I put this post under Trumpet Kit because it’s absolutely essential to have a good card that accurately represents you as a musician in order to expand your work.

I.e. If having your number written on a toilet roll accurately represents you as a musician you should have a think about your future.

(Relax, it’s only a joke. )

To see where this started abd how the design came about you can follow this link: My New Business Card.

I now have a nice looking card, flyer and motif that I can translate to letter heads, envelopes and eventually my site.

I’ve already given a few out whilst networking. It not only gave a much stronger impression but I felt much more confident knowing that I didn’t have to pretend that my card wasn’t crap. I hope that I’ll be able to use my flyers just as effectively as I use my cards. Hopefully I’ll be posting about how fantastic it’s all turned out and how it’s doubled my work… time will tell.

In a previous post I mentioned that it was tricky to find a decent printer without having a review to go on. Therefore I’ll tell you about the printers I used and hope that it’ll at least give you an idea of the service and the price that’s out there. The following should also give you an idea on how to prepare your designs.

What You should Expect From Your Printer

The printing company I used were called Overnight Prints and like most companies they give the option of making your own card using their online “wizard” but I’d advise that if you want a professional looking card, design it yourself.

The site was very simple to use and to upload your own designs to. It gives you detailed instructions on how you should prepare your files with properties including the DPI (Dots Per Inch – this governs the quality/ resolution of the final product), the type of file that should be uploaded and the image size. I should also mention that you can chose either single or double sided cards and it even lets you decide how you want your card to be flipped (i.e readable from a horizontal or a vertical flip).

Once uploaded the site provides you with a virtual proof (something that other printers charge for) which shows you where the card will be cut, where the ink will bleed to and where the text should be within. This again helps you see several of the main problems before you send it to the print:

1) If it’s a colored card it needs to go beyond the bleed and the cut lines to avoid white lines on the edges.

2) To avoid text hitting the edges of the card you can use the text lines.

3) You can actually see if it’s centered, if it all fits and if it looks good.

The price was fairly reasonable in comparison to other sites I saw and the service that they offered. I spent about £100 for 250 cards (double sided) and 250 flyers (single sided). As with all printers it’s the start up cost that hurts the most so make sure you order enough to keep you going.

Apart from the virtual proof the other great thing that Overnight Prints has going for it is the after order service. You can keep an eye on your order from “waiting to be printed”, “waiting to be shipped” and then via UPS you can watch it every step of it’s journey from them to you. They are however based in Europe but it arrived within the week and UPS allow you to pay for 2 day delivery if you’re desperate.

These features made life very simple and are why I’d recommend these guys to you as a printer. The quality and service were all excellent.

The first of these are my business cards. These can be an extreme medium. It’s far too easy to undervalue them (and sometimes easy to overvalue them as in my previous post Trumpet Psycho).

Your card is a physical link to the people you’d like to work with and it’s an extension of yourself. So you have to decide if handing out free cards with “Happy Larry’s Print Shop” stamped all over them is really the message that you want to send about you and your profession

Get a nice card, use it at the right time and you’ll get the call.

As your business card is a reflection of you it’s worth spending time picking out a font and colour scheme that projects the image you’re after. Being careful not repeat what I’ve written in my previous post The Big Guns, I’d advise that if you know someone who can translate the swirling genius in your minds eye onto a jpeg then you ask for their help. Cue Ashley Morgan.

As an extension to this idea I’ve decided to try and bring all my promotional gear, from my blog to cards, flyers, CV’s, and even letter heads all together. Here is my new design. This is the front of my double sided card, my contact and site details being on the reverse:

As you can tell from the colour scheme I’m trying to keep everything nice and simple so my brand is easily identifiable. This is an advantage because it means that it’s readily transferable to my other mediums. If you are on a mac you may have already noticed that my favicon (the little picture that sits by your website name) has already been changed to my new “M” (I don’t know if you can see this on PC’s).

Soon enough I’ll update my site to feature this new motif as well and of course it’ll be featured on the rest of my material in varying forms. It looks great on my CV so I’ll put that up in the future for you to see.

The only problem that I have now is to find a decent printer to produce my material. It seems trickier than I first expected but I’ll make sure to link my results from my site to point you in the right direction.

If you have a business card that makes you proud please feel free to link it in the comments bellow, they’d be great to see. Also if you have had any positive experiences with printers I’d appreciate any information either by comment or email to matt@mattrobertsmusic.com

The fact that most printers want to charge me to make sure that the cards aren’t going to contain graphic errors and that they print out alright is a little frustrating. If I manage to find a decent printers that charge a reasonable price and do a good job I’ll make sure that I review and recommend them on my blog. That should make life a little easier for people in the situation I’m in at the moment.

On the plus side once this is done I can get onto stage two of operation successful musician

Who would have thought that fonts would say so much about a person? That I’d discover the subtle art and impact of leading and kerning. The way in which a single pixel in font sizing can throw off the entire balance of your card. I’m glad it’s almost finished as I can see this turning into an obsession.

If you’ve never seen American Psycho here’s a little extract for you.

It’s not a good sign how much I can identify with Patrick in this scene.

Hopefully you can tell from my site how important I consider self image to be for your career. Obviously your musical ability should far out way this but unless people know who you are then it doesn’t make much difference. It’s like the old saying goes:

“If the worlds best trumpeter plays in a forrest, and no one is there to hear him, does he get any gigs?”

It sucks but it’s true. Getting the gig without playing a note and nailing the day itself all goes towards building up a reputation that will get you work. So although designing material sounds like a quick job there’s a lot of thought that goes into it and sometimes if you want to look your best you’ve got to call in the specialists. That’s why I’ve called in the Big Guns; Ashley Morgan.

The Zen Master of font’s Ashley is helping me craft the ultimate promotional gear. It goes far beyond the understanding of mere mortals and I’m sure that the end result will that anyone who sees my business card will sob tears of uncontrollable joy. Ash has the ability to turn my ramblings into really cool ideas and something that I’m very happy with.

I suppose that my point is that any representation of yourself that you send out will be around for some time. That’s why it’s worth spending that little extra time and money so you can have a representation of yourself that you’re truly proud of. In the end, if you’re not 100% happy with the result and you send it out anyway how does that reflect on your character and musical ability to those who hire you?

That means today I have the exciting job of redoing my CV (now that I’ve got a couple of good places to send it to) and designing some new cards and flyers. I’ve been a little lazy since my move to London, not to say that I haven’t been trying but not being able to see the wood for the trees in the big city is a little intimidating.

I’ve managed to get hold of some more photos from Abu Dhabi as well. Once the other guys chip their shots in I’ll spend a little time and make some really nice posts all about the adventures I had bringing in the New Years for Abu Dhabi.

I’m sure there will be a fair few posts with similar titles. Work is good right now but I feel the gig dip is only over the horizon. Now would be a good time to start my gig expansion into the realm of London.

My targets quite simple today. Chase up my contacts who have possible London contacts that I could use. The idea is to be systematic and once I’ve gathered todays information I can then spend a day calling, emailing and texting whilst I’m focused on the job at hand (rather than doing a rushed job between gigs/driving etc.) .

Plus I think I’ll be strolling through the rain to pick up a Real Book. – I’m tired of writing the tunes out now