Business cards.

A friend of mine combined both of his jobs on one card. It said "Trumpet Performance and Copier Repair", and had a logo of a trumpet in one corner, and a xerox machine in the other corner. Very cool.
 
Following up on just how cheap professionally printed business cards are...
The card I attached above cost only $40 for 1000. That's 4-color, full-bleed, two-sided, with a glossy or matte coating. Insane. I don't see how you can't afford a business card these days.
 
I'm looking for a simple design that tells people that I'm a drummer just by glancing at the card.

I imagine a picture of a drum kit would give people the impression that you are a drummer.
 
Thanks for all the advice. I knew I could count on you. I decided to go with Vistaprint. Total order came to $16.19 including shipping for 250 cards. I figure I can skip Starbucks for a week and have them paid for.

I started out by downloading a picture of my kit to pixlr.com. I was able to crop it, make a negative image,change the color, and add a couple of other effects. Kind of made an artsy image of it. (Thank god for the "undo" button.) One thing I liked about the picture is that I had my vintage shield type resonant head with my initials on it. A nice touch I think.

Then I went to Vistaprint and downloaded the picture, picked a layout, picked the colors, entered my info, and moved stuff around to where I wanted them. Pretty easy. The only really difficult part was deciding when I was done. There are so many options available that I could have spent all day checking them out.

I'll scan a card when I get them in in a week or so.

Again, thanks.
 
Ok. I was able to upload an image from the Vistaprint site to my photobucket account.

 
Nice job! Business card websites are making it pretty easy for people without design experience to end up with nice looking cards.

And yeah, from my business card experience so far, Vistaprint has good quality and are very cheap. Moo has amazing quality and tons of options but they're not as cheap. Our band started out using Vistaprint, and they were put together by another guy in the band. These last cards I designed and went with Moo. I justified it by saying that if these cards get us even just ONE gig, that gig will have well more than paid for the entire order of cards, so I splurged. The first bar we gave the card to said something like "woah! This most professional card I've ever seen come through here." And as a graphic designer myself, that's my cue to offer my design services to the bar!
 
Two points:

Definitely have a local printer print them. You can get full-bleed cards (like mine below) for dirt cheap prices. You'll spend MUCH more if you print them on your inkjet. Plus they will look like crap. And then you have to cut them out, too.

Doing it yourself is an option, if you have the programs and fonts, and you know what you're doing. If you don't have all that, it's too much trouble to DIY, and it won't look professional. So just find a graphic design student that will do something for you for free or next to nothing. They need things to put in their portfolios. There are so many young kids trying to get into graphic design jobs these days. Just look on Craigslist.

Here's my band's card...

At first glance I thought the name was "Blues and the Gods". That would be a cool name.
 
http://www.boredpanda.com/creative-business-cards-part3/

Check out #3

If you're going to go with a business card, you need something different if you want to stand out in the crowd. I actually had the idea a while back to make mini drumsticks out of chopsticks, with a little nylon/plastic/wood tip fitted on the end, and my name/number/etc printed on the stick. Maybe a little labor intensive, but if you want to get noticed.....
 
I use Moo.com as well. Fantastic product and the card stock is primo.

My cards have bright-colored backs on them to stand out from the sea of white and black cards. The front has a small logo and my essential info, although it also says 'Drummer + Percussionist' on it. I also did rounded corners to stand out more.
 
Business cards? Oh man, that is so 2003...
 
So are pagers and cell phones - but people still use them heavily. What is your 2014 idea?

Agreed. What else can you easily leave with someone that has all your info? All the social media sites are important, but you can't expect someone to write down the addresses for you. They might toss the card, but big deal, they're cheap and disposable. On the other hand, if they are interested, they will keep it.

These days it's obvious we all need a diverse strategy to promote ourselves/our bands. A business card still has its place.
 
What is your 2014 idea?

Something to do with dicking around with a smart phone, I guess. It's better than just handing over a piece of paper with all of your info on it, because technology.

Isits, I generally use PS Print, a good and cheap online place-- or you can probably find a competitive local shop. Probably best to buy local. But most sites, and shops, will have templates that look OK, and you can just plug in your info. Or you can just look at other people's cards on Google images, and copy a style you like. It's nice to have a card that looks cool, but they really are strictly functional-- you met somebody, they like you, and they want to know how to reach you. If they're not impressed with you personally, a sweet card isn't going to make any difference. So, just write your name, occupation, number, email, and website in black ink, in Helvetica, on a white card if you don't know what else to do.
 
Another good thing about having a business card handy is that you have some place to write information, like dates, times, directions, etc on the back.
 
I made minimalist cards at home on Word for the band to take to gigs. I removed the cheesy graphics of the standard templates and just included basic information so it would have a crisp, no-nonsense professional look. I printed them on my inkjet printer at home.

The people who asked for the cards didn't seem to have a problem. They just want your vital details in a standard convenient form.
 
I made minimalist cards at home on Word for the band to take to gigs. I removed the cheesy graphics of the standard templates and just included basic information so it would have a crisp, no-nonsense professional look. I printed them on my inkjet printer at home.

The people who asked for the cards didn't seem to have a problem. They just want your vital details in a standard convenient form.

I made some nice minimalist square cards that look like little Polaroid photos from Moo.com and my photo clients love them. I thought I'd go square since everybody else's cards are the standard shape.
 
I've used vistaprint. It is just very convenient. Upload a graphic and add the text and place your order.
 
I honestly can't remember where I ordered business cards for my band, but I am asked for them frequently.

Things like business cards may seem dated, but I can tell you that small-time organizers are not always up on the latest technology. My band has done EPKs and we have our stuff on streaming sites, but people want to go old-school more often than you might think.
 
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