business cards

[liamx1234]

what do you think is best to get them orderd online which is a nightmare as many are asking for a design to be sent to them! or go to the local printing shop and get them printed? and designed

 

[Paul Murray]

Well my opinion will be biased as I'm a designer, but I'd say pay to get them designed by a designer, then pay a printer to print them (I can recommend a good online-printer I've used a number of times). Many printers offer a design service, but they (not all) just churn out the design as they are already tight on budget from the printing.

I've been given many cards that were designed on the cheap, and whilst it probably doesn't matter to the vast majority of businesses/people, there's nothing worse than being handed an ugly, flimsy card. To me it's a little like receiving a weak handshake, but like I said, I'm probably biased.

Many would argue that it doesn't matter, and they're probably right, but really it depends on your business and your target market. If you're wanting to charge for a premium service for example, you should really have a card that sells you as a premium service provider.

 

[Randall1022]

Vista print. They have quality at great prices.

 

[kelvin1950]

Anyone but vistaprint! I've had awful service from them. I use goodprint but I have my own design. If you don't have a design, walk down your local high street and into the local printer's shop.

 

[Dolphin-Design]

Hi Liam
If you're looking for less than a 1000 we may be your cheapest option as we are currently offering a free design on first order
http://www.dolphin-design.co.uk/business-cards-32679-p.asp

 

[Karimbo]

free designs are likely to be produced from templates, when i was looking i remember a lot of the online print shops provide online business card designer.

minimum order for value for money is 1000, any less and you'll pay almost the same amount as for 1000. e.g. 100 cards £9, 1000 cards £21 for the most budget media on instant print.

 

[Dolphin-Design]

The free design is custom made, done purely just to drum up some more business.
We use digital printers therefore there most certainly is better value for money lower down the scale on quantities.

 

[ADNattan]

If you're using an online printer, I'd recommend Moo.com. That's where I had mine printed.

Although I did have the graphic designer I work with create a bespoke design for me.

 

[liamx1234]

orderd some of ebay thursday paid £15 for 1000, guy still aint marked them as shipped,

 

[Alistair Webster]

I found Vistaprint great... I made an error with one of their free order so ended up with flyers instead, they were happy to give me free cards as well!

 

[flomigo]

I would normally avoid vista-print 99.9% of the time , they are great prices with a quick delivery but i find quality always suffers in my experience * and by there reviews *. I would recommend MOO or Solo Press. MOO is very hard to beat on quality but it is expensive.

Solo Press is a great quick service with fantastic quality up to now. Ive only had leaflets and business cards from them so i have not tried there full range, You can order a full sample pack from them for free and should arrive in a day or 2.

 

[colour24]

It has to be Vista Print in my opinion. If they do get it wrong they will sort it out without a fuss.

 

[astrolabium]

Moo.com provides the best quality cards.

 

[Andrew Scarre]

Vista do offer quite a good service.

 

[am:pm graphics]

Watch our with the extra charges with Vista (read the small print)! I wouldn't go with the free design option as you might end up with cards that look the same as another business or two! Whoever you do go with, ask them if they can send you the print ready file as well.

 

[SugarCubeProductions]

I'd recommending sending your design to me and letting me to them. £34 for 500, £47 for 1000, matt laminate business cards on 450gsm stock. Better quality then vistaprint or moo, and cheaper then both after the extra costs.

The moo cards are nice, but are good quality, only a little worse then ours. They have the advantage of being able to have different backs or rounded corners which we can't do as a litho printer, but you pay through the nose for them.

Vistaprints business cards feel like cheap paper and make your business look cheap. They also charge a fortune for delivery if you want them in under a week as they have to come from Holland.

And yes my prices included delivery and VAT.

 

[Bruno Domingues]

I met recently a competitor who had these amazing business cards printed with 3D, was so impressed I asked him for the contact of his printer and am having my new cards done there.

Have a chat with Nikk from Northview Creative, tell him you want awesome business cards with 3D.

They're not cheap I think it costs around £170 but I think it is well worth the money to stand out and have something beautiful.

I don't even care about how much the price is, I want beautiful business cards and when people see them they'll say "WOW these are amazing". My current cards are nice but don't have that effect so I feel I'm just one more guy with business cards whenever I go to a networking event.

 

[SugarCubeProductions]

If you fancy business cards that stand out without costing the earth, I can do both plastic and metal engraved cards.

 

[Bartholomew Hearn]

You could always make a stamp with your contacts, cut cards of hard recycled paper and stamp as many as you want. Both cheap and efficient.

 

[Simon.P]

Solopress are good imo

 

[Tom Smart]

Always best to use someone local for this type of thing-If the budget allows it.

Alternatively you have a design done on something like Elance, varying prices all over the planet. Then pop over to something like Saxoprint and get it all printed, far cheaper- just don't set your expectations too high!

 

[SugarCubeProductions]

Why is it best to use someone local to print business cards? Most local printers are digital printers and can't get the quality of litho print.

 

[Tom Smart]

Surely the best printers on the planet have to be local to someone.

 

[SugarCubeProductions]

Most of the best ones are local to industrial estates as the machines are to big to fit inside a town shop premises.

 

[Tom Smart]

I'm talking from a customer service point of view. But surely most people are near a industrial estate?

 

[SugarCubeProductions]

Well I run a print agency, so we provide the customer service, but get it printed off site. You get the best of both worlds that way.

There's 3 print shops near me but I can't say much about the quality of their cards. They are really thin about 250gsm as that's all their printers can cope with.

