Press Badges / Photo ID Cards for the Media

Another creative group are those involved in television and just about any type of news outlet. The norm for these folks is a high end image with graphics spashing themsleves across the card making more of a piece of art than what we are used to seeing as an identification card.

As a practice, they have made one backgrouand image that is 2 or 3 times the size of the size of the bacground of the id card template. Then they reduce the image to the actual size of the id card itself. Actually, when an image that size is uploaded, it sizes itself to the maximum size of the identification card template. If you are interested and have the ability, or the art department, here are the exact sizes of the images that you can use:

Here are a few of the tricks they used to make the cards look awesome:

• Use the entire card as the canvas. Remember, the equipment used to produce these cards are unlike your printer and there is no margin.
• Don't create a box or border for the pictures themselves. This is because the pictures are cropped by our staff and the dimensions are not always identical.
• Create a box or border for where your information will be displayed (such as names and titles). Use contrasting colors on these areas so the information pops out. Examples would be using a black background and white text or black text and a white background.
• Purchase a test card and check it out before ordering cards for the entire staff.

It's fairly obvious to me that most of these organizations have art departments or graphics guru's that they have unleased on the concept of an ID card or press badge. So, if you are fortunate enough to have an artist on staff or if you have access to one, pass along these dimensions and see what they come up with. I bet you will be impressed as I have been.