For freelance designers
A digital business card for freelance designers
A designer’s card is judged as a piece of design before anyone reads it. The trouble is that the thing you actually want to show, your recent work, is never on it.
A printed card cannot show your latest work
Your best project from last month is not on a card printed last spring. Portfolios change constantly, availability changes, and rates change, but a print run freezes all of it. Many designers end up with a beautiful card that points at an outdated site.
At the meetup, the pitch and the end of a project
At a meetup or a client lunch you are asked what you do, and the honest answer is a link. Show the code, they scan it, and the card opens with a short line and a link to the work you want them to see. At the end of a project, a client can pass your card to the next person who asks who did it.
What it does for freelance designers
Point at the work you want seen this month
The card links to your portfolio, a case study or a single project. Change the target and the printed code you already have still works.
A brief form that asks the right things
Turn on the form with a message field and an optional company field, so a prospect sends who they are and what they want in one go.
Your look, applied to the card
Set the card’s accent and layout to suit you. It is a small page, so the restraint is part of the design.
Enquiries reach you where you work
Each submission lands in your inbox with their address as reply-to, and can post on to the tool where you track leads.
Questions freelance designers ask
- Can I put the code on a printed card I design myself?
- Yes. The code is a standard image you can place in any layout. Leave clear space around it and test it on a real phone before sending to print.
- Does this replace my portfolio site?
- No, and it should not. The card is a front door that sends people to the work. Keep your portfolio where it is and link to it.
- What should the card say about availability?
- A line you can edit, such as whether you are taking new projects. Because you can change it any time, it can be honest rather than aspirational.