The Point Is To Stand Out, Not Fit In

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A few months ago, I was at a meeting with the owner of a web design company. He needed some layout designs done. We introduced ourselves, had some small talk, and then we exchanged business cards. When he handed me his, I honestly couldn’t say anything good about it. So I didn’t say anything… at first.

It was a business-generic white card that had his company logo in a top corner and his name and contact information in a bottom corner. No doubt, you know what I’m talking about. The reverse side was the exact same design, only the Chinese version (just so you know, he’s an American, but we live in Taiwan). A bit later into the conversation, he got to talking about his company’s target market. He showed me some of his clients’ generic style business cards and explained that his card looked the same because he was targeting those types of companies.

Through the years, I’ve learned that it may be polite to keep quiet in certain cases, but it does absolutely nothing to show that I know my stuff. I had to say something because I had to prove myself—he was interviewing me as a designer, after all.

So I expressed the importance of a company standing out from the rest, even if “the rest” are not your competitors. I wasn’t talking about doing some unintelligible radical design either, just a different design, a fresh design, something that makes people genuinely say, “Hey, I like your card!” I said that people may remember him, but nobody would remember his business card. It would also be harder to find when a whole stack of cards looks the same.

He was in listening mode, and I could tell that he understood and agreed with what I was saying. When I stopped talking, he told me he was actually thinking about redesigning his company’s business cards. My guess is that he just couldn’t decide if he should or not. I hope our meeting was helpful for him.

How about your business card? Is it be easy to spot on someone’s messy desk? More importantly, is it memorable for others? Leave a comment below and share what you think makes a business card stand out.

Image by GollyGforce under a CC BY 2.0 license.

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