How to create a business card: the ultimate guide
It’s the value of business cards if American Psycho has taught us absolutely nothing else.
These organization multi-tools fulfill much of the expert’s basic needs: marketing, brand name acknowledgment, call-to-action, and obviously contact details. When designed right, these pocket-sized billboards can leave a long lasting impression and create life-long customers from passing complete strangers.
A business card is a little, printed, usually credit-card-sized paper card that holds your company information, such as name, contact information and brand name logo. Your business card design is a vital part of your branding and need to function as a visual extension of your brand name design.
In this guide, we’ll go through whatever you need to know about business card design so you can tell your designer precisely what you desire. Business cards ought to above all be personal, so this guide discusses what your alternatives are for the card that’s most … you.
However prior to we enter into the 8 steps of business card style, let’s talk a little about what you’ll require prior to you begin.
Prior to you start …
Whether you’re a specific freelancer, founder of a young startup, or part of an established enterprise, there are two essential design components you require completed prior to you even begin considering business cards:
- Finished logo design
- Brand color scheme
Logos and color design are the two crucial visual options for branding. Not only will these components play a big part in creating your business card, they’ll also help influence other areas like design and identity.
We don’t have time to do these subjects justice here, however describe our previous guides:
- How to design a logo design: the ultimate guide
- Branding colors: whatever you require to pick your brand’s best pigments
Know thyself
There’s one other preliminary activity that makes the rest of the service card style process run more efficiently. What do you desire your business card to say, not simply with words, but with the design?
This is also a topic deserving of its own discussion, so if you want to dive much deeper, here’s a shortlist of questions to ask yourself for identifying your personal brand name identity. Taking a couple of minutes of reflection about your individual brand will assist with some business card style concerns down the line, especially when it comes to displaying your character.
How to design a business card in 8 actions
As soon as you have your logo design, brand name color design, and a great idea of what you desire your card to say about you, you’re ready to begin. Simply follow the 8 steps below to identify which business card style would work best for you.
1. Choose your shape.
You can avoid ahead to the 2nd action if you’ve already chosen on a standard rectangle-shaped company card. If, nevertheless, you want to learn about all your choices, even outside-the-box methods, keep reading.
As printing strategies grow more economical and advanced, professionals have more room to check out alternative shapes. The printing strategy of die-cutting allows you to eliminate any shape you desire and still print wholesale.
On the conservative end of the spectrum, you could merely round the corners for a friendlier business card.
However if you truly want to be playful or noteworthy, you can utilize practically any shape: animal mascots, details of items your sell, or a shape that’s wholly original.
You can even construct your whole business card style around clever cutting. Cireson business card style uses shape to actually highlight the employee picture, providing a more personable and therefore friendly feel.
Whether or not to utilize creative shapes depends on the image you wish to convey. Unique shapes make you seem more enjoyable and assist you make an impression, however can have a negative effect on more official markets. You’ll also wish to bear in mind logistics, such as how the card fits in a wallet.
You might want to revisit the choice of die-cutting after settling your style in step 6. For instance, some companies such as STIR above like to die-cut locations of their logo design.
2. Choose your size.
Your next choice is the size of the card. This mostly depends upon the standard of the country, so that’s a great place to start. Even if you prepare to stick out, you need to understand what everyone else is doing to go against it.
- North American Requirement: 3.5 × 2 in. (88.9 × 50.8 mm).
- European Requirement: 3.346 × 2.165 in. (85 × 55 mm).
- Oceania Requirement: 3.54 × 2.165 in. (90 × 55 mm).
No matter the size, you always want to consider three factors when designing:.
- Bleed area: the outermost part of the card likely to be removed.
- Trim line: the target line for cutting cards.
- Security line: anything outside this line is subject to cutting errors. Don’t let essential elements like text or logos fall outside this line.
While these areas differ depending upon the size and printer, a winner is to set the trim line at 0.125 in. (3 mm) from the edge. From there, set the security line at 0.125 in. (3 mm) from the trim line. That’s 0.250 in (6 mm) overall from the edge of the bleed area to the within the safety location.
3. Add your logo and other graphics.
Now we start plotting the visual aspects of your business card design, most importantly the logo design. Your logo must take center stage on your company card, although other flourishes and secondary graphics can often be beneficial.
