Business Card Criticism

Aug 31, 2007
1,960
1
34
Long Island/New York
This is just off the top of my head, but you might wanna put something about magic on your card.
"Close-up" doesn't really explain what you do.

On a side note, this card is really plain.
Be creative.
 

ATH

May 1, 2010
150
0
Looks god dude. I would change the background to a darker color, like a black or something. I also agree about putting "magician" on there somewhere so people know what you do. Otherwise, very nice.
 
I agree... it feels a bit plain. Your card should always either have your logo or a picture of yourself. Also you should deff include magic on there. Here is mine:

BusinessCardIdeaFinal-HiRes.jpg


I spent countless hours on this working with people on another magic forum. As of now I do not have a website, however once I purchase my domain (in the process of building a site now) I will also include my website on there along with a more professional e-mail address.
 

Justin.Morris

Elite Member
Aug 31, 2007
2,793
888
Canada
www.morrismagic.ca
Although my current card does not have my picture on it, 'they' say that your picture is one of the most effective things to have on your card, because you are selling yourself as a product. My next batch of cards will have my photo on it for sure.
 
Nov 7, 2009
135
0
Paris, France
Thanks for the advices guys !
I remplaced Close-up by Magician, and also de-centered the whole {content}


One dilemna though : half of you think the card is too plain, while the other half think it's direct...
However, as the card will be handed AFTER performance, I think I'll stick with the plain simple-ness of it, as my personnality should have already been transmitted :). Also it might be "customized" during tricks, so I think it's better not to keep it too busy.

Oh btw Lorem Ipsum is not my name but some not-so-random latin words used by designers as generic content, but I'm almost sure you knew that already since you're an architect :D



businesscardt11v2.jpg


PS : Magicien is the french for Magician
 
Nov 20, 2007
4,410
6
Sydney, Australia
Personally, I prefer the one without "magician". Why do you need to put it on there? I feel that if you can't describe what you do succinctly and briefly, there really is no point trying to market yourself. If you can do that - why do you need the label? It brings up a lot of stereotypes. What I would prefer is to instead simply show someone what I do, instead of telling them what I do. A memory is worth far more than a word with generic connotations. So is a precise description.

Personally, I would use a business card more as a calling card. A reminder, with contact details, that's all. If they need to refer to the card to remember who you are and what you do, you probably won't get booked anyway. Just my thoughts.

Keep it simple. To be honest, and without meaning to offend, I did not like the other card that was posted here. Unprofessional email address, and a number of magical stereotypes.
 
Keep it simple. To be honest, and without meaning to offend, I did not like the other card that was posted here. Unprofessional email address, and a number of magical stereotypes.

Like I said I am in the process of getting a professional e-mail address, at the moment this is what I have to use. Also I am geared more towards children's entertainment, so for me it works. I worked with several working magicians on this (Benji Bruce, Georges-Robert, and Ran'd Shine to name a few) and we all felt that it worked for character/marketing demographic.

To each their own =]
 
Apr 20, 2010
286
1
A few things:

Very tacky effects. The blur and hard gradients will NOT turn out well on paper! Keep it simple and clean. While I feel that your color scheme is alright, you could use a spellcheck and better placement. There is a lot of negative space and you should do your best to fill the sides some more (stretch the next by spacing it out, etc).

But, it's yours and yours only.
 
Jan 1, 2009
2,241
3
Back in Time
There is nothing wrong with having a plain business card. You don't want your business card to look too corny or too flashy. All it really should have is you job title and contact info. And maybe a picture on it if you want. Anything else is just over doing it and will look tacky.

As far as the email address thing goes. It's a bit too long of an email for somebody to remember or type out. You want something with just your name and @whatever service you use.
 
Sep 1, 2007
109
0
I think that having the word magician on your card is actually quite important. Think about it, people collect dozens of business cards in a year. If they want to book you a year and a half later, they should be able to efficiently find your card. Granted the best way to do this is to perform an effect with the card, but that isnt always possible. Sometimes you hand your business cards to some people to give to others and friends and what not, or if youre table hoping have some available at the front counter. I dont think there is any profession in which its not a good idea to have your position on your business card (unless youre a spy I guess..).

I like the simplicity and open-ness of the card because its clean. However, because the front is black, youre basically forced to make the back of it black as well... which takes away from the utility of being able to do effects with it. You need white, or light coloured areas on your card for a lot of effects, and even if you dont do any now, you dont want to be limited in the future. To solve this, I would throw a white border around the edges, which makes the continuation of white onto the back not so drastic. It also means you have to pay less for printing because you dont have to pay for both sides!

Also, you need to understand what its going to look like when its printed. Gradients and the fades and stuff won't print as well as they look on your screen. Keep this in mind when doing graphic design. People who are used to designing for internet dont always understand how important it is for clean simple lines when youre going to printing.

Just a few thoughts.

Cheers,
Lucas
 
not bad. i dont really like the colors. but then again tahts me.
close up magician is a good thing. if you put magician, people will think that you pull rabbits out of hats or will do magic for little children. i dont think that is what you want. so if you put a more technical term like close up will specialize what you do. you wont get as many do u do childrens partys, because you say you do close up and people might not be sure what you mean by close up.
 

RickEverhart

forum moderator / t11
Elite Member
Sep 14, 2008
3,637
471
46
Louisville, OH
It looks ok but it just doesn't do much for me. You may want to get one printed as a sample so you can see how it looks once it comes out on stock.

It may not appear just like it did on your screen.

I would add some type of logo or design. It looks like too much open space on the sides.

Another idea is to add some type of reveal on your card so that the spectator will want to hang on to your card because it was utilized in one of your effects.
 
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Nov 7, 2009
135
0
Paris, France
Prae, I totally share your point of view, that's why I didn't, at first, use anything that could remember the "Uncle magician" and used a more abstract approach to my business card.Even so, the word close-up is there to insist that my magic was REALLY close to them (not stage, not "smoke & mirrors" in laymen point of view)... However, if the business card gets passed on to someone else, then there is a risk that this client is lost, hence putting the "magician" term.

So many answers thanks guys!

Thanks for the warning about the fades, I'll definitely ask for a sample or advice from their crew (is the true offset lithography thing any good at printing gradient?)

And I do not think you need to have borders in order to have a dark/light business card, check out Apollo's one :)

Oh btw I'm having them printed at overnightprints.com, so if anyone has any feedback on their gradient printing capacity :D
 
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Justin.Morris

Elite Member
Aug 31, 2007
2,793
888
Canada
www.morrismagic.ca
Just bored at work, and was playing around with putting a picture on it, yet still trying to maintain the simplicity. Attached is what came out of that (except I used Will's headshot for the example - hope you don't mind Will! ;))
But something like that with a close up picture of you may really enhance your 'product'.
 

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May 19, 2010
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Another idea is to add some type of reveal on your card so that the spectator will want to hang on to your card because it was utilized in one of your effects.

That's a great idea. I don't know exactly where you would put it on the card but it could be awesome.
 
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