What you will need:
- Scissors
- Glossy Photo-paper, matte card or
- printing surface of your choice.
- A computer
- Access to a printer
I have an art exhibition on Friday 4th July 2014 (4 days away) and I needed to business cards printing ASAP so that I receive them in time for the exhibition - this was/is near enough impossible, unless you are looking to spend around £30 for 100-250 business cards.
I decided, "hey, I'm a graphic designer, I will do this myself", and so I did; and I'm pretty impressed with how the turned out.
So first thing is first - DESIGN! I suggest research some business cards that already exist for some inspiration (hence why I always save and collect business cards). What you can do is just google 'Creative Business Cards', 'Simple Business Cards', 'Business Cards for *insert job title here*, etc.
Once you have a little physical or mental brainstorm of your favourite designs, you can begin to design yourself.
I suggest using something like InDesign, Photoshop (which I used), or even something as single as Microsoft Paint! Any programme which allows you to add a background, images, text etc.
The dimensions for a business card are approximately: 8.5 x 5.5 cm (this is what I used).
My Design in colour:
Once you have designed the front and back of your business card, what you then need to do is lay the front and back into one document, like the image shown. Make sure both front and back, are facing outwards. The section where the two designs meet will be your fold.
The next step is to print your design onto Glossy Photo-paper, matte card or which ever surface finish you would like. I used Script. Glossy Paper 50 Sheets and a HP Deskjet printer. In order to print as many designs onto one sheet as possible, I created a new A4 (my paper size) canvas on Photoshop and copy/pasted my business card design (below left) onto the page WITHOUT transforming the size (below right) - this way when I print, the business cards will be the correct dimensions. I edited my design to my liking, by making it grey scale using the Threshold tool, which gave it an old, black and white, silent movie appearance.
Once you have printed your design onto the Photo-paper, all you have to do is cut out the designs, and then fold them in the middle. Et voila, tu as finis! Enjoy your DIY business cards!
