How to design a business card: the ultimate guide
If American Psycho has actually taught us absolutely nothing else, it’s the significance of business cards.
These organization multi-tools fulfill a number of the expert’s basic requirements: marketing, brand recognition, call-to-action, and obviously contact info. When designed right, these pocket-sized billboards can leave a long lasting impression and create life-long clients from passing strangers.
A business card is a small, printed, generally credit-card-sized paper card that holds your service information, such as name, contact information and brand logo. Your business card design is a crucial part of your branding and must function as a visual extension of your brand style.
In this guide, we’ll run through whatever you need to know about business card style so you can tell your designer exactly what you desire. Business cards should above all be personal, so this guide discusses what your choices are for the card that’s most … you.
Before we get into the 8 actions of organization card style, let’s talk a little about what you’ll require before you begin.
Before you start …
Whether you’re a specific freelancer, founder of a young startup, or part of a recognized business, there are two important design components you require finalized before you even begin thinking of business cards:
- Finished logo
- Brand name color design
Logos and color schemes are the two essential visual options for branding. Not only will these components play a huge part in creating your business card, they’ll also assist affect other areas like layout and identity.
We do not have time to do these topics justice here, but describe our previous guides:
- How to create a logo: the ultimate guide
- Branding colors: whatever you require to choose your brand’s best pigments
Know thyself
There’s one other preliminary activity that makes the rest of the organization card design procedure run more efficiently. What do you desire your organization card to state, not simply with words, but with the style?
This is also a topic worthy of its own conversation, so if you want to dive deeper, here’s a shortlist of concerns to ask yourself for identifying your individual brand name identity. Taking a couple of minutes of reflection about your individual brand name will help with some business card style concerns down the line, particularly when it concerns displaying your character.
How to design a business card in 8 steps
Once you have your logo, brand name color scheme, and an excellent concept of what you desire your card to say about you, you’re ready to begin. Simply follow the 8 actions below to figure out which business card design would work best for you.
1. Choose your shape.
You can avoid ahead to the 2nd step if you have actually currently chosen on a conventional rectangular organization card. If, nevertheless, you want to learn about all your options, even outside-the-box techniques, keep reading.
As printing methods grow more affordable and innovative, specialists have more space to explore alternative shapes. The printing technique of die-cutting allows you to eliminate any shape you desire and still print in bulk.
On the conservative end of the spectrum, you could simply round the corners for a friendlier business card.
However if you really wish to be playful or stand-out, you can utilize virtually any shape: animal mascots, outlines of items your sell, or a shape that’s completely initial.
You can even develop your entire business card theme around clever cutting. Cireson business card design utilizes shape to truly highlight the staff member photo, giving them a more personable and therefore approachable feel.
Whether or not to utilize creative shapes depends upon the image you wish to communicate. Unique shapes make you appear more fun and assist you make an impression, but can have an adverse result on more official industries. You’ll also wish to remember logistics, such as how the card fits in a wallet.
You might wish to revisit the alternative of die-cutting after completing your style in step 6. Some companies such as STIR above like to die-cut locations of their logo design.
2. Select your size.
Your next choice is the size of the card. This mostly depends upon the requirement of the country, so that’s a good place to begin. Even if you plan to stand apart, you need to understand what everybody else is doing to go against it.
- North American Requirement: 3.5 × 2 in. (88.9 × 50.8 mm).
- European Standard: 3.346 × 2.165 in. (85 × 55 mm).
- Oceania Requirement: 3.54 × 2.165 in. (90 × 55 mm).
No matter the size, you constantly want to consider 3 aspects when developing:.
- Bleed area: the outermost part of the card likely to be removed.
- Trim line: the target line for cutting cards.
- Safety line: anything outside this line undergoes cutting mistakes. Don’t let essential elements like text or logo designs fall outside this line.
While these areas vary depending on the size and printer, a safe bet is to set the trim line at 0.125 in. That’s 0.250 in (6 mm) total from the edge of the bleed area to the within of the safety location.
3. Add your logo and other graphics.
Now we start plotting the visual aspects of your business card style, foremost and first the logo design. Your logo needs to take center stage on your business card, although secondary graphics and other flourishes can in some cases work as well.
Do not forget that you have two sides at hand. One method is to commit one side of the business card specifically to the logo, while the opposite showcases the contact details of the person. However, it’s likewise great to have the logo on both sides, so typically you’ll see a smaller sized, isolated logo design on the side with contact information, as with Omni above.
This is simply one method of many, however, so do not hesitate to explore logo design placement till you discover one for your tastes.
While minimalism is a popular choice for business cards, if that empty space does not suit you, you can fill it with extra graphics. In a market like kids’s clothing, Londees wants to take its cute theme as far as it will go: they broaden on their sheep mascot by positioning sheep doodles all over, and utilize a faded background to avoid mess (likewise discover the use of soft blue, a kid-friendly and lively color). Even if your logo is easy or text only, any related images serves the very same ends.
Additional graphics work well for showing off your brand name identity. Without clearly saying it, you can communicate your or your brand name’s character through visuals, including colors. If you want to seem casual or friendly, an adorable cartoon and some bright colors would do the trick.
Another increasingly popular pattern is to impart interest and curiosity by leaving a little secret. Generally, brand names position a wordless visual with a URL on one side, and after that all the required explanation (consisting of trademark name and worker’s name) on the other.
4. Include needed text.
What your business card really says depends on you. Work-from-home freelancers may have no need for a postal address, while professions that speak with face-to-face require it. Or perhaps it’s a tactical choice, such as drawing attention to your remarkable social media following. The point is, various people take advantage of different text on their business cards.
The next action is for you to choose what to put on your company card. Below is a list of some common choices, so you can choose which to omit and include.
