Business cards for Sri Lanka

Your Sri Lanka badge exactly as it is, printed large enough that the speckled letters still read as speckled. Nothing about the logo has been changed or redrawn.

The same badge without its teal square behind it. Cheaper to print, and it is the version that can go on a photo, a stamp or a sticker later without being redrawn.

The short, wide version of your logo: the K with the shaka hand, then the name. Because it is wide it pushes the writing underneath rather than beside it, so the whole card is laid out differently.

Your web address as the logo, with the shaka-hand K inside it. On a card handed to someone on a beach that may be the more useful thing to lead with — they are going to look you up rather than memorise the name.

Worth knowing. The letters here are a typeface, not your badge's own lettering — your badge has no O and no full stop, so ".com" cannot be built from it.

Just the shaka hand, big, with your name set beside it. The boldest of the five and the one that would work as a sticker on a board or a van without any changes.

The same card on a warm sand colour instead of white — the same tone that is already inside your badge. Usually printed on coloured card rather than with ink, so it often costs no more than white.

Worth knowing. Usually printed on coloured card rather than with ink, so it often costs no more than plain white.

On your teal. Worth looking at closely: the badge's teal square vanishes into the background, so the letters and the wave appear to sit straight on the card. It is the boldest of the three backgrounds.

On the dark brown your website already uses for its top and bottom bars. The most expensive of the three to print — a solid dark colour shows every imperfection, so it needs a good stock.

Worth knowing. A solid dark card costs more to print and shows every mark, so it needs a better stock than the others.

The back built around the QR code, big enough that someone can scan it while you are still holding the card. Everything else drops to three lines.

The back uses the same brown bar your website has across the top, with your name in it. It makes the card look like the same business rather than something made separately.

A teal strip down one side with the code sitting on a white square inside it, so the eye goes straight to it. The code has to be on white to scan reliably, which is what makes the strip worth having.

Worth knowing. A colour that runs to the edge has to be printed slightly oversized and trimmed. Any printer can do it, but it is worth checking they allow for it.

The wave stripes from inside your badge, enlarged and run along the bottom edge, so the card looks like a crop of a bigger wave.

A single wave-crest shape filling one corner, and nothing else. The same shape turns up on the new website design, so choosing it here would tie the two together.

Your own photograph of you, bottom-turning in Sri Lanka, with the badge in white over it. It is the only picture we hold of you at print quality, and it says what you do and where you do it in a way no amount of writing can. The writing sits on the dark side of the picture so that you stay in the clear on the other. It needs a smoother card than the others to print well.

Worth knowing. A photo needs a smoother card than the rest. On a rough uncoated stock the dark parts of the wave go muddy.

The same card as the last one, but with your badge in its own colours instead of plain white. The teal square sits on the photo like a sticker. Worth deciding whether you want that hard edge on a picture that has none.

Your photo left completely alone, with a dark strip across the bottom carrying the wide version of your logo. Nothing sits on top of the picture at all, which is the safest way to print a photograph.

The same as the last one with the dark strip at the top instead of the bottom. Worth seeing both: at the top it covers the flat sky, at the bottom your logo is the last thing they look at.

The same dark strip carrying your web address as the logo. On a card given to someone on the beach, the address may be the more useful thing to lead with — they are going to look you up rather than memorise a name.

The picture almost entirely untouched, with just the shaka hand and your name in the top corner. The quietest of the set: the photograph does the work and the logo signs it.

Your badge small in the bottom corner so the photograph gets the whole card. The catch is size: this small, the speckled texture inside the letters fills in and they print solid. The logo still reads — it just loses the grain.

The opposite of the others: your logo in dark brown on the bright spray instead of white on the dark water. The corner of the photo is lifted towards white so the dark logo reads on it, which gives the card a misty, early-morning feel. It is the fussiest of the nine to print.

The photo and the logo side by side rather than one on top of the other: the picture takes half the card and a solid dark panel takes the other half. The cleanest of the nine to print, because nothing is laid over the photograph.

Your photo on the right of the card, dissolving into white, with your logo in dark brown on the clean side. This is the easiest of them all to print well — nothing is laid over the photograph and nothing is printed on a dark background, so it holds up on cheaper card.

The same idea with less photo and more logo: at this size the speckled texture in your letters prints completely, which is the thing that gets lost when the badge goes small.

The same card the other way round: photo on the left, logo on the white right, and the picture dissolving right across the card rather than stopping partway. Your own frame suits this better — you are on the left of the picture, so nothing has to be re-cropped to keep you in it.

The photo across the top of the card fading down into white, with the logo in the clear space underneath. The dead water at the bottom of the frame is what disappears into the fade, so nothing you would want to see is lost.

The faded card with your badge in its own teal rather than in brown. On white it reads as a proper printed badge; on the photo versions the same square reads as a sticker. Worth seeing the two next to each other.

The fading photo with the wide version of your logo along the bottom, on white. The wide mark needs most of the card to itself, and this is the only layout with a photograph that can give it that.

Not a card design — this is the file a printer needs if you ever want the logo pressed into the card or done in foil. Worth knowing now: the badge loses its speckles when it is foiled, and the hand does not.

Worth knowing. Not a card design. This is the file a printer needs if the logo is ever pressed into the card or done in foil.