The "Show Off" Blog

Square Business Cards?

2014-03-08T16:50:00.000-05:00

In years gone by when people stored business cards in Rolodex's or other card holders a size other than 2.25" x 3.75" would have been unthinkable. But now that most cards end up being digitized in some fashion I think a unique size can make sense. Nice work Mark Olson and/or Christine Scarinzi.

SpinCard Takes a Stab at Killing the Business Card

2014-02-25T14:19:00.002-05:00

...Takes a Stab at Killing the Business Card - get it? See what I did there?...

Well anyway, they're at it again. Trying to kill the business card!

According to the founders, SpinCard is a mobile app that gives each user a six-character code, or spin. That way users can give a new contact at a networking event the code. The new contact enters in the code to Spincard app and it immediately shows a picture of the user, their contact info and links to their social media outlets. Users can then sort through contacts by flipping through head shots of users."

The fly in the ointment here is the same as most other options. 1) You have to have the app and critical mass is tough to achieve and 2) Your data is then in yet another database that you need to manage / access / worry about.

Unique business cards work because they are simple and allow the recipient to handle as they see fit - Add to their database, stick in a rolodex (youngsters - google it) or discretely toss it in the trash.

"Driving" Results in Auto Sales

2014-02-14T10:45:00.000-05:00

Auto sales. A tough industry to be sure. (Are there any easy industries? Didn't think so.)

Like any industry it's easy to get caught in a rut. Doing the same things the same way because - well, that's what auto dealerships do. Right?

Mike Purvis and Kyle Battis of Strategic Automotive Marketing are the guys to call when you are ready to shake things up. They will bring you new concepts and industry best-practices that will jump start your sales.

They can help you improve your marketing efforts in all areas including: Mobile, Social Media, Pay-per-Click, SEO and more. These guys are marketing superheroes. (They have unique business cards to prove it!)

Now "That's" an Expensive Business Card

2014-02-12T15:06:00.000-05:00

Show Off Cards has never been know for having inexpensive business cards. In fact, until I saw these I thought our unique business cards were fairly expensive (but definitely worth it).

So if you don't want to spend $1500 on a single diamond studded business card give us a call and we'll sell you 1000 cards for a LOT less.

Business cards can't be killed - But it doesn't mean people won't try!

2014-02-06T14:13:00.000-05:00

A company called TouchBase has introduced a business card who's contents can be instantly imported by your phone by waving the card in front of the screen. Pretty nifty.

In my day job I am involved with RFID technology and assumed it was that or Near Field Communication (NFC) but NO. The TouchBase cards—which feel exactly like any other business card—are embedded with a distinct pattern of conductive ink that mimics a multi-touch gesture on a smartphone's display.

Which means - and here comes the catch - you have to get your business cards from TouchBase and I assume they must maintain a database of their card purchasers contact info.

Read the article from Gizmodo

Regards,
Chief Show Officer
Founder of ShowOffCards.com home of the world's most unique business cards

The Business Card Cannot Be Killed

2014-02-05T22:22:00.002-05:00

The Wall Street Journal summed it up pretty well: "The Business Card Cannot Be Killed". Think about all we can do with smartphones and all the cloud storage available with instant connectivity and yet...when you met a potential customer or go to a trade show the first thing you do is hand them a business card. Why? Because that's "just what you do". It may not be logical but it is what it is.

So while you're handing out business cards, make sure they are unique business cards.

There's a Nap for that

2010-12-10T13:33:00.004-05:00

This post has absolutely nothing to do with Unique Business Cards. It's just the best quilt I've ever seen. A cool quilt? I know right?!

Link

Business Cards of Change

2010-12-08T11:39:00.009-05:00

Layoffs stink. No doubt about it. And then having stare at a mound of now useless business cards which silently mock you just adds insult to injury.

The website www.cardsofchange.com collects business cards and stories showing the positive change from people who have recently been laid off and connect them with new opportunities from potential employers, business partners and people who make the effort to look on the bright side of life. Sure, a little negativity sneaks into a few of the cards on the site but cut them some slack - they got laid off.

Regards,
Chief Show Officer
www.showoffcards.com
Unique Business Cards

A unique gift? Unique Business Cards

2010-12-06T12:28:00.005-05:00

Business etiquette consultant Arden Clise thinks a business cardholder would be the perfect gift: "So many people hand out business cards that have been bent in their wallet or stained in the bottom of their purse. A nice business card holder helps your cards and you to look classy."

Good advise Arden. Nothing worse than receiving a business card that looks used. That's just gross. Well, there is one thing worse...receiving a business card that is boring.