- Name— A provided. Every card needs a name.
- Business name— Another offered, except for individual brand names, in which case your personal name is your company name.
- Job 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 fulfilled.
- Contact number— Even if phone is not your favored method of communication, it is to some people.
- Email— A business card staple; e-mail is the brand-new norm for non-urgent organization communications, partially since it enables sending files as accessories.
- Site URL Including your website URL is a non-aggressive invitation for check outs.
- Social network If social networks is relevant to your field, or you simply want to show a little bit of your personality, consist of social networks links.
- Address— Necessary for drawing consumers into your office or shop place.
- QR code— While not as popular as years past, a QR code is still a feasible shortcut to transferring whatever data you prefer.
- Slogan— Completely optional, a slogan assists with brand name identity and includes a little character.
Keep in mind that business cards aren’t just about providing information but also keeping it. People might already understand your url, number, or address, however keep your card convenient in case they forget it.
5. Select your typography.
You can pick how it looks when you understand what you want to state. While typography is always essential, it’s especially important to business cards because you have to make text totally legible and have just a small area to work with.
Let’s break up typography into 3 main categories:.
Size. To preserve readability, you want all your text to be a minimum of 8 pts. You desire your most important aspects (like your name) to stand out, so feel free to differ the text sizes. Consider empty area– you don’t want to clutter your card, so leave your text little enough that there’s plenty of breathing space around each aspect.
Font style. We have actually currently spoken at length about typefaces and how they influence your brand name identity, so feel free to take a look at The 5 types of fonts and how to utilize them for a more in-depth treatment. Just remember to select a font style that represents the personality you’re choosing. A clean and contemporary sans-serif, an individualistic and elegant script or a traditional and timeless serif typeface? Below are some examples of what different font styles bring to the table.
Here’s where a pre-existing brand color scheme comes in handy. Staying on-brand, pick text colors that go well with the background color of your card, which should also be a brand name color.
The golden rule for typography is to focus on legibility over all else. If no one can read what it says, it does not matter how creative your typeface is.
6. Consider unique surfaces.
Now that you’re reaching the final stretch, it’s time to start thinking about printers– particularly in regards to what they can offer. Specific printers use special surfaces that can go a long way in making an enduring impression. See if any of these “special effects” can benefit your business card design technique.
Embossing. This strategy develops three-dimensional reliefs, making certain areas “pop out.” Like spot UV covering, you can utilize it to accentuate specific elements of your card, even words.
Letterpressing. Rather than raising the paper, letterpress printing pushes the paper down while inking it. The result is something like an engravement, usually with unique ink to draw more attention. Especially helpful for letters, offering your words a heightened gravitas.
Foil stamping. You can apply foil stamping to images or even simply parts of images if you want something shiny and reflective like tin foil. This also works for accentuating text, if you’ve picked a bold sufficient typeface.
Spot UV coating. A lot of cards have a smooth varnish to produce a shine and smooth texture. Area UV finish is the same thing, except only applied to particular locations. That implies you can apply a gloss on just your logo design, specific graphics, or perhaps a word or expression. Use it when you want to accent specific locations over others, however be mindful of how it impacts the general structure when only a portion is glossy.
7. Pick a designer.
It’s an excellent idea to discover an expert designer who can produce the perfect card for you if you actually want an excellent service card. You can try to find a local freelance designer or search on a platform like Alpha Print for a designer with the ideal style and experience. Make certain to have a look at their portfolio to see if they’re a good fit for your brand.
Once you have actually discovered the right individual, try to communicate plainly what your company is everything about and what design and vibe you are trying to find, so your designer can turn your vision into reality.
8. Complete your style.
With all the aspects in place and an accurate prediction of your last color options and unique finishes, you can reevaluate your design to make certain everything works.
Examine the visual circulation: how does your eye move when looking at the card. What do you see? Last? An excellent visual flow should begin with the logo design, then the name, and then the secondary info, finishing on any secondary images if they exist. You can always change and optimize the visual circulations by changing a component’s size and location.
You also wish to clear out as much mess as you can. Is all the information needed? The fewer the staying components, the more effect each makes.
Double-check to make sure you didn’t fall into any common risks. Is the text legible? Do the colors clash? Are any aspects too near the edge?
Do not forget to have your designer send you the ended up item as a vector file and a vector-based PDF. You want to utilize vector images in case you require to change the size, and PDFs are understandable by almost every printer.
Advanced strategies
These 8 steps are all you need to produce a completely functional business card, however if you wish to go above and beyond, consider these more advanced suggestions:.
Stand apart with a smart idea. If your industry permits some whimsy, you can use more experimental methods for separating yourself.
This could be something thematic, like Saleular’s iPhone cards, or something more complex. :.
- fragrant inks.
- triplexing and duplexing (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 trend we’re seeing a lot of lately, and for good reason. 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 material of your card– and they are, in theory– however the occurrence of cutting mistakes means borders do more damage than great. Cutting every card perfectly in a bulk order is practically a dream, which’s why it’s finest to create with bleed and security areas. With borders, tiny mistakes in cutting are overstated and bring down the whole style.
You can cut out a piece of the expense just by using 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 two colors look simply as excellent.
Takeaway: a modern-day coat of arms.
Your card is more than simply your contact details– it’s a representation of you and your brand. Some people 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 creating your business card. Invest sufficient time developing the ideal design and then discover a knowledgeable designer to turn your vision into a reality.
There’s one other preliminary activity that makes the rest of the service card style procedure run more smoothly. What do you want your organization card to say, not just with words, however with the style?
See if any of these “unique impacts” can benefit your organization card design strategy.
If you actually desire an excellent company card, it’s a great concept to find a professional designer who can develop the best card for you. Don’t cut corners with developing your business card.
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