Card Carriers & Wallets

Standard Display Carrier

The simplest of the seven, and the one most people start with. A single flat piece of board, printed both sides, that the card is attached to. Nothing folds, nothing is die cut, and there is a full A6 face on each side for the message, the terms and the branding.

It suits anything handed over rather than displayed — a gift card presented at a till, a membership card posted to a new joiner, a loyalty card given out at the point of sale.

• Print — full colour CMYK, both sides.
• Board — luxury 350gsm silk.
• Size — 148mm x 105mm, which is A6.
• Finishing — trimmed flat, no crease or die cut.
• Turnaround — in line with your plastic card order. Ordered on its own, we confirm the timing at proofing stage.

Euro Slot Display Carrier

The same idea with a die cut euro slot punched through the top, so the carrier hangs from a standard retail hook or spinner. If your cards are sold rather than issued — a rack by the till, a stand in a reception, a display in a garden centre — this is the format that gets them seen.

It is slightly narrower and shorter than the standard carrier, because the hanging slot needs board above the card and the whole thing has to sit comfortably on a hook without leaning.

• Print — full colour CMYK, both sides.
• Board — luxury 350gsm silk.
• Size — 130mm x 98mm.
• Finishing — die cut euro slot for hanging display.
• Turnaround — in line with your plastic card order. Ordered on its own, we confirm the timing at proofing stage.

Top tip Design the top third assuming it will be partly hidden. On a busy rack the carrier in front covers the bottom of the one behind, so the name and the price want to be up near the slot, not down by the card.

Portrait Wallets with Die Cut Slits

A folded wallet, portrait format, with die cut slits inside that hold the card in place. It opens like a small greetings card, which gives you four printed faces instead of two and somewhere to write a name and a message.

Folded it is C7 sized, so it drops straight into a standard envelope. That combination — a wallet, a card and an envelope — is the closest thing we do to a finished gift, and it is what most of our gift card customers end up with.

• Print — full colour CMYK, both sides.
• Board — luxury 300gsm silk.
• Size — 148mm x 110mm flat, 74mm x 110mm folded.
• Finishing — machined crease line, plus die cut slits to hold the card.
• Turnaround — in line with your plastic card order. Ordered on its own, we confirm the timing at proofing stage.

Landscape Wallets with Die Cut Slits

The same construction turned on its side. The card sits landscape in the die cut slits, the way it sits in a purse, so the design on the card faces the reader the right way up the moment the wallet is opened.

Choose between this and the portrait wallet on the artwork rather than the mechanics: a landscape logo, a wide photograph or a line of text that will not break comfortably all point to this one.

• Print — full colour CMYK, both sides.
• Board — luxury 300gsm silk.
• Size — 75mm x 210mm flat, 75mm x 105mm folded.
• Finishing — machined crease line, plus die cut slits to hold the card.
• Turnaround — in line with your plastic card order. Ordered on its own, we confirm the timing at proofing stage.

L-Shaped Carriers

The most involved of the seven, and the one that does the most jobs at once. It folds into an L, holds the card on a die cut tab, hangs from a slot when closed, and has a perforation so the hanging section tears away cleanly once the card has been bought.

That is what makes it the standard gift card format in retail: the same item works on the display stand, at the till and in the customer's hand, and the inside face carries the For, From, Occasion and Amount lines without anything being written on the card itself.

• Print — full colour CMYK, both sides.
• Board — luxury 300gsm silk.
• Size — 210mm x 191mm flat, 105mm x 119mm folded.
• Finishing — machined crease and perforation lines, with a die cut tab and slits to hold the card.
• Turnaround — in line with your gift card order. Ordered on its own, we confirm the timing at proofing stage.

Worth knowing The perforation runs through printed artwork, so keep logos and text clear of it. We will show you exactly where it falls on the template before you start designing.

Key Card Sleeves

A creased and glued pocket that the key card slides into, with a thumb notch cut in the top so the card comes out easily. Handed over at check-in with the room number written on it, it is the first piece of your branding a guest holds and the one they keep in their pocket all week.

Printed to the outer face only, because the inner faces are glued together. Everything a guest needs — wifi, breakfast, checkout, the restaurant number — goes on the back.

• Print — full colour CMYK to the outer face.
• Board — luxury 350gsm silk.
• Size — 87mm x 60mm.
• Finishing — machined crease and glued, with a thumb notch.
• Turnaround — in line with your key card order, and also available to buy separately.

Key Card Wallets

The larger alternative to the sleeve. It is a folded wallet rather than a glued pocket, which gives you two inside faces to print on as well as the outside, and room for two key cards where a couple or a family are sharing a room.

Supplied flat and creased, so it takes no storage space behind the desk and is folded around the cards at check-in.

• Print — full colour CMYK to the outer face.
• Board — luxury 350gsm silk.
• Size — 150mm x 105mm flat, 75mm x 105mm folded.
• Finishing — machined crease, supplied flat.
• Turnaround — in line with your key card order, and also available to buy separately.

Artwork & Production

Carriers are printed litho on board, which is a different process to the one that prints the cards. That has three practical consequences worth knowing before you start designing.

• You get a template. Every folded or die cut format has crease lines, slits, notches and perforations in fixed positions. We send you the template for whichever carrier you choose, so you can see exactly where they fall before a logo lands on one.
• Bleed and safe area work the same way as on a card. 3mm of bleed all round, and keep anything that matters 4mm in from the trim. There is more detail on our bleed and size page, and the artwork guides cover file formats.
• Colours will not match the card exactly. Ink on silk board and ink on PVC are two different surfaces, and the same CMYK values read slightly warmer on board. If a brand colour has to be right, tell us at quote stage and we will show you both on the proof rather than leaving you to find out afterwards.

Carriers and cards are supplied separately as standard, so you attach the cards yourself as you activate or issue them. If you would rather they arrived assembled, ask — we will quote for it.

No artwork? Our design service will set up the carrier and the card together as one piece, which is the sensible way to do it: the two are seen at the same moment and want to be designed at the same moment.