Should I change my email?

R

randomname

Well-known member
I'm working on desiging my business card, and I have all of my contact information in one corner of the card, but I just realized that my name is going to be showing up 3 times in the same spot and I'm worried that it will look tacky (my email address and website both use my name) so I'm wondering if I should either A. not worry about it B. move my name to a different part of the card or C. get a new email address, right now it's just firstname.lastname@gmail.com, any thoughts on what to change it to? I don't use a production company name or anything, so thats not an option.
 
My reasoning for not putting my email address on my card was to drive people to my website in order to get it. My phone number and URL are the only contact info on my card. I can't stand cards loaded up with info. Keep it simple.
 
In my opinion, the purpose of the business card is to help people get in contact with me, not just to drive people to my website. I make contact as easy for them as possible, so I do include my email address on the business card.

But you make a good point about the repetitive use of your name. Might not be a bad idea to create a different email address for the card.
 
either change your email address or consider a new design for the business card. for example - simple design on front side and your name in a nice font, on the back a minimal design and your phone, email and website. i say this without knowing what you are promoting or advertising so it's up to you.

In my opinion, the purpose of the business card is to help people get in contact with me
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+1

i use my company name, address, website, phone number, email address and fax (i've had people fax contracts over before). you never know what someone else's preferred method of contact is. with a coherent and effective design you can do whatever you want.
 
chapelgrovefilms said:
In my opinion, the purpose of the business card is to help people get in contact with me, not just to drive people to my website.
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My card does both. Whether they type an email address or type a URL, it's barely any more effort to click on the email link on the site once they get there and my card looks cleaner.
 
i'm not convinced one way is better than the other, it's really just preference because if somebody really wants to get in contact with you then they'll use whatever's on the card, but why make someone go an extra step if they prefer an email address and to shoot a quick message via blackberry or smartphone? your website doesn't even list the actual email address, it pulls up whatever email client is on the cpu, so if i use gmail then its gonna automatically pull open up my outlook or whatever which is annoying.
 
Mickey Munday said:
i'm not convinced one way is better than the other, it's really just preference because if somebody really wants to get in contact with you then they'll use whatever's on the card, but why make someone go an extra step if they prefer an email address and to shoot a quick message via blackberry or smartphone?
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I guess it really depends on what image you want to convey (such that it is through a business card). You can load a card up with lines of text, or you can be minimal and still have the card function as a visual reminder of yourself with contact info on it also.

If you're in the business of creating compelling visual images, do you really want your card to look like a printout of a font sample? I'm in favor of one URL and one phone number, personally. It's clean, it's uncluttered, and it reflects to some degree my visual approach.

I don't claim to be an expert on it, that's just my philosophy. On the other hand this guy makes some good points also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YBxeDN4tbk
 
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lol at the end of the day it's preference. i've worked at a few ad agencies where we've had to do entire branding campaigns for various companies and i've seen it done all ways. i've seen them with minimal info and design and the client say it's effective and i've seen clients who had just the opposite effect with the same style because the person may not realized or forgot what they had the card for and just threw it away because they were too lazy or by mistake. i've seen the "font sample" style be eye catching and compelling because the designer knew what fonts to use and i've seen them look like a train wreck because the person doing it wasnt a real designer. we used to do a lot of things like this for clients when it came to their business cards

to the original poster's question though, you can also try placing your email and website info differently. it doesnt have to be exactly right under one another. or just change it. bottom line is, if you havent made a good impression in the first place or your work doesn't look too great then the person/client aint contacting you anyway no matter how cool or simple your card is.

this thread is starting to remind me of American Psycho
 
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To OP, more importantly I think than weather your name is your email address etc, is to get yourself a real email address with @YOURCOMPANYNAME.COM. To me gmail / hotmail / yahoo doesnt cut it.

On other things, I have plastic cards that match my signage. I never fail to get a comment when I hand my card over which give me something to engage.
 
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