Don’t forget that you have two sides at your disposal. One strategy is to devote one side of business card solely to the logo, while the other side showcases the contact details of the person. However, it’s also excellent to have the logo design on both sides, so frequently you’ll see a smaller sized, remote logo on the side with contact info, just like Omni above.
This is just one method of lots of, though, so feel free to try out logo positioning up until you find one for your tastes.
While minimalism is a popular choice for business cards, if that void doesn’t match you, you can fill it with additional graphics. In an industry like kids’s clothes, Londees wishes to take its adorable theme as far as it will go: they expand on their sheep mascot by positioning sheep doodles all over, and use a faded background to prevent clutter (likewise see making use of soft blue, a kid-friendly and spirited color). Even if your logo design is simple or text just, any associated imagery serves the very same ends.
Additional graphics work well for showing off your brand name identity. Without explicitly saying it, you can interact your or your brand’s personality through visuals, consisting of colors. For instance, if you wish to appear casual or approachable, a cute cartoon and some intense colors would work.
Another increasingly popular trend is to instill interest and curiosity by leaving a little secret. Normally, brand names put a wordless visual with a URL on one side, and then all the necessary explanation (consisting of trademark name and employee’s name) on the other.
4. Include required text.
What your business card in fact says depends on you. Work-from-home freelancers may have no need for a postal address, while professions that seek advice from face-to-face need it. Or perhaps it’s a strategic choice, such as accentuating your remarkable social media following. The point is, various people gain from different text on their business cards.
The next step is for you to decide what to put on your company card. Below is a list of some typical choices, so you can choose which to exclude and include.
- Call— A provided. Every card requires a name.
- Company name— Another offered, except for individual brands, in which case your personal name is your business name.
- Task title— For standard cards, include your task title. This also assists remind the holder of who you are, what you do, and even how your met.
- Telephone number— Even if phone is not your favored method of interaction, it is to some people.
- Email— A business card staple; email is the brand-new norm for non-urgent organization communications, partly because it permits sending out files as attachments.
- Website URL Including your site URL is a non-aggressive invitation for sees.
- Social network If social media pertains to your field, or you just wish to show a little bit of your character, consist of social media links.
- Address— Essential for drawing consumers into your workplace or store location.
- QR code— While not as popular as years past, a QR code is still a practical faster way to moving whatever data you want.
- Slogan— Entirely optional, a motto helps with brand identity and includes a little personality.
Remember that business cards aren’t practically offering details however also keeping it. Individuals might already know your address, number, or url, however keep your card useful in case they forget it.
5. Select your typography.
As soon as you know what you want to say, you can choose how it looks. While typography is constantly crucial, it’s specifically pertinent to business cards because you have to make text completely readable and have only a small space to deal with.
Let’s break up typography into three primary categories:.
You desire your most important aspects (like your name) to stand out, so feel totally free to differ the text sizes. Think about empty space– you do not desire to mess your card, so leave your text little enough that there’s plenty of breathing room around each component.
Typeface. We’ve already spoken at length about font styles and how they influence your brand identity, so feel free to check out The 5 kinds of font styles and how to use them for a more in-depth treatment. Simply keep in mind to pick a typeface that represents the personality you’re going for. A tidy and contemporary sans-serif, an individualistic and stylish script or a traditional and classic serif font style? Below are some examples of what various font designs give the table.
Here’s where a pre-existing brand name color scheme comes in helpful. Staying on-brand, choose text colors that go well with the background color of your card, which should likewise be a brand name color.
The principle for typography is to prioritize legibility over all else. If no one can read what it states, it doesn’t matter how creative your typeface is.
6. Consider special surfaces.
Now that you’re reaching the last stretch, it’s time to begin considering printers– specifically in regards to what they can offer. Particular printers offer unique surfaces that can go a long way in making a long lasting impression. See if any of these “special effects” can benefit your business card design strategy.
Embossing. This method produces three-dimensional reliefs, making certain areas “pop out.” Like area UV finishing, you can use it to draw attention to particular elements of your card, even words.
Letterpressing. Instead of raising the paper, letterpress printing pushes the paper down while inking it. The outcome is something like an engravement, generally with unique ink to draw more attention. Especially useful for letters, giving your words a heightened gravitas.
