Use your business card to rest....

Andyg

At a conference network thing yesterday in London for creatives. Had to get some business cards so decided on a whim to diy and Home print. Won’t go into the nightmare that choice took....but in the end I realised that if I used my own template, I could mix and match a different image on each card. So I decided on 4 pics which best showed off my styles.

Then on giving the cards out, I got people to choose their favourite.

Two results....1) one style was more popular than the others
2) people saw ALL my work

Essentially the cards became a mini portfolio and nobody felt like they had to wade through a big file.

Have you got any outside the box wats of staring what you do?

That's a great idea! I'm not to that professional threshold yet, but when I get there, I may have to do this!

carriecopadraws

I used moo.com recently for my business cards, they let you have up to 50 different designs on the back and are printed on really nice paper. I also got the square shape for more visual interest.

People do seem to love choosing which design they get! I printed my 3 strongest illustrations and one was definitely more popular. It was a neat experiment to see what shows well. And everyone gets a mini portfolio experience too.

Andyg

@carriecopa that’s really good to know about moo. Thanks for the tip!

Andyg

@jazeps-tenis yes you are. Go watch will terrys ‘tube on ‘am I good enough’. Get on with it

@andyg Added it to my list! I Might listen to it in a bit since I'm still concept-ing my piece for today. At any rate, I am working on my first portfolio and actively working on a project, so I'm heading in that direction. I guess you have to jump in at some point, right?

Andyg

@jazeps-tenis yep, then you will discover imposter syndrome, and the delights of a looming commission deadline and the sense of ‘I can’t do this....who said I could illustrate? I’m a failure!’ Just before you knock it out of the park. You’ll still get to the end and wonder where it came from, and find yourself saying yes to more work. Oh the angst!

@andyg We'll see! The last few years have been hard enough and desolate enough that I feel like I can stubbornly plow forward. My secret is to not think too much about whether I'm succeeding or failing but whether I'm doing the work. That's been my whole philosophy with Inktober anyway.

Andyg

@jazeps-tenis exactly! You can’t, not really describe success or failure. Only if you are doing the hours, in the right way. Do it in public, and work out how to help people. Eventually stuff happens.