Designing My Event-Specific Business Cards

Starting today and going through Sunday, I'll be sharing Alt Summit reveals with you. The first big reveal: my business cards.
 

 

How do you design? With a budget in mind?
Or with a "sky's the limit" mantra?
 

I knew I wanted a design that would support my brand and would trigger a person's memory when they returned home. I also wanted a design that was specific to the event.
 

Finding a design that felt like me proved to be more of a challenge than I had anticipated.
 

Getting Inspiration from a 1950s Board Game

Between August and December, I went back and forth on the design. Then in November, I realized the problem; I needed to rebrand and to refocus the blog. I narrowed the covered topics to four main areas: family, food, fashion, and home.
 

Once the blog redesign was live (a theme pulled from the Game of Life), the business card design went smoothly. I wanted a card design reminiscent of Life game cards. I had four main areas of content; Life had four primary colors. So I would have four card designs with four different main colors.
 

 

Previous attendees had said depending on how much of an extrovert one is you may hand out anywhere from 75 to 250 business cards. The conference has between 650 to 700 attendees counting sponsors, so I decided to make 200 business cards.
 

 

Setting a Budget for Creative Business Cards

When it comes to personal design projects, I tend to forget there's a budget. For my Alt Summit SLC business cards I set a budget of $500 (business cards are *the thing* at Alt).
 

 

So let's see how I did in regards to my budget. I've included tax and shipping in the numbers. Had the design come together a little earlier than it did, the costs would have been lower; I opted for the fastest shipping options.
 

• Matte Finish 3.30" x 2.16" Business Cards with Rounded Corners: 200 business cards $97.22
• Skinny-Wrap Address Labels: 104 stickers $20.27
• Glassine Waxed Paper Bags(*affiliate link): 1 carton (1,000 - 2.75" x 3.75" envelopes) $80.95 (12/27/2015: 100 envelopes can be purchased for between $6.50 and $13 on Amazon and with Amazon Prime shipped to you for free. I decided to go with glassine envelopes too close to the event and paid for next day shipping.)
• Game Pieces from The Game of Life: 18 white cars, 19 yellow cars, 21 orange cars, 19 red cars, 20 green cars, 13 dark blue cars, 6 medium blue cars, 9 light blue cars, and 12 pink cars. 131 Game of Life tiles. 58 Career Cards. 61 Salary Cards. 57 House Deeds. 52 Stock cards. 99 pink and blue people/pegs. $142.32
 

Total: $340.76 or $2.58 per fancy (132 total)
 

Credits: All layouts designed by and images taken by Eden Hensley Silverstein for The Road to the Good Life.

DISCLOSURE: This post contains an affiliate link, followed by (*affiliate link). I feature products that I own or that I am considering purchasing. I own the product featured in this post. All opinions presented are my own.
 
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