3D Pop-Up Business Card Designer (CorelDRAW/CDR) — AI Agency Branding, Fast Turnaround

Gage Labs (gagelabs.ai) is an AI automation agency. We need a pop-up / fold-out 3D business card designed and delivered as a print-ready CorelDRAW (.CDR) file. This is NOT a standard flat card — it physically unfolds, and one panel pops upright, like a miniature pop-up greeting card. We already have a working paper prototype (video attached) proving the mechanism. We need a designer who can put a fresh, premium visual design onto that exact mechanical structure, fast. We've spent 2-3 weeks going through designers who didn't understand the brief and produced generic or broken results. This post is written in detail specifically so that doesn't happen again — please read the whole thing before applying. WHAT THIS CARD PHYSICALLY IS (please watch the attached video first) The final product is a small set of pieces that work together, not one flat card: 1. FRONT panel — a flat card, standard size, the outward-facing marketing/pitch side. 2. BACK panel — a flat card, same size, the contact-info side. 3. MIDDLE insert — a small folded piece that sits with the front and back. It has: - a LOWER (base) panel that lies flat and lists our 5 service pillars - an UPPER panel, hinged to the base, that pops UP to stand at roughly 90-100 degrees when the insert is opened — a simple pop-up-card mechanism. This upper panel carries the hero visual/character artwork. An old prototype (video + PDF attached) was built for our founder's previous company, "Ravan.ai" — proving this exact mechanism. We are keeping the ENGINEERING (how it folds, opens, and pops up) 100% identical. Every visual — logo, colors, copy, photos, layout — is completely new for our brand, Gage Labs. Ignore the old branding in the reference files; look only at how the paper folds and pops. DELIVERABLE 1 — THE POP-UP CARD (hero piece) - Front, Back, and Middle insert (lower + upper panels) as described above. - Standard business card footprint (3.5" x 2" / 88.9mm x 50.8mm) for the front/back; middle insert sized to match the mechanism shown in the reference video/PDF. - Placeholder copy is below for your proposal — final logo files, photos, and exact copy are provided after hire. DELIVERABLE 2 — A SIMPLE BACKUP CARD - A normal, flat, single-piece business card (front + back only, no pop-up), same brand content, styled differently/more simply than the pop-up card — for quick everyday printing when there's no time to produce the pop-up version. PLACEHOLDER CONTENT (final assets given after hire) - Brand: Gage Labs — gagelabs.ai — an AI transformation partner (AI audits + AI automation implementation for businesses). - Front headline: "Deploy Your Custom AI Operating System" — exact phrase is "Custom AI Operating System." Do not use the word "agent" anywhere in this headline. - Middle insert, 5 service pillars, in this order (the 5th should be the visual hero / most emphasized item): AI Voice Employee, AI Sales Employee, AI Content Employee, AI Ops, Custom AI Operating System. - Back: founder's name, title "Founder" (not "Chief AI Officer"), phone, website, LinkedIn, Gage Labs logo, a photo of the founder next to a branded AI-character avatar, a background image. - No QR codes anywhere on any panel. DESIGN DIRECTION — MISTAKES TO AVOID (learned the hard way from past attempts — please actually read this) - Don't stretch or distort any photo to fill space — crop/compose properly. - Any face/photo cutout needs a soft, blended edge (feather, shadow, color-grade to match the background) — not a harsh, pasted-on sticker look. - The hero headline should visually stand apart from body/list text (different weight or treatment) — not blend in as "just another line." - Body/list text must stay legible at real print size. Several past drafts used elegant but tiny fonts that become unreadable once printed at business-card scale — assum use reading glasses. - Get panel orientation right — text and artwork must face the correct direction relative to how the card physically opens (this has been gotten backwards before). Study the video. - Outer cards (front/back): light/off-white background. Middle pop-up insert: dark/black theme. The contrast between the two is intentional — keep it. - Leave real margin (roughly 1 inch as a starting point, refine per your own dieline) near fold and cut lines on the middle insert — that area gets trimmed/scored in pr FILE / TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS (non-negotiable) - Final delivery must be a native, editable CorelDRAW (.CDR) file — not an AI/PSD/Canva file "converted" to CDR. State your CorelDRAW version in your proposal. - Print-ready: correct bleed + trim + fold/score lines on labeled layers, CMYK fonts converted to curves or embedded, images at print resolution (300dpi+). - Also deliver a PDF proof and a simple photo-realistic mockup/render of the pop-up mechanism, so we can approve the concept before anything goes to print. - We handle printing/production ourselves — you're responsible for a clean print-ready file, not for sourcing a printer. REFERENCE MATERIALS (attached — review both before applying) 1. A video of a working paper prototype showing exactly how the card opens and how the middle panel pops up. This is the previous brand's design — ignore the brand only on the physical mechanism. 2. A PDF of that old prototype's flat artwork (front/back/insert) — again, for reference only. The visual design will be entirely new. WHO WE'RE LOOKING FOR - Someone who can work from a reference video/prototype and independently propose strong creative solutions — bring us ideas, don't wait for instructions on every detail. - Experience with pop-up cards, fold-out/foldable print pieces, die-cut structural design, or packaging/paper engineering is a big plus — this sits closer to that discipline than a flat business-card job. - A fast, clear communicator. We're moving quickly and want daily updates, not silence. - Comfortable delivering native CorelDRAW files for commercial print. TO APPLY, PLEASE INCLUDE 1. 1-2 samples of pop-up, fold-out, die-cut, or other structural/dimensional print pieces you've designed. A photo of a physical piece is ideal — a flat business-card alone is not enough for this brief. 2. Confirmation you can deliver a native, print-ready .CDR file, and which CorelDRAW version you use. 3. In 2-3 sentences, describe in your own words how you'd build a card that opens into a flat front/back, with a middle insert whose upper panel pops up to stand at roughly 90 degrees — this tells us you actually watched the reference video. 4. Your fixed-price quote and turnaround time for BOTH deliverables (the pop-up card set + the simple backup card), including up to 2 rounds of revisions. BUDGET & TIMELINE - Fixed price, paid via milestones (e.g., 30% on approved concept/mockup, 70% on final CDR handoff). - We need this moving fast — please only apply if you can start within the next few days and turn around a first concept/mockup within about a week.