More about business cards… How about irregular sizes?

Jul 31 2008

After my post about business cards earlier this week, someone asked me what I thought about irregular-sized business cards. Some people love doing dunky-sized business cards as a show of creativity and originality, but I usually suggest treading carefully.

The nice thing about irregular-sized business cards is that they make a great impression when you hand them out and can even become a conversation piece. It’s an unconventional way to get someone engaged with you and your brand. But here’s the bad part… So now someone puts this card in their pocket and takes it back to the office and suddenly they don’t know what to do with it.

It can be difficult to file or scan as those tools are designed specifically for the standard 3.5 x 2 cards. I have a few odd-sized cards that people have given me over the years and so I’ve experienced this firsthand. Once I got a card from an art director that was absolutely remarkable. It was a perfect 3″ circle. Probably the coolest card I’ve ever gotten. But now it looks terrible because I had to file it away in my business card portfolio and it got all folded up in the process. And now every time I flip through my book, I don’t see a creative wonder in that slot, I see a crumpled mess.

A business card is definitely a branding tool and it helps make a first impression, but it also needs to be functional for the person who receives it. My recommendation is usually to get as creative as possible with the standard size card. Use a creative printing technique, round the corners. Maybe only round one corner. Do different versions, do something unexpected… But remember that the person who receives it may keep it for five or ten years so make sure it will stand up to whatever filing method your audience uses.