King Pin Business Cards

Plastic business cards are the new face of an old tradition. Business cards, and gentlemen’s calling cards have been around since the 18th century, and haven’t changed much since then.

The shape and size remained almost untouched until a few years ago when new shapes and sizes began appearing on the market. There is a distinct difference between a calling card and a business card.

The calling card came first when middle class gentlemen would leave them with the butler of a friends they called on. It was a form of non-confrontational meeting that was designed to save the embarrassment of seeing people you didn’t want to. It was a simple affair, much the same shape and size as a traditional business card. It would hold the gentleman’s name and profession if he had one. That was it until addresses started making an appearance much later on.

This tradition was then taken up by the business community as a convenient way of leaving contact details with new customers or acquaintances. It saves time and awkwardness when you don’t have to hunt for paper and a pen to write down the details in a hurry. The business card was regarded as a the reserve of a professional until late in the 20th century when it started gaining popularity in mainstream business. Once the preserve of surgeons and bank managers became used every day by car salespeople and insurance men. Once they became popular and handed out almost without thought they began to lose their impact except at the highest professional circles.

Around our entry into the 21st century, cards began having a kind of renaissance. Designers began experimenting with shapes, fabrics, textures and any other variation they could think of within the limits of the device. Most of the designs you can find are useless and would be quite inappropriate for business use, but are excellent examples of what you can do with such a limited framework.

One of the best innovations was the use of plastic instead of card as a material. This was only possible because new printing techniques discovered thermal bonding, which is a method of using heat to imprint images onto the plastic. This allowed designers to create a whole new variety of cards. There are limitations of the material though.

The design has to be fairly simple, only use a couple of colors and the design itself can’t mix colors. There has to be a thin space between any meeting of color to stop bleeding and to remain distinct. However, the material is hard wearing and durable and won’t deteriorate like card does. This adds longevity to the card as it will resist moisture and wear.

Using a plastic card while still not that popular is a great way to stand out from the crowd. It can set you apart, and a quality card with a good design can give the impression of quality and professionalism. Little things like that can make all the difference when meeting new people for the first time. A professional ‘face’ or image can make or break any business relationship, new or old.

One of the ways to get your business card noticed is to use something other than the traditional card. One of the most popular right now is plastic. It has all the benefits of card like weight, flexibility and relative low cost but also some other benefits. Plastic cards are waterproof, won’t tear and will generally stay in much better condition than a card.

A plastic business card generally comes in two flavours, a translucent type and a full color card. The translucent have a wispy air about them and allow for some pretty delicate or feminine inspired designs. The full color cards look exactly like a credit card with your own design on both sides. They are slightly larger than a cardboard card, but can be thinner and lighter.

Designing a plastic card takes a little more planning and effort than a normal card version. Where a traditional card is just imprinted and left to dry, a plastic card is inked by thermal transfer, which uses heat to bond the inks. This means you can’t use large swathes of colors in the design. The more ink needed the more heat produced and the greater the risk of warping the card. There is also a minimum font size of 7.5 for plastic cards to prevent the holes in letters like ‘a’ and ‘e’ filling with ink.

Two different inks cannot merge together on a plastic card like they can on a traditional one. There needs to be a small gap between colors to ensure they don’t bleed into each other. This kind of limitation has to be built into any design from the offset as it would be quite difficult to modify afterwards.

On the upside, you can use metallic inks in your designs. This can add a whole new dimension to the lettering and text on the card. If your brand or logo contains lettering then this can change the card completely. There isn’t the technology yet to add gradients to the colours, but there are ways of covering that up. Clever use of fonts and color mixing can create almost any effect you want on a plastic surface. The edges can be much finer as there is no bleed into the plastic like there can be on card.

Plastic cards of any type will cost more to produce because the inking process is more complex. They can be significantly more expensive than a traditional card, but earn that back by the ‘wow’ factor when you use them. Of all the ways to stand out from the crowd, this is one of the most effective.

Using a plastic card would be ideal for an outdoors oriented business like landscaping or boat fitting. It adds a little practicality to the design and will make people think again about using your services. Not only does it say a lot about your commitment to your clients, it also speaks quality. This is an association anyone in business tries to encourage wherever they can.