 

[Tom Smart]

And there are good and poor printing companies near me too.

Personally the best experience I had was with a local printer after face to face meeting, but that's not to say there are not good printers that can be found online. I use them! Like yourself of course.

 

[Richard White]

I agree that it is worth investing in good design. The printing is the cheap part. Your designer should be able to advise you on what best card to print on. Make sure the card is thick enough. Thin card lacks credibility which is not good if you are seeking to give a professional image.

 

[DavidWH]

Why is it best to use someone local to print business cards? Most local printers are digital printers and can't get the quality of litho print.

Maybe years ago, but new digital machines aren't far off Litho quality, perhaps they don't want to stump up the £££'s for a new Ricoh or Xerox.

Well I run a print agency, so we provide the customer service, but get it printed off site. You get the best of both worlds that way.

There's 3 print shops near me but I can't say much about the quality of their cards. They are really thin about 250gsm as that's all their printers can cope with.

We've no issues running 400 gsm on our digital press. Only issue moat digital presses suffer is registration on double sided print.

I don't know where this misconception that gsm has anything to do with thickness.

We've had 130 gsm from one supplier that's comparable to bog roll, yet another suppliers is noticeably thicker.

 

[Plan A Link]

Have a graphics designer design your graphics cards, either use fiver.com if you know exactly what you want and want it cheaper or higher a graphics designer from your local area.

Once you have the design you can take it solopress (we love solopress). We use them for all of our printing needs. They are so fast & simple to use.

 

[athompson]

When I started working for company I work for now we used a local printer and graphic designer. I then had some samples done by Moo.com with their infinity print they looked great, different image from our marketing on cards. We did a somewhat modest order compared to what we had done with the other printer and it was around 1/4 of what he used to charge for the same amount. BUT this was due to the fact we had him doing spot printing for a specific colour which we then couldn't match with digital printing. But we resolved that during a re-branding exercise and dropped the almost impossible to get right spot colour. Makes wrapping vans much easier now haha

 

[VIS1BLE]

It's not worth to save a money on a business card design or printing quality. Nowadays customer is a king and if you represent yourself or your business with a cheaply designed thin business cards, you lose clients who are ready to pay a premium price on your product/service.

 

[HazelC]

Firstly - I would avoid Vistaprint at all costs. Yes they are cheap but everyone knows a vistaprint card and you can normally tell them a mile off.

I opted for Gareth from Twenty8Design to design them for me and then I ordered velvet touch business cards from InstantPrint - was a tad more expensive but the design looked superb and the final product is really good quality!

 

[ScottR]

Solopress are great, in the past month we have spent around £500 on printing, 7000 business cards, 500 folded wallets, 200 greeting cards and 2000 a4 letterheads.

Used solopress for all except the folder wallets (printed abroad and posted to us) their service is perfect with free next day delivery!

 

[websensejim]

Really depends on your budget. If you have money to spend hire a decent graphic designer and leave it up to them to manage the whole process including sourcing a printer. If you're on a shoestring, post a job on a freelance site or get a design from fiverr etc, and use an online printing service like Vistaprint etc.

 

[dwprint]

Well my opinion will be biased as I'm a designer, but I'd say pay to get them designed by a designer, then pay a printer to print them (I can recommend a good online-printer I've used a number of times). Many printers offer a design service, but they (not all) just churn out the design as they are already tight on budget from the printing.

I've been given many cards that were designed on the cheap, and whilst it probably doesn't matter to the vast majority of businesses/people, there's nothing worse than being handed an ugly, flimsy card. To me it's a little like receiving a weak handshake, but like I said, I'm probably biased.

Many would argue that it doesn't matter, and they're probably right, but really it depends on your business and your target market. If you're wanting to charge for a premium service for example, you should really have a card that sells you as a premium service provider.

Totally agree with the above, use a graphic designer - I would also say get the cheap litho/digital stuff to spread around but get some very special cards to give to people you really want to impress - even if you only get 100...

All depends what kind of business of course - most of my customers are from the financial sector etc, so they need to impress - some businesses just don't need expensive business cards.

- David

 

[Aaron Yates]

I would definitely recommend using a designer. Depending on your budget there are free templates available, but first impressions are the most important when meeting in person. A flimsy, poorly designed card can detract from the quality of what you have to offer.

As an aside, we've always used GoodPrint for our business card printing, as they print on 400gsm (nice, thick card) as standard. A thick card just has a more quality feel and weight about it.

 

[dwprint]

400gsm is just standard thickness - very ordinary.

500gsm is minimum thickness for a "special business card" - in fact 540gsm Colorplan card is where it starts to get interesting...

 

[Aaron Yates]

When we first started looking at card 5/6 years ago the vast majority of printers were using 300gsm. We found a decent provider for 400gsm and stuck with them. 300 just feels so flimsy.

 

[Pish_Pash]

It will surely haunt me to my dying day, that having unexpectedly bagged a meeting with one of the Uk's biggest retailers, I realised I'd not got any business cards printed, so I hastiily knocked one up in photoshop & went to Staples to get it printed out.......eeeugh. The business card was so thin that it only had one side....it was curling as I handed it over to the buyer (& my toes are curling as I type).

never was that old Scout motto "be prepared" more appropriate.

Immediately afterwards I ponied up for some nice thick business cards (450gsm I think) ...which didn't cost a lot via Ebay (just a few quid more than I paid Staples), but great quality.

Edit: here's who I used... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Business-...ilders-/261994853594?var=&hash=item3d001c34da (no affiliation with them)