As the card owner. Are you boring? Are you just like everyone else? If so, why should I work with / buy from you?

Instead of, or in addition to a business card holder why not give the gift of Unique Business Cards? Nothing says I think you're super than the gift of superhero themed business cards?

A perfect gift for the man or woman who has everything.

I lost my page one rank for "Unique Business Cards"

2010-11-12T16:02:00.006-05:00

I lost my page one rank for "Unique Business Cards" - and I don't like it one bit.

When I started ShowOffCards.com in 2005 I knew I would never get a page one ranking for the very broad "business card" keyword. Too much competition. Plus, since ShowOffCards are WAY MORE Expensive (and WAY MORE effective) than regular business cards I decided to focus on the keyword "Unique Business Cards" since anyone searching on that phrase would - I assumed - be more likely to pay more for something unique.

Long story short, I focused on that and used all the legal tactics I knew to get ShowOffCards.com associated with Unique Business Cards. It worked. I climbed to page one and consistently was floating around spot one through three. Sweet. And the customers were rolling in.

Fast forward a couple of years, throw in a recession, a loss of personal motivation (I kind of got burned out on card design) and a site move and now ShowOffCards.com is now on page three, 7th listing down. And let's face it - page one is where I need to be.

So today, I embark on a personal challenge to move back up in the rankings. Stay tuned for updates.

Business Card Throwing Champ

2010-04-02T10:15:00.004-04:00

Times Square at night in HDR

2010-01-09T19:59:00.008-05:00

After my first attempt at HDR, which I think turned out pretty well, I decided I'd follow the lead of all those already into HDR and get the appropriate software. Nearly everything I have read on HDR recommends to edit using Photomatix so I plopped down $39 bucks for the Light 1.0 version. This is not a review but my first impression is - it's worth it.

I am in NY for a few days and made a few quick shots in the Times Square. I went a bit more grungy and surreal but I like them.

Next thing I want to try are some portraits. Luckily I have 4 lovely models at home...

(Click images for larger versions. Contact me to purchase high rez)

(Not Times Square)

My First HDR-esque Photo Attempt

2009-12-30T17:16:00.018-05:00

Like many people I have been intrigued with HDR photography. I just think some of the HDR shots take a good photo and just make it pop. The effects run from subtle to dramatic so I thought I'd try my hand at it.

What is HDR photography. The best way to explain it is to show examples but basically you take multiple shots of the subject. One at "normal" exposure, one under-exposed and one over-exposed. You then take parts of each exposure to create a best-of-the-best image. Here is how I created my first attempt.

My camera has a bracketed shooting option which takes three quick shots in succession at three aperture settings. I shot Paw-Paws old ford truck as a test. Here are the three images.
PhotoShop has an HDR option that combines the images but I decided to simply make the three images into layers in PhotoShop file; Darkest to lightest, bottom to top. I then used a layer mask to erase parts of each layer to reveal a "better" portion from another layer.
As you can see, the grass at the bottom, the parts behind the letter "F" and the field behind the truck are all properly exposed. None of the three source photos had all those pieces correct. The final composite is not dramatically different than the medium exposure source image - it's just a little better all over.

Once you have a good composite you can take the image and do all sorts of things in PhotoShop. For the image above I think I turned up the contast, turned down the brightness and then I added some "noise" to make it a bit grainy. Lots of options once you get a good composite image.

Poster edges

60% Grayscale

100% Grayscale high contrast

Not bad for a first attempt. I think I'll try some more of these.

The making of our New Moon family photo

2009-12-03T20:54:00.050-05:00

I would like to start this post with two disclaimers:

1) Neither I nor any of my family believe in vampires or the undead. We have a Christmas card reputation to uphold and well, after a while you just have to push the boundaries.

2) If this post is viewed by anyone with any real graphic design training I encourage you to leave now. You will most definitely be offended by my ham-handed digital editing. There. You've been warned.

With that behind me, here is how we made some friends and family smile and some recoil in horror this Christmas.

The "inspiration" photo

Equipment:

Any decent auto-focus digital camera
Tripod. Or in my case a stepladder with a board between two rungs.
Great big halogen shop light
Ultra cheap trouble light

Software:

Photoshop if you have it but for this project I forced myself to use GIMP for the first time. Why? It's a long story but I recently switched my computer operating system to Linux Mint which doesn't run PhotoShop so I wanted to try GIMP which is the free open-source alternative to PhotoShop.

