I actually like this card, the big blue bold bottom section is pretty distinctive, but every time I see it it makes me laugh.

Why? The picture just doesn’t work. I’m not sure why, and it’s nothing personal, I just find the head title and the close crop humorous. And laughing, is one of those things that makes me feel mean, when I don’t mean to.

Okay so another GRI broker. Having the GRI that big and right after the name does make me feel like I should call him Greee, or something.

The other funny part of this card? An alphanumeric AOL email address. It’s not even his name at AOL.com, it’s something that ends in y and then has a 2. Did his son or daughter set it up?

And is that the primary way he’d like me to get in contact with him? Because the phone number is tucked away down below…

Name, Phone number - Two most important things on a real estate card, really should be easy to read and close together.

You will not be disappointed.

Really?

Man, if I had a nickel for the  number of houses I’ve seen that in the description and then gone and look out and been disappointed, I’d have at least like a dollar fifty.

Watchout other Portland Realtors — You’re not green. This person has declared themselves the Green Realtor of all of Portland.

I mean, come on. Really, you’re THE green realtor? No one else cares? Everyone else is just a pale yellow?

You know they are green, because they have a leaf on their card. So perhaps they want you to live in an yurt, hidden deep in Mount Tabor?

So… apart from declaring themselves the victor of a race that no one else knew they were in and having a really bad photo, what else is wrong?

Well, the name and such hanging over the photo doesn’t look well done. It feels off-balance… not helped by the crazy-cursive-ish “How you get there matters” slogan (which also makes no sense, really).

Then there’s the two numbers. Her Cell and a “Message” phone. Does this mean I can’t leave a message on her cell phone? Did she not get a plan with voice mail?

Decent email address, but I’d expect something more like pdxgreenhomes.info or something to tie in the green theme.

If you’re going to put your physical address in 6pt type, you have to question the wisdom of putting it on there at all…

And to finish off, we’ve got the parent realty company’s logo shoved into the bottom corner. Clearly a case of “Oh, crap, we have to put the company logo on there too… hmm, how about in the corner.”

Sorry again about the bad photo — need a phone with Macro, apparently.

Here’s a cute little card.

It has simple, understated colors and you know right away that she’s selling homes; first because of the graphic and next because right under her name it says what she does.

Then there’s a big phone number right there. Looking at this card at a glance, you know which number to call. You know the office number is secondary because it is both smaller and listed last.

She doesn’t spend a ton of time or space saying what her parent realty firm is; in face, if you didn’t know that kw.com stood for Keller Williams Realty, you would thing she just had a short and simple email address (her name + kw.com).

I’m not sure how I’d fix this card; I might choose a different font than she did, but the idea is strong and it’s well executed.

My apologies for the awful picture; the phone camera doesn’t like to take macro shots.

Look, I started a real estate company with my mother in-law.

-5: Okay… so agent’s name is in italics. Hmmm. Adds a sense of action to it all, I guess.

+3: Cell, fax only. Let’s not get distracted with other numbers.

+2: Email.

-1: Where is your office? No street address? Nothing. Hmmm… something to hide?

-10: So, another weird italic font for the business name (I blacked it out, it was so offensive), and then a green? gold? text with the earthless tree.

-10: What is going on in this photo? On the left, there’s a weird beaded necklace? Or is that part of the shirt? Anyway, she’s got a nice smile and good hair — I think she should get her own card. Because she’s brought down by the white shirted husband (?) and his chaperon.

Windermere has over 160 offices in Washington, Arizona, California, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming, making them one of the largest real estate companies in the west.

And this is all they could come up with for a business card design?

It’s not ugly, but it’s not beautiful either. It’s what we might call boring, or dated.

But I guess this is proof that design doesn’t matter (did I really just write that, what’s the point of this website, then?!? Anyway.). This card is simple and direct.

Wait… a second, did I just say direct? Let’s count the phone numbers. That’s five, including the fax. FIVE TELEPHONE NUMBERS?!?

What one would you pick to call her on? Hmm… it’s 4pm on a Friday. Should I try her Cell? Or her Business? Does she not do business on her cell? Maybe we should try her at home. Perhaps she slipped out of the office for a while to stop home and make a delicious turkey sandwich on white bread. Yes, let’s try her there… oh wait, why pay for any of those first three numbers, I’ll call her Toll Free.

Where does the Toll Free number ring?

Ah… never mind, I’ll just fax her.

The Acronyms? ABS and IMS.

Well, she’s got an Antilock-Breaking System and is a member in the International Magicians Society,

I’ve talked about John L Scott cards before, so you know my take on these cards—not the worst in the world, but not about to win any awards either…

But this one? Well, where do we start.

Now I’m guessing Tracy isn’t the tallest person in the world (and that’s not a bad thing, that’s just how it is), but does her card need to advertise it? There’s got to be a quarter of an inch of weird background space above her head. It looks like whatever’s below the card is sucking her down… maybe it’s the teal shirt? She probably looks shorter on the card than she is in real life.

And the space on the right of her? It is even bigger than the top. You’d think someone might slip in and join her… I don’t know. But let’s learn to crop, shall we?

Also, where is she looking?

“I’ve got a nephew who wants to be a graphic designer, he can design your logo.”

I thought I’d really be able to lay into this card, but in looking at it again, I’m not sure what there is to say…. it’s not horrible, it’s just not that good.

It features the name big under the photo and just one number. It says “Hi, I’m Brenda, I may have a forced smile in this picture, but I wouldn’t mind if you called me on my cell.”

The weird NA with an unknown symbol—is that suppose to be an eagle?!? —doesn’t really qualify as a logo.. and does say Narcotics Anonymous to me, but, whatever. It’s not a national chain, and sometimes, you gotta respect that.

The funny part to me is that the tree pictured, the one with the swing, isn’t one you find in the area that Mike works. So, there’s the first point-loss.

The next one, and it’s major, but it’s the kind of thing you can’t see on the internet — is that this card was printed at home. Or through some other non-professional means. And if it isn’t done at home, and these are real cards? Then you’ve got to drop that printer.

The lack of color also screams cheap, cheap, cheap.

Design-wise, if this card had some color, it’s not horrible. It’s simple and plain.