A business card is an excellent tool to create a great first impression. It’s also quite useful when establishing an initial form of communication with a person or company. They also serve as a token or memento by which someone can be remembered more easily. Throughout this article, we’ll learn more about business card design.
Basic Business Card Design
Classic Business Card Design
Business cards, at their most basic, are made of different types of card or paper. They feature basic information about an individual: the person’s name, the company the person works with (if there is one), contact information (street address, telephones, emails, websites). Note that these are only the very basic details. Some cards may require more information and others much less.
New Business Card Design
These days there are a lot of things that can be created in business card design. It all depends on the needs of the client and on the skills of the designer. There are new alternatives to use as business cards, including things like: CD’s, DVD’s, USB’s, and much more.
These types of cards will really depend on the industry. It’s not unusual for actors and models, for example, to use comp cards to serve as business cards. Comp cards are essentially the latest and best in their portfolio. Alternatively, they may choose to use their whole reel as a business card, presenting it in some nifty way, like a cool USB or mini-CD.
The Principles of Business Card Design
A business card ultimately tells a story. These are some pointers to consider in business card design to make it as strong as possible.
Purpose
When designing business cards, it’s important to consider the purpose of the card. This will direct the design and serve to craft the concept. What do you need the cards for? Do you want to highlight your company or perhaps present yourself as a professional?
Consider, for instance, a business card design for someone who’s looking for employment, or changing careers. Surely such a card would highlight the individual. The person’s information would be of extreme importance but space should also be allocated to briefly show some of their qualifications.
In the case of someone who is trying to showcase a brand or company, the focus of the business card could go elsewhere. Imagine a startup company. Surely its logo would be prominently featured in the business card; in such a case it’s perhaps the company itself rather than the professional behind it which would be focused on.
There will also be situations where the purpose of the business card design will be to quite simply make a splash. These cards will often be used in more artistic fields and related fields such as advertising. In such cases, the focus may not necessarily be on the person or even the company. Perhaps the purpose of these cards could be to showcase ability or talent. If the business card is meant for the ad world, for instance, its purpose could very well be to showcase creativity above everything else.
Materials and Execution
Eventually, it’s to time to execute and create the business card designs we come up with. Different materials can be used, depending on what we want. It’s important to remember that the material chosen should be congruent with the purpose and theme which we’ve already chosen. Some people create business cards in all sorts of materials such as plastic, wood, or metal.
Layout
Remember that designing a business card is, after all, based on graphic design. This means that it’s important to take into account the basics of graphic design and respect the basic parameters. This includes things such as: maintaining the design within a sensible distance from the edge, working with great image resolution, avoiding lettering which is too small and can’t properly be read, etc. When all is said and done, the color palette and logos will usually be definitive and extremely important.
Troubleshooting
There are some common errors when attempting business card design. Here are some of the most common.
Keep it pithy!
Some business cards are encumbered by excessive text. When crafting the text that’s actually going on the card, it’s important to keep things simple. Good writing will be essential to make the card really stand out. Part of this is writing the most powerful copy possible in the least amount of words. This recommendation goes for the data and info we include, as well as the slogans used.
Cutting Costs
Although it’s important to invest in great business card design, there will be times when we may be working on a budget. In this case, there are things that can be done to decrease cost. First of all, colors will usually be pricier to print. Limit business card design to one or two colors. Using only black will also be ideal. In fact, it’s usually better to create business card designs with limited colors than to purchase cheap materials.
Note also that using a smaller size than the standard business card, is also possible. Such a smaller size doesn’t need to impinge on great design. It’s possible to create a nifty little card that features outstanding design and which will be remembered. Sometimes the smaller size may play along with the theme and purpose of the card, to begin with.
Make it Tactile!
Sometimes, in spite of our efforts to achieve great business card design, things don’t seem to work. Perhaps what’s missing from the card is a tactile experience. There are different ways to achieve this. The use of special finishes is one of them. These may include foil blocking, spot UV, metallic inks, and others. Although these are evidently costlier methods, they do add a special ‘x-factor’ to the business cards, making them memorable and capturing the attention of those who receive them. This is particularly important if someone plans to hand out their business card at a busy event. Imagine a networking event for a particular industry, where people will be handing out and receiving tremendous amounts of business cards. A memorable card will probably help out. Another option here is to use the die-cut process. This essentially carves the card, inscribing logos or copy.
Make It Useful!
Sometimes, and depending on the campaign, business cards may be thrown away by those who receive them. A great way to maintain people’s attention is to make the business card useful in some way. Imagine a business card that has a magnet and can be placed on the fridge. Imagine one which comes in the form of a bottle opener.
Call to Action
Ultimately, a business card wants to incite action in the person who receives it. There are times when business card design is too convoluted and people don’t know exactly what the business card wants. Is it simply marketing? An advertisement of some kind? In certain cases, a call to action may be as simple as directing recipients of the card to some website, for example.
Printing Trouble
Sometimes a business card may be well designed but still underperform. The reason may be that the printing is not up to scratch. Remember that business card design will not be the whole process. After acquiring great design it’s time to create the physical cards themselves. A first-rate printing process is necessary to live up to the potential of the design.
Examples and Ideas for Business Card Design
Business cards are an important tool. They can create powerful first impressions and establish the first steps of a business relationship. Remember the exchange between Patrick Bateman and his associates:
BATEMAN
New card. What do you think?
McDermott lifts it up and examines the lettering carefully.
McDERMOTT
Whoa. Very nice. Take a look.
He hands it to Van Patten.
BATEMAN
Picked them up from the printers yesterday
VAN PATTEN
Good coloring.
BATEMAN
That’s bone. And the lettering is something called
Silian Rail.
McDERMOTT
(Envious)
Silian Rail?
VAN PATTEN
It is very cool, Bateman. But that’s nothing.
He pulls a card out of his wallet and slaps it on the
table.
VAN PATTEN
Look at this.
They all lean forward to inspect it.
PRICE
That’s really nice.
Bateman clenches his fists beneath the table, trying to
control his anxiety.
VAN PATTEN
Eggshell with Romalian type.
(Turning to Bateman)
What do you think?
BATEMAN
(Barely able to breathe, his voice a croak)
Nice.
The passage from ‘American Psycho’ is surely funny. It’s also illustrative of the use of business cards. In the case of Patrick Bateman’s industry, these types of serious cards would work best. This is not always the design we want though. Consider the following possibilities, for different industries.
Graphic Designer or Web Designer
Let’s imagine business card design for a graphic designer. Perhaps a card that features pleasing geometric design with vivid colors would do the trick. This card may also center on the person as such since they’ll probably be a freelancer.
Shipping Company
Now imagine that we need a business card for several employees in a shipping company. Several things could take place here. First of all, since it’s a large shipping company, we may want to emphasize the logo and company colors. In fact, they may very well take precedence over the particular details of the employee or executive. Although these personal details must be there, they may not be as prominent as the company colors and logo.
Create your Business Card Design!
The Bunny Studio Way
Bunny Studio is able to design business cards, from start to finish. The process is quite simple. Just go to the Bunny Studio website. After that, the easiest way to acquire a first-rate business card design is to simply click on the ‘Contact Us’ button. Our staff will be ready to assist you. So give us a try and acquire amazing business card designs!