Step 1: Photograph the troops
My garage. After dark. Blinding halogen shop light shining in from the right. Softer trouble light pretty close to the subject giving a little light to the left side. This gives heavy shadowing for that creepy look. Take lots of shots because the ladies are PICKY.

Step 2: Crop the people out of the background.
I do this using the "free select" tool to outline the person and then create a new layer with just the person - no background. Because this creates a layer with a sharp edge I soften the edges a bit with the blur tool - especially the hair. Save and repeat for all your people.

Step 3: Create a very creepy background
Ok, create is a bit misleading. By "create" I really mean Google "dark forest" or "moonlit forest" until you find a high resolution that is at least 4"x6" at 300 dpi. Not sure how to tell? Open an image in GIMP and click on Image / Print Size. I found one that looks better than the New Moon background.

Step 4: Add people to the background
Open the background file. Open one of your people files where you cropped them out and just drag the cropped person layer onto the background.

Step 5: Make your people creepier
Next we need to whiten our people up a bit. Create two copy layers of the original and place them above the original. Take the layer directly above the original and desaturate it (Make it grayscale). The top of the three layers is a full color copy of the original layer.

So you have three layers
- Color layer to edit
- Grayscale underneath
- Original backup

Now, working on the top color layer only I turned down the opacity to about 80% which lets some of the grayscale come through and subdue the colors.

To further whiten the skin you can use the eraser set at about 20 percent and erase more color from the "skin" portions of the top layer.
Step 6: Rinse and Repeat
Finally, go through the same process for the other people. Scale down the people in the back a bit so the perspective looks correct, drop in a layer with text and there you have it. One of the creepiest Christmas cards ever. Hope you enjoyed it.

P.S. The Walgreens photo department questioned me about "copyright" issues when I picked up my prints - so I guess I'll take that as a compliment.

Bing Search Engine Gets It Right

2009-06-01T10:48:00.004-04:00

Well, at lest they got one search right. A search for "Unique Business Cards" turns up ShowOffCards.com in the number one (non-paid) slot.

Not sure I'd bet the farm on Bing unseating Google as the search engine king but it's fun to watch them try.

Beef Jerky Business Card (Yes. Beef Jerky)

2009-05-09T18:25:00.004-04:00

Beef + laser = Jerky business card. And I thought I'd seen it all.

Evolution of a Logo

2009-01-10T21:59:00.010-05:00

It's been 3 years since I launched ShowOffCards. I was also running rscottj.com which was a website design company which I rebranded to ShowOffStudios to build on the whole "show off" theme.

As with most start ups I didn't want to spend a ton of money on a logo design because A) I didn't know if the business would fly and B) my philosophy is to keep cost/overhead low to maximize profit. So I designed my own logo - a move that most experts will tell you is a bad idea. ("Experts" also said you can't sell business cards for $600 per 1000. Shows what they know)

As I thought about a new logo I wanted one logo that would work across the business card business AND the website design business. I wanted to develop an image/icon to represent "Show Off" and then use a text line to differentiate the two businesses - yet let people know they are from the same parent company.

As I kicked this around two things became apparent.
1) I couldn't come up with anything tha I liked to represent "show off"
2) I really like the simplicity of my current showoffcards logo

So, I ended up revamping the showoffcards logo by stylizing it a bit and by simplifying the font. Once I saw that, I started looking at the card shape and realized that if I rotated it 90 degrees and put smaller fingers on both sides it could be a computer monitor - perfect for a website design logo.

All in all I'm pretty pleased. Now I just need to implement the logos.
What do you think? (click for larger image)

Raises? For those bums?!

2009-01-06T07:56:00.007-05:00

"Despite the lousy economy, high unemployment and plummeting housing prices, U.S. congressional members get a $4,700 pay raise this week. The 2.8 percent raise of $4,700 a year will increase most salaries to $174,000 a year, the McClatchy newspaper group reported Monday."

If I'm not mistaken virtually every business in the U.S. is laying people off and in most cases freezing wages. If you're lucky enough to have a job - a pay freeze is not so bad, considering the alternative.

And here we have the congressional brain trust, who set the lending and banking rules that lead to this financial blood bath, voting themselves a raise.

Well technically, they didn't vote FOR a raise. they have such a sweet set up that the raises happen every year unless they decide to ask for a vote to NOT get a raise.

And let's not forget their pension plan which is something like 80% of their salary - for Life!

Contact your congressional rep and ask them why they deserve a raise.

