Pimp my card – adding some glamour to your business buddy

The humble business card has come a long way in recent years. No longer are you restricted to just paper. Oh no. Now you can now have your digits pressed, inscribed, or printed on an array of materials including plastic, wood and even sheet metal. You can even choose to tech it up with built-in USB connecters or NFC chips.

But if you’re a purist like us, and decide to go with uncomplicated card (it’s a classic for a reason), what can you do to jazz-up those business cards to make sure your info becomes something wallet-worthy?

Here are some tweaks and finishing-touches to take your cards to that next level.

The fondle factor

Add some impact by making your cards impossible to put down. Make yours a multi-sensory experience by choosing a card-type that simply demands some fondling. Whether it’s the solid quality-feel of 810 or 920gsm Lux or the ripply delight of running finger-tips over textured paper such as Rives Dot or Rives Tweed, adding the ‘must pick-up’ aspect to your cards means they’ll get into (and stay-put) in the right hands.

You can even take things a step further and add a lamination. Velvet or gloss lamination in particular will add a silky feel to your cards, as well as making them more-durable and keep them looking good for longer.

Every story has two sides (and four edges)

Remember not to focus too heavily on just the front design of your card – there’s a whole other side to your business-buddy after all. Use that oft-neglected flip-side to showcase your work, show-off commendations and reviews, or even recent awards.

If you love colour, why not add a beautifully co-ordinated flash and make the most of those thick edges offered up by Lux paper stock? You can select a vibrant coloured card for the centre layer of this triple-ply hero and make sure your business card looks good from every angle.

Chipping-in

With so much of modern life being tech-dependent, you might enjoy the simplicity of the uncomplicated card, however, if you can’t get enough gadgety goodness then there are plenty of options for bringing your business cards bang up to date.

Yes you can transmit your details direct onto a customer’s phone with NFC or send them away with your portfolio on a tiny, embedded USB drive but what other options are there?

There’s the now well-established QR code. Quickly directing your customer or contact through to a mobile website or microsite of your choice using a freely-available scanner app. The only limit to what you can do here is your imagination and your web-development team.

Why not embrace a whole new dimension and delve into the exciting waters of Augmented Reality? The trailblazers in this technology have been Google, with their headline-grabbing glasses, and Disney with their Disney Infinity computer games.

So what is it and how can you use this with business cards? Looking much like a QR code at first glance, Augmented Reality works via a phone-readable graphic that’s printed on your card. It interacts with a smart phone camera allowing a virtual object to super-imposed in the real-life environment seen through the phone camera. This is a fabulous way for product sellers to show a customer what their item would look like in situ in their home of office environment or to bring a design to life.

One thing is for sure, business cards need never be boring again! If you’re tempted to craft some new designs, be sure to check out How to recycle your business cards!