Eli Van Zoeren

I finally got around to having new business cards printed (actually, I got them about a month ago, but I am just getting around to writing about them). Last summer I gave up my old New Orleans-local phone number when I bought my iPhone and had been procrastinating on ordering cards with the new number.

Part of the reason for my procrastination was the need to decide how and where I wanted them printed: Should I spend more to get them letterpressed? Should I get them from one of the many super-cheap online printers? Could I do it locally and/or sustainably? In the end, I went with The Mandate Press, a low-cost letterpress shop out of Salt Lake City. They have a running deal on 250 custom business cards for $95. With a discount coupon (do a search, the coupon codes are everywhere) and shipping, my total came to $93. The tradeoff for such a low price is not having any options for paper or ink color, and a two- to three-week wait for the cards.

Overall, I am satisfied with my cards. The paper is good quality—thick and white with a nice texture. There is a noticeable impression around the letters, which is reason to pay extra for letterpress, right? The printing itself could be better, though. It looks like there wasn’t quite enough ink on the press, so the black band, in particular, isn’t actually black. It has the same white specks peeking through that you would expect in a newspaper. I guess for a third the price of anywhere else I have seen, I don’t expect perfection; and I would certainly consider ordering from Mandate again. But if you really need to impress people with the quality of your card you will probably need to look elsewhere (or use one of Mandate’s custom options, which I expect are more tightly controlled).