Business cards in Brazil
When starting up a new company or a new division, one of the first things you need is a business card. Brazil is famous for having many creative designers and it's easy to fall in love with their creative and outstanding work.
But if you are just looking for a commodity business card, you might run into some problems when trying to find the expected quality to the right price.
Culture
As European you will find that people in Brazil tend to exchange business cards more frequently than in Europe. While people in Europe are likely to keep business cards mostly on business situations, Brazilian exchange businesses cards also in private occasions.
In Brazil it's common that not only people in executive/representative positions have business cards. Employees in lower positions tend to have a personal business card.
Availability
If you are looking for the best of the best when it comes to business cards, Brazil is the place to look. There's a lot of very talented graphic designers working together with smaller local printshops to make the most amazing businesses cards you can imagine. If you are looking for this type of service you will have to expect to pay around R$ 1000 for set up and your first batch of 1000 cards.
If you are, on the other hand, looking for commodity business cards like those that you normally order online in Europe and USA, you will have to visit smaller printshops - normally located downtown on the major cities in Brazil. Beware that the quality can vary a lot from printshops that just use their color copy machine to high quality printshops that use offset printing equipment.
Size and standards
In Brazil you will find many different cuts and shapes on business cards, but the commodity cards usually follow the US standards 89 × 51 mm. Business cards are normally printed on 240 gsm paper on both sides. There three major types of print standards for business cards:
- Plain print
- Laminated
- Overprint Varnish
Business card offering
It's a lot of good printshops in Brazil selling good quality commodity business card, but some times it's hard to find them or to compare prices. We have good experience with a company downtown São Paulo:
Candiotto.d
Rua Marconi, n° 124 - 12° andar
Cj. 1212 - Centro - São Paulo
SP - Cep:01047-000
Price example from Candiotto.d, all cards are color print on two sides.
| Type | Price | Quantity | Lead-time |
| Standard Gloss Business cards, 120 gsm paper | BRL 50 | 1000 | 7 days |
| Standard Gloss Business cards, 240 gsm paper | BRL 90 | 1000 | 7 days |
| Laminated and one-side Overprint Varnish, 240 gsm paper | BRL 120 | 1000 | 7 days |
They required a 50% payment up-front.