Why Should I Go for Suede Business Cards?
Business cards are a staple promotional material. Whichever industry it is that you are in, you can rely on business cards to represent your brand and provide people with your up-to-date contact information. There’s such a ceremony attached to the act of handing someone a crisp business card which is probably why it hasn’t been totally replaced by digital business cards just yet.
The standard size of a business card is 3.5” x 2” and it is usually designed with a landscape orientation. The typical material is thick or thin linen, and your basic information with contact information is what’s written on the card. However, if you want your brand to stand out among a stack of linen business cards with what is most likely black and white print, you need to go for a different material, printing process, and finish. Here, we will check out the reasons why you should go for suede business cards.
Characteristics of Suede Business Cards
Suede business cards are elegant business cards that have a unique, fabric-like finish. It feels luxurious to the touch, thick, and looks deluxe. As compared to cardboard or linen cards, what are the specific characteristics that make these elegant business cards something that you should consider for your business? Take a quick look:
- Suede cards fall under the category of soft touch business cards.
Soft touch business cards are cards that have a fabric-like feel to it. How can such a texture be achieved using paper material? It has something to do with the lamination process. Also, the effect cannot be achieved using ordinary desktop printers. Offset printing is the obvious choice for this, since printing presses can produce professional printing results no matter how complex the lamination process is.
Examples of soft touch business cards are cotton, silk, and suede. They imitate the texture of the fabrics that they are named after, and they really look elegant and upscale. If you are going for a high-end, formal, or conservative look for your brand, you should definitely consider having suede soft touch business cards made.
- The lamination process applied to suede business cards give them that fabric-like feel.
Suede fabric is soft, smooth, and velvety. When the same look and feel is applied to elegant business cards, it is the result of a special lamination process. The thickness of the card also has something to do with how substantial the material feels against the hand. All in all, suede business cards provide the perfect mix of elegance and reliability, making it the perfect material of choice for most business owners.
- The lamination process also adds thickness and durability to the card.
Suede cards are considered unique business cards primarily due to the thickness of the material. Using a 16-pt. card stock, for example, will turn into an 18-pt. or 19-pt. card stock once the lamination process is done. Because of the sophistication of the texture and the thickness of the material, suede cards can be easily considered luxury business cards.
- There are add-on finishes that can be added to suede business cards.
To further enhance the look of suede luxury business cards, these are the add-ons that you can go for during the printing process:
After the lamination process, ultra-soft matte suede cards will have a 19-pt. thickness. This is an elegant, simple design which is perfect for those who do not want anything glossy or shiny.
Yet another option for unique business cards that you can go for is raised spot UV gloss suede business card. This also has a 19-pt. thickness. You can go for standard-sized soft touch business cards but for that extra touch of elegance, the surface will be uncoated and topped with chrome gold foil. These types of soft touch business cards are perfect for business cards that have an elaborate logo.
Still falling under the category of luxury business cards is the raised gold foil stamped suede business card. It has a 19-pt. thickness and you can take your pick from various colours like gold or silver, or non-metallic hues such as red, yellow, orange, purple, blue, or pink.
Another good thing about choosing luxury business cards which have a suede laminate is that the process improves colour saturation. If you have a black, white, and gold logo or a colourful theme, the lamination process will make the colours pop. This makes for an eye-catching design that will surely grab the attention of those who you will give the business cards to.
Where Should I Order Suede Business Cards?
Next, how can you look for a company that specializes in printing suede business cards? Below is a comprehensive guide:
- The printing company should offer offset printing.
You usually cannot come up with unique business cards like suede, cotton, or silk without using the offset printing process. Unlike digital printing where the paper material has direct contact with the ink, offset printing does the opposite. The ink is not directly applied to the paper material – thus the term offset. There are more varieties and lamination methods that can be made when you’re hiring the services of an offset printing company. Another advantage of going with offset printing is the speed by which the job can be done.
Let’s say that you want to order 200 pieces of elegant business cards with a suede lamination. With an offset printing company that uses state-of-the-art printing equipment, the job can be easily handled. Aside from the efficiency by which the cards will be printed out, you can also order as many copies as you want. The more copies you require for offset printing, the lower the per-piece cost would be.
