Fun with Moo Business Cards

As part of my recent branding efforts I needed some new business cards. As much as I love an awesome old-style letterpress card, that wasn’t the way to go for me. At least, not yet. I needed something that:

• was fairly inexpensive and quick (wanting them to arrive before an upcoming conference)
• therefore I could design and order myself (and I wouldn’t call myself a print designer)
• was nonetheless a well-designed product on a decent card-stock (thin cards suck!)

I was inspired by some moo.com readymade cards by Benrik with quirky phrases on them such as:

You seem like a serious business person. Let’s collaborate.

I love how these inject fun into the interaction of giving someone your card.

With this inspiration, I designed some 2-sided cards with my logo + particulars on one side and on the other, various quotations. I chose quotations that fit with the name ThriveWire and also with entrepreneurship and social media: loosely they’re about energy, ideas, and conversation.

They’re a hit!

I’m having a lot of fun picking out a card for someone I’ve just met, taking a guess at which one will resonate with them. People seem to enjoy the idea a lot. At a recent event I had people asking for more than one and showing them to their friends for some great word of mouth. And they’re sparking great conversations… which is awesome, because I really, really hate small talk.

About Moo

Moo became famous and well-loved for their minicards. You can upload multiple images for each set you order, so you’re not stuck with just one design. Photographers and crafters especially adore them – as is illustrated by the moo groups on flickr.

The quotations I laid out were done using a Moo Photoshop template. You can simply lay out text using Moo’s website, but I wanted to have more layout & font control. The templates are kind of hard to find so here’s a link:

Moo format guides / templates / handy thingamajigs

Moo’s Green Paper

I debated quite a bit about whether to order them on Moo’s recycled paper or not. I have some older Moo minicards on regular stock and they’re just perfect in terms of thickness and sheen. I couldn’t find a lot of reviews about the green stock. In the end I went with my conscience and ordered the green stock.

My verdict on Moo’s green paper:

• Nice thickness. A bit thinner than the minicards but I think that thickness would be overkill in the larger format.
• It has no sheen at all. The matte is nice but it means you might want to use more intense contrast or colours than you could get away with on the regular paper.
• The white is not as white as could be, it’s a little grey in fact.
• There’s occasional flecks in the paper.

I’m still really happy with them but I think next time I would consider using a little mention of the recycled paper on the card, because otherwise the flecks seem like a flaw to me.

Kudos to Moo

Moo has taken their friendly brand right through the whole chain of interactions and their customer service is absolutely wonderful. Even the email confirmation of your order is entertaining. It’s from “Little Moo, Print Robot”, who reminds you if you need special attention, that he’s just a little piece of software — followed by instructions for contacting live humans.

The order arrives with nice little touches like a sticker saying “Yay!” and “Quick, schedule a meeting. Your new cards are here!”

My cards took longer to arrive than estimated on the website. By the time I got them (too late for my conference, doh!), it was clear Canada Customs was to blame. They must have thought the label of “business cards” was a euphemism or something because they had opened the package to inspect.

The upside was that when I got my follow-up survey asking how the product was I told them it hadn’t arrived yet. The Moo rep didn’t grill me with questions, he simply put in an order for a reprint and asked me to confirm my shipping address. I confirmed. Later that day I went to the post office and the original order had finally arrived. I let him know right away, but since they’d already gone to print I got the second order FREE. No hassles, no duty, no shipping charges. I was very impressed with their handling of the delay.

So what about you?

If you want to to try Moo out for yourself, ask/google around for discount codes. There are some out there for first-time buyers. I’ve found others at Retailmenot too.

Now that I’ve shown you mine, will you show me yours?