Go, minimal

We wanted to get business cards printed as quickly as possible because Matt has a lot of in-person political and business contacts, but we didn’t want to go with the standard run-of-the mill business card.  Usually they’re chock full too much information in unreadable tiny print, so we stripped off all non-essential info to try to make it look as clean as possible.

1. No title? We are a small tiny business where everyone does six different jobs at once.  Titles can be used to impress clients and make you seem bigger than you are, but what’s the point?  They’ll find out anyway.  Use the fact that you don’t have a title as a segue (not segway) into bringing up the advantages of working with a small company.
2. No address? A business card is supposed to be a reminder of a conversation and a way to contact you or refer you to someone.  I have as much New Jersey pride/self-loathing as the next benny, but we’re an online company and most people don’t care where you’re located anyway unless its a “hey we live in the same neighborhood lets buddy up and do some tequilla shots” kinda thing in which case it would have been brought up in the conversation.  If needed, our mailing address is available on our website for reference, in case you really wanted to mail us a dead tree copy of a contract or a Hiro Nakamura bobble head doll.
3. No fax number? Please.  Is this 1999?  If you really wanted to fax us something, just email or call and we’ll set up one of those fax-to-email services.
4. No website? The website is the domain of the email address.  If you can’t figure that out, you’re probably going to be entering “simande” into your browser’s search bar to get to us anyway.
5. One letter email address? Take advantage of the perks you get as a small company where you can.  Nobody likes to type in long excruciatingly long email or website addresses.  We took it another step and made it that much easier for you to contact us.

Just as an added touch, we used the back of the cards to print a black and white version of our logo.

Lessons learned:

1. Get as few cards as possible, you’ll definitely encounter situations where giving out your card is necessary, but for an online company these sitautions are few and far between.
2. The joined thin font + thick font look doesn’t work as well with small font and strong kerning.