The turnover time is also better with offset printing. Since huge state-of-the-art printing presses are used, the machine can easily churn out hundreds of even thousands of business cards in as short a span of time as possible. Once the process has already been set from printing to lamination, you can expect great, professional-looking results. The same thing holds true when you are having other promotional materials printed out. If you need brochures, flyers, banners, notepads, letterheads, or other printed advertising material, offset printing is the way to go.
- They should have a wide variety of materials and finishes to choose from.
Aside from unique business cards like suede, what other soft touch business cards does the printing company offer? Are there cotton or silk luxury business cards? What other types of unique business cards does the company offer? How about plastic or rounded corner business cards? Or maybe you are looking for brown kraft business cards that look organic, earthy, but still elegant? If you’re a bit on the playful side or if you are in an industry which highly values creativity, you may want to go for other unique business cards like foil stamped or pearl. By checking out the materials and finishes that you can choose from, you can decide which one works best based on the design of your business card.
- They should have plenty of experience in printing business cards and other promotional materials.
Aside from business cards, does the printing company also handle print jobs for brochures, banners, stickers, letterheads, and novelty items like magnets or keychains? All these promotional materials should be printed with high quality and colour or theme consistency. Doing so allows you to remain faithful to your branding theme, making your logo or business name easily recognizable by clients, business partners, and potential customers.
- They should have additional tools like downloadable templates and online design tools.
Yet another thing that you need to check when deciding which printing company to go with is the extra tools that they provide for customers. What about downloadable templates? If you have zero experience in designing business cards, you will save a lot of money designing it yourself instead of hiring a graphic designer to do it for you. Downloadable templates should be available not just for business cards but also for postcards, notepads, letterheads, etc. For this, all you need to do is download the template and vary the design based on your logo, business name, and contact information.
Another extra tool that you can use when designing luxury business cards is the online design template. There is no need to download anything for this – you just have to access a URL and all the design tools that you need will be there. If you want a standard look for the business card, for instance, you can use the design tool to create your own. Again, this is a good tool to have because it eliminates the need – and costs – associated with hiring a graphic designer.
Other Things to Remember when Ordering Unique Business Cards
Whichever industry it is that your business is in, you need to pay close attention to even the smallest details when printing out business cards. Most business cards are sized 3.5” x 2”. This gives you very limited space to work in. When designing the business card, make sure that your contact information is accurate. See to it that the font used, the font size and style, as well as the colours selected all combine into one pleasant whole. The logo should be present in all printed marketing materials, and the overall look and design of the business card should be consistent with your branding image.
If you are printing other promotional materials like letterheads, notepads, banners, brochures, booklets, flyers, and postcards, you can order it from the same printing company. To make sure that you are getting your money’s worth, here is a quick checklist of the things that you should ask:
- What’s the minimum quantity of suede business cards that I can order?
- What is the turnaround time?
- What is the cost of a basic business cards package?
- What kind of printing method do you use? If it is offset, are the machines state-of-the-art?
- Can you provide me with samples of your previous work?
- Do you have a website so that I can check on client testimonials?
- What other types of printed promotional materials do you work with?
- If I will go with suede lamination, what add-on can you recommend based on the design that I have in mind?
Do your research so that you can get answers to these questions from at least three companies. Based from their response, you can narrow down your choices to two – then make an informed decision from there. It is important to select a reputable, reliable printing company because they will be the one to deliver the goods straight to your doorstep.
Of course, it helps to also provide them with whatever information they need so that the final design of your business card will be exactly what you are looking for. Whether it’s suede or some other type of business card that you end up ordering, what’s important is to make sure that it is well-made and designed with your brand image in mind.
Business cards are a representation of what you are all about as a business. Once you hand over an elegant, sophisticated suede business card to a potential client, he or she will have a great first impression of your brand. This bodes well for your business, and will make people equate the quality of your business cards with the quality of the products or services that you offer. |
