"A beautiful printed piece was the logical choice; we wanted to produce something that people would hang on to, not just throw away." — Daren Guillory, Designer
Hitting a home run is enough to make an entire stadium scream in celebration, so when custom-wood-bat design company White Nuckle Sports needed a sports-themed business card, it set out to create a card that knocked the ball out of the park.
Designing a strong business card was a no brainer, especially for a startup in a saturated and competitive market, explained Daren Guillory. "Because their product is rooted in craftsmanship — custom wood bats — it was an easy decision to create a business card that was equally considered and well-crafted."
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In addition to needing a card that made a great impression, the company wanted something that could also double as a sales tool. "That's why they chose to make the back of the card a custom order form — made complete with everything you need to order your very own wood bat."
The design is a perfect blend of modern design and historic baseball vernacular, and the beautiful impression of the letterpress print produced by Workhorse Printmakers pairs perfectly with the texture of the custom duplexed paper providing a gorgeous pop of color.
While White Nuckle Sports initially thought to do a solid flood to achieve the contrast it envisioned for collecting information, Guillory recommended creating the custom duplex of Neenah Lettra Fluorescent White 220-lb. Cover with a backing of Astrobrights Solar Yellow 60-lb. Cover. Instead of trying to match a paper swatch to a PMS color, the company opted to match its ink to the Solar Yellow stock. Not only did it prove to work in their favor, but it enabled the company to add the gorgeous edge painting along the side of the cards as well.
"The duplexing turned out amazing and worked much better than a solid flood would. Plus, it allowed for a deeper impression that doesn't show through to the other side," Guillory explained.
This business card does more than knock a ball out of the park. It hits a grand slam with craftsmanship, aesthetics, durability, and functionality.
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- Neenah Paper
Sabine Lenz is the founder of PaperSpecs.com, the first online paper database and community specifically designed for paper specifiers.
Growing up in Germany, Sabine started her design career in Frankfurt, before moving to Australia and then the United States. She has worked on design projects ranging from corporate identities to major road shows and product launches. From start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, her list of clients included Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Deutsche Bank, IBM and KPMG.
Seeing designers struggle worldwide to stay current with new papers and paper trends inspired Sabine to create PaperSpecs, an independent and comprehensive Web-based paper database and weekly e-newsletter. She is also a speaker on paper issues and the paper industry. Some refer to her lovingly as the "paper queen" who combines her passion for this wonderful substrate called paper with a hands-on approach to sharing her knowledge.