Business cards: the good, the bad and the ugly

PROFIT's first annual business card competition reveals there are a lot of
lousy cards out there, and how you can make yours a winner

By Kali Pearson
February / March 2002

When it comes to the survival of your business, the most important thing
in your wallet isn't your credit card — it's your business card.
After all, once you've walked away from a prospective client, it's all
they've got to remember you by. Leave a flimsy, poorly-designed card and
you'll be pegged as unprofessional. Leave a card that looks good, feels good
and clearly conveys what you do, and you give prospects reason to call you back.

When something is this important to your business, it deserves its own awards
program. So, hoping to celebrate and share examples of great business-card design,
PROFIT undertook its first-ever Canadian Business Card Competition.

After collecting 102 entries from readers across the country, we invited the panel
of expert judges — a printer, a marketer and a designer — to evaluate them. But
when we emerged from the stuffy boardroom hours later, we still hadn't settled on
a winner. The cold truth is, there was a lot wrong with the bulk of the entries;
one judge even went so far as to call most of them "appalling". Is that what you
want potential clients thinking of your card? We didn't think so. That's why we
asked the judges to give us the straight goods on what works — and what doesn't —
when it comes to business-card design.

While our judges approached their task from very different areas of expertise,
there was one thing on which they all agreed: your business card matters. Many
entrepreneurs are trying to do business with big corporations, says judge John Hull,
PROFIT's art director. "Large corporations have all got professionally designed cards.
Those executives know the difference between high-end business cards, and low-end ones."

Creating a winning image requires more than just an eye-catching logo. It requires a card that
conveys what you do through words, graphics, color and even shape. This, of course,
is much easier said than done.

As PROFIT's judges pore over cards of all shapes and sizes (from round to jigsaw-shaped
to a card that folds in three like a tiny brochure), everyone agrees that if a card can't
stand up to normal wear and tear, it isn't worth printing.

And if you want people to hang onto your card, says judge Jay Mandarino,
president of Toronto printing shop, C.J. Graphics, design them with storage
in mind. Remember, he says, they're likely to be stapled in a Rolodex, so
avoid cards that fold in two, or have vital information on the back.

Before your card gets filed away, though, it has to be noticed. Many entries
employed gimmicks to get attention. One card submitted by an Alberta communications
firm, for instance, was designed to hang from one's finger or wine glass at cocktail parties.

"When it comes to gimmicks, there should be a reason for it," says Mandarino.
"It has to tie into the design of what you're selling. I did one for a guy who
sold envelopes, so his card was actually an envelope." Hull suggests a more subtle
approach: choosing design elements that allude to the product or service you sell.
He points out the card submitted by Calgary's Ion Irrigation Management Inc. as a good
example. The water-drop graphic, he says, "works well to emphasize their product."

No more bland business cards: Today's printing techniques make it easier and
cheaper than ever to make a card that's all your Scream your name: These cards, for
Hamilton web-design firm Sonic Boom, reinforce the company name just by looking loud

If your product doesn't lend itself to shapes or pictures, you can use design to reinforce
your company name in the mind of prospective clients and associates. Sonic Boom,
a web-design company in Hamilton, does this with its cards (above), which just look loud.
Stylized photos of speakers and space ships, each overlaid with concentric rings,
insinuate volume and reinforce the name.

Next, Mandarino picks up a card shaped like a jigsaw-puzzle piece — white with
bold orange type — submitted by a Quebec tourism outfit. It's eyecatching, but fails
to convey anything about the company. "Maybe if they made jigsaw puzzles ...," he says,
trying to be kind.

Furthermore, the card is printed on thin stock. "As soon as you put it in a wallet or
Filofax," says Mandarino, "it's going to get trashed."

Cheap paper does not communicate a successful image. "[People] hand me their card,
and it's cost them $30 a thousand from Business Depot and it's a piece of crap," says
judge Donald Cooper, a marketing consultant. "And they say, 'Well, geez, that's all
I can afford.' I say, 'No, that's all you've got. You're starting off, all you have is
your business card, and it's crap. You didn't just save $50, you just wasted $30.'"

If you can't afford to break the bank, keep it simple, says Hull: "There is no excuse for
doing something badly just because you can't afford it. Make sure whatever you do is well-printed."
Hull points to the card from Imason, a web-design company. Mustard yellow on the back, clean white
on the front, the round-cornered card is simple, but thoughtfully designed. "It's beautifully produced," he says.

Cooper, meanwhile, searches for a card that satisfies his first test of business-card
effectiveness: does it explain what the company does? An attractive card from a company
touting itself as "Your source for innovative solutions" fails his test.

"Innovative solutions to what?" asks Cooper. "And here's one from a retirement community,
but there's no address."

"Oh look!" he exclaims, "Here's one: Donald Cooper, MBA, certified speaking professional.
And there are my topics." Clearly, business cards are no place for modesty. In fact,
Cooper believes it's a good idea to include accolades you've earned right on your card.
"Little things like 'excellence in something since 1845'," he suggests.

No matter what you say, say enough. Cooper points out a card from ClickSigns,
a Guelph, Ont. design company, listing its services. "From a marketing perspective,"
he says, "I really like the fact they really made it simple to understand."

Mandarino, however, favors a cleaner card: "The simpler the card, the better." Create a buzz: Listing services on its card helps this Winnipeg maintenance company
"create confidence," says judge Cooper Form and function: Quality card stock,
a nice embossed logo and clean type can make even a dentist's office seem appealing

Cooper holds up a card from Bee-Clean, which features a large bumble bee wielding a push-broom
and includes an extensive list of services. "So you folks, for example, don't like this
one because it's got too much information?"

"And it's extraordinarily ugly," says Hull.

It's clear our judges aren't going to agree on how much text is too much. They do,
however, agree that whatever you decide to include should be legible. Small type
is dangerous. "If you're selling to people in their 20s and 30s, fine," says Mandarino.
"But there's a wide range of people out there, and small type is just hard to read."

After three hours, the conversation has dwindled into a muted debate over the exact
definition of "strategic planning" (no one knows, but everyone decides they'd like to).

It's clear that none of the cards are going to satisfy all of our judges. Still, the
ideal blend of form and function is possible; we almost glimpse it toward the end of
the afternoon, when a card card submitted by a Toronto dentist which had escaped everyone's
attention, surfaces. It's creamy white, with an embossed logo featuring a comfortable chair.
"Oh," says Mandarino. "That's nice. I like that. I like that!"

Dr. Ken Wolch has managed to submit a card that satisfies the designer, the printer a
nd the marketer — for a moment. "Dental care with a difference," says Cooper, with a
look of admiration on his face.

"Yeah," says Mandarino. "This guy covers the marketing, he tells us who he is.
The illustration is sort of so-so, but it still works. It's nicely embossed, it's
got nice rounded corners and it's a good stability stock."

"Dental care with a difference ..." Cooper repeats. "But what difference?"
The marketer is unsatisfied again.

"You get to sit in a nice chair, I guess," says Mandarino.

And just like that, our chance at declaring a winner was over — for the time being.
We still think the winning card is out there
PROFIT
777 Bay St., 5th Floor
Toronto, Ont.
M5W 1A7

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