What does your business card say about you? It is the face of your business, what people you meet in passing, at the bar, on the train, at the networking event, conference, trade show, in life will take away to remember you.

What makes your card memorable? Is it truly a reflection of the quality of work you create? If the answer is no, you should consider revisiting it. You may be reading this, cringing and thinking that you don’t have the money to spend on nice cards, or you just had these “temporary” cards made up in time for an industry event (two years ago), or that it’s just fine to print your cards on the Epson and cut them down with an X-ACTO knife.

Business cards are a direct reflection of you as a graphic designer, a portfolio piece in and of themselves, if you will. They are the first clue to a potential client as to what you are capable of, not only from a design standpoint, but a production standpoint, as well.

To keep this business card inspiration going, Gilah Press + Design is offering PaperSpecs.com readers a special promotion. You can order 250 letterpress cards for $115, or 500 cards for $195 by clicking here.

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Tuesday, February 14, 2012
2:00 p.m. Eastern (11:00 a.m. Pacific)

When you’re selecting colors for a project, do you go with your gut or do you have a solid color strategy?

If you’re winging it—and even if you aren’t—you can learn how to avoid subjective and unproductive rationales about one particular color or combination of colors during PaperSpecs’ next free webinar, “The Tactics of Color Strategy.”

Color expert and special guest speaker Jack Bredenfoerder, director of BV Color Strategy, will reveal his five key components of forming a compelling color strategy:

Physical:
Is your color design balanced? Does it even need to be balanced?

Cultural:
Are you selling soccer wear in Italy in colors reminiscent of the French national soccer team?

Psychological:
“Blue is calming.” Do you cringe when you hear statements like this?

Fads, Trends and Cycles:
Do you ever mistakenly use trend spotting as a forecasting tool?

Directional Aspects of Color:
Can you identify the major influences that drive consumers’ decisions?

Bredenfoerder will share examples of good color usage and show great ideas for working with color and creating color stories that you can apply to your own projects. All attendees will also receive a copy of Jack Bredenfoerder's 2012 color forecast.

The Fall 2011 Peter Ross Photography promotion, designed by VSA Partners in New York, is a gorgeous 20-page, tabloid-sized collection from his Table series that begs to be opened.

The beautiful black and white photography on stark white backgrounds are tasty to be sure. Subjects interacting in unexpected ways with a table that could probably tell its own stories will elicit your own interesting dinner conversations.

Printed on Luscious Mohawk Options vellum paper by the Fox Company in West Allis, Wisconsin, the piece exudes a warm feel that complements the sentiments surrounding each portrait’s opinion on five desirable dinner companions.

By Sabine Lenz

Hundreds of faces are flickering across the screen. Forensic specialist Abby Sciuto is impatiently tapping her fingers. In breathtaking speed, the computer is trying to match a face to the suspect’s photo. Bingo. The system found a match, and the killer’s name is …

Okay, so I like NCIS. I love the way the quirky agents always seem to have the latest technology – technology that works lightning fast, technology that delivers results in mere seconds.

And now it seems, real life isn’t far behind.

I had the chance to catch a glimpse into the very near future of print when I attended a Print Production Professionals webinar about intelligent print recognition (iPR), an emerging marketing technology that provides groundbreaking opportunities for print.

Click here to read the complete tip.