Anatomy and Art

Well, I’ve finally done it.  I’ve ordered some business cards.  This time I went through Moo, rather than the simple home print I’ve been getting away with, or Vista (my last professional card printing).  Moo is nice in that you can upload an image to both sides of the card, so you can really design the whole thing in Photoshop if you want.  I went with the same original drawing for artwork as last time.

See my last card…

I noticed last time that business cards don’t just go to business contacts, and handing newly met people who were not in medicine or art a card with breasts like that got a reaction once or twice, so I decided to alter my use and focus on the skeleton and organs this time.    I also decided that in this day and age, having a land line printed on anything other than a company card, just doesn’t fly anymore.  Everyone texts these days.  So even though it is still true that my land line is more reliable than my cell phone, I went with printing the other number this time to better meet with people’s assumptions.  Plus I’m getting better and better at the things I do every day, so maybe it’s time to have a more permanent number listed.  I don’t intend to change that number any time soon, and in fact it is still bears my old Los Angeles 323 area code.

I also went for a little more information regarding what I do this time.  This can be difficult when one’s specialties are broad.  And there is always the debate of whether one should say the least amount possible and let the name stand alone, or the most possible.  This time I worked some clues into the back of the card.  I wanted a title that was applicable to the wide breadth of specialties I now have to offer, so I went with creative solutions specialist.

Here is the new card, front and back…

Well, they’ll actually be cropped just a touch more, particularly at the top and bottom.  I had to do some finagling with the bleed to get the image to align correctly in the card’s design interface online.  For those of you who don’t speak printing language, the bleed is just your extra image in place to cover you in case of shifting or other variability in a printing situation.

I am happy to have been able to only grab a small package of cards this time.  That way I’ll have some in hand, but I don’t feel so wasteful.  The last time I made such a purchase it was for 250, and that was simply too many for my purposes.  I still have cards floating around that give my old LA information.  Moo allowed me to print just 50, which I think will be perfect.  The way I see it, by the time I’m out of school and back working again, I’ll probably have some different ideas about how I want my card to look anyways, and that isn’t far away at all.

So I’ve been toying with thoughts of new business cards.  The other day, in surgery, the doctors asked us if we had any to give out.  One said he had research to publish soon.  Neither of us had anything.  The day before, I went to the VA Hospital, to get to know it a bit and look into common patient needs over there.  I got the same question then.

So last night I pulled out my old cards.  They all reflect my time in Los Angeles.  They reflect my skills as a photographer, and as a video editor, for a time I had some that I made to represent me as a painter, but nothing of the last year and a half.  So I made a few of these for the time being, until I get something printed up professionally.

There are a lot of strategies one can apply to the design of a business card.  You can make something flashy, and eye catching.  Others feel that a more subtle understated approach shows more class.  There is the issue of how much contact information one wants to give, after all these are intended to be handed out to near strangers, right?  And as an artist, I think it’s nice to give some impression of what you do.  Titles are nice if your work falls simply under one job title, but you don’t want to over define yourself if your skills involve more flexibility.  I think the above design will serve me well enough for the time being.