business cards - need to pick one material

[stefano panusa]

Hey all,

I've been so incredibly impressed with everyone's business cards (posted throughout the years) and I'm a little torn by what material would be best for me (to start with)

This is going to be a hobby-business, definitely weekend type stuff. But, I do want to be as professional as possible. I will also be approaching a list of local businesses.

I am considering:
Alumamark with rounded edges, or
Lasermag (might be better for handing out to regular people, rather than businesses?)
or LaserMark,
or even a thin acrylic and some spray paint (already read the threads on fusion, etc)

Not going to go the wood route, simply because that's not the area I'm focusing on.
No plan to engrave both sides at this time.

Does anyone have experience with having these different types of products, and which ones might have more of a wow-factor ?

Cheers!

[Brian J Rogalny]

I have had great results with chewbarka's anodized aluminum business cards, my customers love them.

[Joseph Belangia]

Thanks for the suggestion on ChewBarka, Brian. Cool stuff.

[Larry Bratton]

Don't forget wood. You can buy the veneer sheets from http://cardsofwood.com/products/laser-printable-veneer. They will sell you plain veneer for lasering or the ones that are printable on a printer. Nice thing about them is that the sheet size is small and you can get a few sheets instead of having to buy full sheets from other suppliers. I bought some not long ago and it was very nice material.

[stefano panusa]

Thanks Brian, I had totally forgotten about that option. I've also heard nothing but good stuff regarding his business.

I'd appreciate if you could scan and post one of your cards ?

Cheers!

[John Noell]

I use two different kinds of cards, for two types of contacts. Where I know there is going to be followup and no need to make a big impression, I use a paper card with a laser cut design. Just a bit more flashy than the usual card. Where I want them to remmber me for certain, I use cards cut from flexibrass with a LOT of detailed design. It ALWAYS gets their attention. I try to think about what response I want and frm whom before deciding what my cards should be like.

[stefano panusa]

Hi John.. that's exactly where I am now. I don't mind the paper card as 'contact info', but I definitely wanted a 'sell' card. The flexibrass definitely has a good look.

[Chris DeGerolamo]

We have a card stock from Jerry's Artarama that engraves and cuts nicely...made a whole mess load for a gun show we attended. We etched the company info and used color mapping to make a score line at about half height on the card so that it flipped out/down like a pop up to show a stripped lower AR-15 receiver (this part was cut completely through the card). No puns intended, but they were very well received and without a doubt brought in business. In fact, customers have requested additional cards to pass out to their colleagues and friends.

[Dee Gallo]

Hey Chris - I don't completely understand - is the card two layers? Do you have a picture of it? It sounds intriguing, I love to see other people's inventive cards.

cheers, dee

[Scott Shepherd]

I love to see other people's inventive cards.

cheers, dee

They you'll like this site:

http://www.cardonizer.com/business_cards/wes_thomas

Scroll through them with the "previous" and "next" text.

[Russell Ludwick]

I have found the business cards from chewbarka to be very good overall. A little pricey, but I only hand a couple out a week, so its quality over quantity in this case. I thought the Red anodized cards were far superior to the black, and I cannot comment on the blue.

Some of the Cards of wood cards also came out very nice, my favorite was their curly maple. Many though did not engrave well, or simply didn't quite feel right. The curly maple though had a nice marble wood grain and gave a good reddish brown contrast.

Can I post a picture of my business cards as an example?

[Mike Null]

Russell

go ahead and post it.

[Chris DeGerolamo]

184020

Dee - here is a photo. The text is engraved to the core of the stock, exposing a gray color while vectoring the AR and score line


(If this breaks any forum rules, let me know and I'll edit out company info.)

[Mike Null]

Chris

Looks good to me both from a design standpoint and the SMC TOS.

[Dee Gallo]

Chris, I love it! Very nice and efficient use of the folding thing, which could have used a cut out of anything, really.

thanks for sharing, dee

[Chris DeGerolamo]

Chris, I love it! Very nice and efficient use of the folding thing, which could have used a cut out of anything, really.

thanks for sharing, dee

Thanks much. I plan also to use the same technique to make the save-the-dates for my wedding - turning the card to portrait and cutting out a silhouette of a man and woman embracing...I think I'll go with printed text on a white stock instead though.

[Ron Hartl]

184020

Dee - here is a photo. The text is engraved to the core of the stock, exposing a gray color while vectoring the AR and score line


(If this breaks any forum rules, let me know and I'll edit out company info.)

Very cool! nice work!

[stefano panusa]

Scott - great site, tho I suspect I will be wasting a lot of time browsing it. :)

Chris - interesting card, I guess if I was your target audience I'd understand it heh. Does it stand upright ? it seems like the horizontal line would be too high, but that could just be a perspective thing.

I was looking at Chewbarka's site but didn't see any business card stock ? Do you have to call for those ?

[Chris DeGerolamo]

Scott - great site, tho I suspect I will be wasting a lot of time browsing it. :)

Chris - interesting card, I guess if I was your target audience I'd understand it heh. Does it stand upright ? it seems like the horizontal line would be too high, but that could just be a perspective thing.

I was looking at Chewbarka's site but didn't see any business card stock ? Do you have to call for those ?

It's the perspective, yes it does sit upright. The angle is prime to stare you in the face if it were sitting at your desk. Referring to the stock, I was able to pick it up at a Jerry's Artarama. Michaels and AC Moore do not stock it anymore. This material was key in order to get the contrast! As always, get what you can and test it on your own to see what works for you. Thanks!

[Russell Ludwick]

Here is a run of different card stocks I was trying. Anodized aluminum and wood.

I finally settled on anodized aluminum and got black and red from chewbarka. I found the quality of the anodizing to be better on the red than the black, but both are good. I cannot comment on the blue. Sorry for the flash in the picture.

184097

From Cards of wood, I got a sample pack and I found the curly maple to be my favorite. It just felt right, had a cool shimmery grain structure and lasered a good reddish brown contrast. It costs slightly more than the regular woods but well worth it. The curly maple is either the upper right or the bottom row 2nd column. You can buy the sheets of wood from COW and that might be nice to make a custom card, with a special edge on it or a vector cut design. This might be my next run of cards.

Overall the red anodize was the best all around. They are precision cut and heavy enough that the laser head won't move it when it zips by. No fixturing, fast and looked nice.

184096

[Tom Sieczkarek]

Very neat and quite inventive. You really got my imagination going on this one!!!

[GLENN BRADDY]

I like this alot. Very cool. Where did you get the card stock?