An artist's business card is an important tool of marketing - but what should it include?

What does an Artist's Business Card need?
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The purpose of an artist's business card is to:
  • create a good - and hopefully memorable - impression
  • transfer information needed for any future contacts

Plain business cards do not get you remembered. In contrast, a well designed business card using an impressive image creates a very positive impression.

​Don't forget you can use both sides of the card.

A lot of artists now use one side of a business card for an image of their art and the other side for the business contact details
Essential items for an Artist's Business Card

Overall the business card of an artist needs to convey something of your art and how you are known online.

Essential items include:
  • an image - this is your opportunity to impress. However not every impressive piece of artwork you produce will actually work in terms of the business card format. Sometimes crops of artwork work best. You also need to decide whether it should completely cover one side of the business card or not.
  • brand name - if your art business or studio uses one
  • your name - ALWAYS use the name you want to be known by as an artist. 
  • what you do - an accessible quick way of describing what you produce (for when the people you have given the card to have forgotten who you are). Aim for two to three words not a sentence.
  • email address - the primary way people contact one another. Make sure this looks like a 'proper' business email address. Use either a [email protected] (i.e. use the domain name of your website) or use a non-leisure email service (i.e. gmail is OK; AOL is not)
  • your website URL - ideally with a domain name which is the same as your name. (This is "standard operating procedure" for most artists although some with more common names need to add on 'art' or 'artist' to get a .com domain name)
  • your online shop URL - if you have one
  • social media site handles - for Instagram, Twitter, and/or Facebook. Alternatively use the social media icons to indicate the site - but only state those you use regularly!
  • telephone number - make sure it's one which has an answering machine/service. Draw a distinction between a studio/office telephone number and a mobile/cell one
  • an alternative place to see your art - if you don't have a website
Optional items for an Artist's Business Card
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  • address - this is not essential. If you have a business address e.g, an independent studio then include it. If you work from home and are on your own I'd advise against giving this information out to people you don't know. 
  • qualifications and credentials - the acronym for any art society you are a member of can be helpful - but be sure to only include those relevant to who you are and what you do
  • graphic elements - used to be popular but much less so now. Lines can be useful

The Font for a Business Card
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The font(s) you use for your business card is ideally part of a carefully considered communication plan for how you represent your work in different ways and different places. For example, think about if you have a stand at an art fair, then the font(s) you use need to work for a large sign with your brand/artist's name on it. On flyers and information labels around the stand, on labels about an artwork - and on business cards. So lots of different sizes - and it MUST be easy to read in every different size

I would recommend no more than two fonts - one for featured words and one for necessary info about how to contact you​
Typefaces have two main categories: serif and sans serif. 
  • Serifs comprise the small features at the end of strokes within letters.
  • The printing industry refers to typeface without serifs as 'sans serif' (from French sans, meaning without)
  • ​Serif fonts are considered easier to read than san serif fonts and are generally used for smaller font sizes
Your typeface and specific font needs to reflect who you are and your art - and be readable!
Below are summaries of a few different fonts. ​
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We choose a typeface because of its common aesthetic qualities. Then we refine it down to a specific font by setting its size, weight, style and sometimes the character set such as Roman, Cyrillic or Greek when we use it. 
Font vs typeface: the ultimate guide
Each font of a typeface has a specific weight, style, condensation, width, slant, italicization, ornamentation, and designer or foundry
Typeface
REFERENCE:
EXAMPLES OF FONTS AND TYPEFACES
Standard 'san serif' fonts - are standards for a reason. They work well and are easy to read
  • Helvetica - popular, easy to read because widely spaced and not boring
  • Myriad - best known as the font used by Apple until 2017.
  • Calibri - replaced Times New Roman as the default typeface in Word in 2007 and replaced Arial as the default in PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, and WordPad. 
  • Raleway - an elegant sans-serif typeface family intended for headings and other large size usage. Used by this website for both titles and text
Myriad was intended as a neutral, general-purpose typeface that could fulfil a range of uses and have a form easily expandable by computer-aided design to a large range of weights and widths
Myriad (typeface)
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Helvetica
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Calibri
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Myriad
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Futura
Standard serif fonts
Serif fonts date back to letters inscribed in stone. Nobody quite knows the reason for the flared endings of the horizontal or vertical strokes
  • Georgia - designed for clarity on a computer monitor even at small sizes
  • Cambria - commissioned by Microsoft and designed to be a serif font suitable for body text, that is very readable printed small or displayed on a low-resolution screen and has even spacing and proportions
  • Palatino - an old style typeface originally named after the 16th-century Italian master of calligraphy Giambattista Palatino. Linotype licensed Palatino to Adobe and Apple and it became a standard font in PostScript digital printing technology.
  • Garamond - named for sixteenth-century Parisian engraver Claude Garamond - it has a very long history and there have been many updates based on previous versions 
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Georgia designed in 1993
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Garamond typeface
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Cambria
The 'Feel' of a Business Card

Besides working out the content you also have to decide:
  • the size of the card - it must NOT exceed standard business card sizes (which vary by country - see below) It can be smaller but not larger - as it needs to fit in a case so it continues to look good while you are out and about
  • the weight of card stock and any finish used. Heavier weight card stock is more impressive - but can be a nuisance to those collecting a lot of cards. A matt finish is more professional than any glossy or shiny finish
The Size of a Business Card

The standard dimensions of a printed business card is
the finished card size - not the space you can work with using a template - unless your template allows images to bleed to the edge

The standard size is the size that most business card holders will take - in that country and recipients also keep business cards received in standard sized holders!

The standard sizes - by country - are:
  • USA: 3.5" x 2"
  • Most of Europe: 85mm x 55mm
  • Australia / New Zealand: 90mm × 55mm
  • Asia: 90mm x 54mm
This Business Card Holder is made of high quality PU leather and stainless steel and measures 3.9" by 2.8"

Articles about Artist Business Cards
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Suppliers of Artist Business Cards
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A favourite of many artists I know is Moo Business Cards which have an image on the front and your contact details on the back - and you can vary the images and offer the recipient their choice of the one they like best. Artists also like using their their postcards for when they want to make more of an impression.
Most artists design their own cards. It can help a lot if you (or a friend) have graphic design skills and know how to size and place contact information.

​It certainly helps if you use a template - but beware - there are LOTS of old fashioned ones out there which will only create a bad impression!