?!? Cool design? Any thoughts would be welcome!

Also I am getting them professional printed, nothing worse then tacky cards.

I haven't done it yet, but I like the advice I was given. "Create (or have a graphic artist create) a logo for your company. Put it on everything from your cards, to your equipment." The logo gives someone a mental image to go with you and they'll likely remember you better.

It sounded like good advice to me, let us know if you do it, and how it works out.

Good luck,

Mark

Wedding = Pretty, it's that simple. If you use a picture of a bride, make sure it's an action shot, and she's smiling, or something. Impression impression.

We actually have a company color, so you might want to think about that as well.

We use overnightprints.com for our cards. They work out well, if you use them, tell them I sent you, I think I get a free card or something. :}

hi andrew, which part of britain are you from? i recommend azimuthprint or printing.com or vistaprint (in that order)

make sure you design in CMYK and NOT RGB. or at least get a proof if ur unsure.

graphically, it's always best to keep a colour scheme/theme throughout ur logos/leaflets/business-cards/website, for obvious psychological reasons :)

i've got very striking, full-colour bleed stationary, which i'm really happy with...i'll email u an example if u like

(n.b. my business cards say 'contemporary film productions' instead of 'wedding films', simply for the reason that i'm branching out to do music videos, school plays etc and i didn't want to be limited to just wedding clients when handing them out. ....worth thinking about.)

Brilliant white linen, for card stock, can look very nice.

I created my business card trying not to image one facet of my services.
Being a Graphic/Web designer, and having done other business cards for other companies gave me a leg up in coming up with something that Visually represents my company.

I decided on 4-color front and back. It's normal for a person to immediately flip the card over to see if anything else is on the other side. I always get a "WoW" response when some one sees my card.
The front has my Logo, neutral image and basic contact stuff along with tag lines of services provided.
On the back I basically did an "About Us" type message with a smaller version of my logo on the bottom.

This design took me roughly 4-5 weeks to hash out. The Logo and message took the longest to create. But it would lead to easier web site creation from this point on.

I believe the 4-color full bleed job ran $90 for 1000 cards.

If you take a peek at my site, it resembles to a certain degree the look-n-feel of my card.

Good Luck creating yours...

great advice guys, just one point am still stuck on... would i use a picture of a bride ive filmed or get a stock image somewhere?

ive prefer stock image but where would i get one? i have filmed three wedding just and theyve all been ppl i know so thats why i would think about stay away from ones ive done

ive prefer stock image but where would i get one? i have filmed three wedding just and theyve all been ppl i know so thats why i would think about stay away from ones ive done


Why would it matter, you can use stock if you want, but I'm a purist on this point. All the images we use are from our work.

The first bride picture I ever used was from someone we knew. I don't think that should matter.

be creative...
you can get cd shaped like business card with samples on it.
you can get cheap 32mb usb memory key with your company name/phone/mail.

If u insist on stock pics, then u can't go wrong with sxc.hu, otherwise use ur own pics or none at all.

We just redid ours last week aftermoving into our new studio. We went for something that we summarize our style in one photo (luckily we also do photo so we can use our own work). We wanted a simple font that was readable but also not too plain. I have attached our latest card.

We have a couple different versions of the card with different backs, some with simple text on a black back to another photo.

Patrick

Nice Card.... Here's a draft of mine...
http://motionone.tv/images/small_320x200.gif

We use overnightprints.com for our cards. They work out well, if you use them, tell them I sent you, I think I get a free card or something. :}

I just wanted to say thanks for this post. I was in the process of redesigning and reordering some business cards and some other materials for a bridal show coming up and checked out overnightprints.com. They are very reasonably priced! I ordered everything from them for 1/2 of the price of my other company. I can't wait to get them!

(I tried to tell them you sent me, but they don't ask anywhere when ordering online!)