Creating Logos - Harder Than It Looks

2008-12-28T09:28:00.005-05:00

I am in the process of creating a refreshed logo for ShowOffCards.com and create a first logo for ShowOffStudios.com The most difficult part is making it as simple as possible yet conveying the brand.

I am a fan of super simple logos that make you go "Ah-ha!" Here's one that has the ah-ha factor.

It's from the "Guild of Food Writers"
That's just incredible...
(Found via logooftheday.com )

Hot Rod Business Card

2008-12-27T13:12:00.003-05:00

I recently had a ShowOffCards.com client tell me that among other things he was into hot rods and that I had free reign to come up with a concept for his cards. (Ya gotta love clients like that).

The hot rod hobby reminded me of some bubblegum cards I remember from when I was a kid. They were illustrated hot rods with monster themes. I googled around a bit and found them - they were called "Odd Rods" and were drawn by the artist B.K. Taylor.

Long story short, I had my illustrator develop a card with that same look and feel (minus the monster part). I think it turned out pretty cool. You can view his entire card in our Show Off gallery.

Greensboro Website Design

2008-12-26T14:36:00.008-05:00

After the recent relaunch of ShowOffStudios.com I decided to put some effort into getting a front page google ranking for the key word "greensboro website design". After a bit of page design, key word seeding and other basic search engine optimization (SEO) techniques showoffstudios.com is now on page one (fifth place) when searching "greensboro website design".

Bear in mind that there is no guarantee that we'll stay there. Managing your ranking is an ongoing part of running a successful website but it's good to see my efforts pay off.

The good news for me is that this "organic" ranking is free. If someone google "greensboro website design" - there we are and hopefully they click through to my site - again, that click is free.

Prior to achieving the organic rank I was using google AdWords pay-per-click program to "buy" a front page listing. To show up on the home page is free but you pay whenever someone clicks your ad to visit your site. Each and every click - it can be costly.

The "cost per click" varies depending on the popularity of the search term. I was paying around $2 per click. Not bad if I convert to a website sale. You really have to watch the daily spend and see if you are getting a return on your investment - just like any advertising.

So there's my nickel tour on website marketing, search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising. If you need a website, check out showoffstudios.com. If you have one but it doesn't rank well in Google, check out showoffstudios.com (The site for greensboro website design )

UPDATE: Three hours later we're at #7 on page one. As I said it's a moving target.

Click here to see where/if we rank right now

The web is a powerful tool. Do you have a website in your marketing arsenal?

2008-12-17T22:59:00.010-05:00

Headline: Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU) today announced that customers using its industry-leading TurboTax® desktop software products can now prepare and print multiple returns at no additional cost.

Truth: Intuit will rescind the controversial new $9.95 fee for each additional printed return, in response to angry customers online who, among other things, slammed TurboTax's Amazon rating to one star. (Ouch!)

Lesson: Never underestimate the power of the web. People research online. They talk to each other online. They can easily organize online. They talk things up online. They talk things down online. They post links to favorite sites online and they buy (or make the decision to buy) online!

Question: Is your business or organization online?

If you're not online but want to be. Have a look at ShowOffStudios.com .We offer affordable, professional, easily editable websites designed for use by REAL people, not computer people.

Greensboro Website Design

Where Are The Governmental Layoffs?

2008-12-16T21:57:00.004-05:00

VF Corporation "Economizing" Its Company Which Includes Layoffs

RF Micro Devices to cut 150 jobs

American Airlines plans layoffs at MIA

Thousands of layoffs by DHL, ABX Air

and on and on it goes....

EVERYONE is cutting back and laying off except the knuckleheads in Washington who are largely responsible for this mess. *sigh*

Christmas is a Gift Card Exchange

2008-12-10T19:18:00.006-05:00

The following is directed to the grown-ups in the crowd. (I'm 100% in favor of kids and Christmas presents!)

The headline is a bit harsh but it's not that far from the truth. Let's be honest here. For a lot of us, and I'm including myself, we are blessed with everything we need and more.

When Christmas rolls around we take our list and ask "What do you want?" and then we trudge out and spend money that we probably shouldn't. When we're asked "What do you want?" - we struggle to come up with a suggestion.

It's crazy.

My friend Michelle Shelton had a video on her FaceBook page and it said what I've been thinking for quite some time. This post may seem like I'm bashing Christmas but I'm not. Have a look and let me know what you think?

What are YOUR chances of being shot today?

2008-11-23T22:41:00.007-05:00

Probability of me being shot today: Zero.

I for one am thankful that our military men and women are willing to do what they do. God bless them all.

Read my Thanksgiving post from last year and to do a little something to support our troops.