If you haven’t designed business cards before, or if business card design is a new aspect of your business, it may not come easy to you. The business card design process can take some time and effort to perfect, and there are a lot of business card templates that business owners use (which we will talk about in this article).
Business Card Design Best Practices:
1. Use quality stock –
Good business cards should be printed on quality paper stock – 80lb / 125gsm+ matte or semi-gloss UV coated paper is what I recommend for business cards. A good thickness (14 pt +/-) ensures durability while keeping the cost affordable for your business cards. There’s no one exact thickness that works best; thicker stock = more business cards printed = higher cost per card.
2. Use a business card template –
Using business card templates is the best way to start creating business cards. These business card templates are designed by professional designers and allow you to edit text, change colors, move content around, upload logos / images and more. Most business card templates can be downloaded for free from places like PSDCovers. Once you have finalized your business card design, make sure that it ends up on quality stock with quality printing, I recommend Moo as a print partner who uses offset lithography for their prints.
3. Do not use borders –
Borders on business cards were a trend in the past few years where people used thick lines around the business card to frame it. This looks good on some business cards, but many business owners now choose to use no borders at all or thin lines around their business cards for a more contemporary feel.
4. Do not use stock / generic images –
Many people design business cards that just feature stock / generic imagery which results in boring business cards that do not stand out. Generic imagery is ok if you are using rich color and modern fonts to help enhance your business card design; however if your business card template has small areas of text, this might not work well with boxy images without any negative space around them (e.g. Botero’s Face).
5. Select an appropriate typeface –
A good rule of thumb is to choose 2 or 3 typefaces and stick with them for business card design. For business cards, sans-serif fonts like Helvetica work well since they don’t have the small details that serif fonts do (which might not be visible on business cards). However you can use a light / thin serif font such as Garamond if your business card template has large areas of open space around text to balance out the ‘roughness’ of the business card design – this is what we did for our business card template.
6. Use negative space –
Negative space plays a big role in business card design and helps enhance your business cards by giving it breathing room and allowing readers’ eyes to rest at a business card. Negative space can be a simple as a thin band of white space around your business cards, or it can be more complex like negative space between your business card and the business card next to it (e.g. business cards placed in an ID holder).
7. Avoid too many colors –
Most business owners will use 3-4 colors for their business cards; however you can choose to use up to 6 colors but make sure that they complement each other well (you don’t want them competing with one another). Also, avoid using gradients on business cards since most business printers do not print gradients well. For more tips go here: Business Card Design Tips Part 2 .
8. Do not use full names –
Unless you are business owner with a very long name, it is best to use your business name on your business card (e.g. Social Media Examiner) instead of using all of your business’s information. This allows you to include more information in the future since this business card can act as an advertisement for your business; however if you need more room for contact details like phone, website URL and email address, you can specify these below your business name (separated by commas).
9. Do not clutter –
Similar to large blocks of text, most business cards look cluttered when there are too many ideas competing for readers’ attention. You want readers to remember what they read from glancing at your business card so avoid business card templates that have too many elements on it.
10. Include a logo –
Many business owners will add their business logos to the front of their business cards, but don’t add your business logo if you can fit all contact details in 1/3 of the business card (e.g. name and website). These way readers’ eyes can easily locate all contact information quickly since they are less likely to look around the business card to find this information which is why business cards should be simple and concise.
Conclusion:
Business cards are small, but business owners still need to put some thought into them since they are used as advertisement for businesses. So business owners should avoid business cards that have business name and business logo only – business owners should also include a tagline, business contact details, business website URL.