Thursday, May 8, 2008

OvernightPrints.com

It’s a rare day when I hand my business card to someone and don’t get a great response. Usually, it’s a response over the pick-up truck, but I think my card carries weight for more than design, but also for actual weight.
I discovered overnightprints.com a few years ago and since then have had many of my clients’ business cards printed through them.

The photos show a few examples of business cards I’ve designed and had printed through ONP. They include one and two-sided business cards, cards as hang tags and mini price tags (one card sliced and hole-punched.) All created and printed as actual business card files.

Here are a few good reasons why I continue to use and recommend overnightprints.com:

1. Price. You can’t beat the price for the quality. Understand this is not offset printing, it is digital. I don’t know how many other business cards from around the world are being printed on the same piece of stock as mine at the same time, but I am sure it’s quite a few. Therefor, actual printing may on occasion suffer from lack of good color correction, making it sometimes hard to match your first batch of 500 cards to your second printed 6 months later, but with most of my clients restricted to very limited start-up budgets, it’s a small sacrifice. There have been only a few times, maybe 5%, that I have had to request a reprint. It has NEVER been a problem. And, ONP is almost always running a promotion of one kind or another, usually equal to about $10 off your order.

2. Two-sided printing, and full bleed artwork- again for the price, can’t be beat.

3. Card stock. Beefy. I love this ultra smooth, satin heavy stock. It is one of the heaviest business cards you will ever hold in your hand, sans cardboard.

4. Rounded corners. Perfect for a unique look or for apparel hang tags. For large quantitiy hang tags, I have a local printer drill holes in preprinted cards for around $10/1000. Otherwise, a small hole punch and a glass of wine will get you through a couple hundred on your own. Occasionally, I design hang tags with a faux perforation using a dotted line.

5. UV coating. Seriously waterproof-looking varnish...when you need it. The UV coating can be isolated to specific graphics on your card for a cool effect, but one I’ve yet to try.

6. Ease of ordering. Well for me anyway. I’ve got the file set-up down after all this time and re-ordering cards is crazy easy. Oh, and PayPal, gotta love PP.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love your idea for making small tags and having them professionally printed. Thanks! (Your designs are top notch!)

Diane said...

Oh, I have to agree! I got my business cards from overnightprint.com and they are just wonderful. Thank for sharing those great ideas for other uses. :o)

AuntDsHandcrafts said...

Ver cool business cards! I will have to check them out :)

Erin said...

I just ordered my first set of BC from overnightprint and can't wait to get them!

Erin said...

I just ordered my first set of BC from overnightprint - can't wait to get them!

Ellen Greenaway said...

Great idea! Where did you get the string? I'll convo you! :)

BackwoodSophisticate said...

Wow, look at all those cards and tags. How cute! I am going to check out overnightprints.

Joy De Vivre Design said...

Those are great! I have been wanting to do greeting cards. I am going to have to look into overnightprint. Thanks for the tip!

Anonymous said...

Do they seem to match up well with Pantone colors? Is there a specific Pantone book that you use that seems to match up well with what Overnightprints produces?

I ordered Business cards from them a long time ago and the colors were a little off. I was using a large book that I have with colors designated by CMYK percentages at the time. Great quality cards though.

Those are wonderfully classy designs by the way.

Cathe Holden said...

Thanks for the comment Matt. With this type of printing service, you will rarely match your PMS colors exactly. Re-orders are also “iffy” when trying to match your original order. Your local printer would be best for matching, but keep in mind that there is no substitute for good old Pantone inks vs. digital/CMYK matching. The way I see it, with ONP, you get just a bit more than you pay for. Your cards are being ganged up on a parent sheet with so many other cards at once (that’s my guess) so quality control is just not there. I generally recommend ONP for small budget jobs only, where the color match is not too critical.

Anonymous said...

I'm going to have to check them out! Thanks for the info!!

Anonymous said...

I agree with you all the way. OvernightPrints.com came highly recommended by a friend. So I had them print my dual-sided *blogger* cards -- very pleased with the results. Excellent!

Lona said...

Wow...my mind is a-swirlin' with ideas now.

Very cool.

The Redhead Riter said...

Thanks so much for all the great ideas! I love them all!