When does printing matter the most? As of right now, I’m going to say on a signature piece e.g. my new business cards, all of which are officially crooked.

I was entirely too excited (debatable), as a designer, IMHO, these were supposed to be the cards I always dreamed of: 19pt stock, satin finish, spot varnish, .25 in rounded corners, double sided.

Mine.  500 of them in fact.

The original idea to do a new business card came from a client whose cards I was working on and I wanted to see what printing options were available. Well had I know how dynamic of a card I could order fairly inexpensively on the internet, I would have done so much sooner. I designed what I wanted,  simple clean but with a bit of flair, entered my credit card data and submitted my artwork. Now the wait begins.

Two Weeks

I had to wait over two weeks to receive my new awesome cards. As I got home on Friday the box was already there waiting for me. I quickly cut open the packaging examined the back (got some sweet spot varnish there) and the front… wait a minute… something is odd.  Was it the uppercase U next to a bracket that was throwing my eye off?  Was I overreacting? Wait. Where was my ruler? It is always around until I need it. I think my business card is crooked. No couldn’t be. Where is that damn ruler!

We were having guests in town all weekend so I decided to shelf the problem until Monday, chalking it up to my overreacting. I was wrong.

1-2 millimeters.

1-2 millimeters is huge when you are talking about a piece of paper as small as a business card. Let’s not even go into the fact that said card advertises that I am a “print designer”. I am currently beside myself I feel cheated.

This is not over yet!

I have contacted the printing company and will be updating with results.  I really hope they fix this.

*UPDATE* They are reprinting the cards for free, but won’t expedite the shipping so it’s at least a decent win.