Foil marking. You can use foil stamping to images or even just parts of images if you want something glossy and reflective like tin foil. This also works for accentuating text, if you’ve chosen a bold sufficient typeface.
A lot of cards have a streamlined varnish to develop a sheen and smooth texture. Utilize it when you desire to accent specific areas over others, however be mindful of how it impacts the general structure when only a part is glossy.
7. Pick a designer.
It’s a great concept to discover a professional designer who can create the ideal card for you if you truly want a stellar service card. You can try to find a regional freelance designer or search on a platform like Alpha Print for a designer with the right design and experience. Make certain to check out their portfolio to see if they’re an excellent fit for your brand name.
As soon as you have actually discovered the best individual, try to interact plainly what your company is all about and what style and vibe you are looking for, so your designer can turn your vision into truth.
8. Complete your style.
With all the components in place and a precise prediction of your final color choices and unique surfaces, you can reevaluate your style to make certain whatever works.
Initially, examine the visual flow: how does your eye relocation when looking at the card. What do you discover initially? Last? A good visual circulation needs to begin with the logo design, then the name, and then the secondary info, ending up on any secondary images if they exist. You can always change and enhance the visual flows by changing an element’s size and location.
You likewise wish to clear out as much mess as you can. Is all the details necessary? The fewer the remaining aspects, the more effect each makes.
Double-check to make sure you didn’t fall into any common pitfalls. Is the text legible? Do the colors clash? Are any components too near the edge?
Don’t forget to have your designer send you the ended up product as a vector file and a vector-based PDF. You want to utilize vector images in case you need to alter the size, and PDFs are understandable by almost every printer.
Advanced techniques
These eight steps are all you need to develop a fully practical business card, but if you wish to go the extra mile, think about these more advanced ideas:.
Stick out with a clever concept. You can employ more experimental methods for separating yourself if your market permits some whimsy.
This could be something thematic, like Saleular’s iPhone cards, or something more complex. For example:.
- aromatic inks.
- duplexing and triplexing (tripling the card or doubling’s width to make it thicker).
- using alternate products (metal, plastic, rubber, and so on).
- folded cards.
- transparent cards.
That last pattern we’re seeing a great deal of recently, and for good factor. There’s a lot you can do with a transparent card, like Remote Pilot’s mock pilot scope.
Avoid borders. Borders may seem like a smart aesthetic option to frame the content of your card– and they are, in theory– however the prevalence of cutting mistakes suggests borders do more harm than excellent. Cutting each and every single card perfectly in a bulk order is practically a dream, and that’s why it’s best to design with bleed and security areas. With borders, small errors in cutting are exaggerated and lower the entire style.
You can cut out a chunk of the cost just by utilizing only one or two colors. The more colors you include, the more the price goes up, and a clever designer will know how to make one or 2 colors look simply as good.
Takeaway: a modern-day coat of arms.
Your card is more than just your contact info– it’s a representation of you and your brand. Some individuals are handed cards every day, so you require yours to both stand out and paint you in a beneficial light. Don’t cut corners with designing your business card. Spend sufficient time developing the ideal design and after that find a proficient designer to turn your vision into a truth.
There’s one other preliminary activity that makes the rest of the service card style process run more efficiently. What do you desire your company card to say, not simply with words, however with the style?
See if any of these “special impacts” can benefit your organization card design technique.
If you actually desire a stellar service card, it’s a great concept to discover a professional designer who can develop the ideal card for you. Don’t cut corners with creating your organization card.
Business cards are cards bearing company info about a company or individual. They are shared throughout official introductions as a memory and a benefit aid. A service card generally includes the provider’s name, company or company association (typically with a logo) and contact details such as street addresses, phone number(s), fax number, e-mail addresses and website. Before the arrival of electronic interaction business cards might also include telex details. Now they might include social media addresses such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Generally, lots of cards were basic black text on white stock, and the distinct look and feel of cards printed from an inscribed plate was a desirable sign of professionalism. In the late 20th century, technological advances drove changes in design, and today an expert business card will frequently consist of one or more aspects of striking visual design.
Our videos
Related Links
Our Services
- printing companies dublin
- business cards printing dublin
- Banner Printing
- T-Shirt Printing
- Promotional Printing
- Graphic Design
- printing services
- Copying Services
Important Links