Design your way

Business cards can contribute significantly to an efficient marketing plan.

Designing a business card is not difficult and it doesn’t cost too much, which makes it one of the most powerful tools of marketing strategists.

Remember – you cannot place all important information about your company on that card. What you need is an excellent design that will create memorable, professional impression about your work.

Impression – that’s the right word! For many customers, a business card will be the first and most important impression of your activity. Running a well organized business with poorly designed business card is like wearing an elegant suit with a poor briefcase.

How to design a business card – make it cool!

Image source: Mash Creative

Design your business card in a way which will respond to the futuristic requirements of the market.

As we all know, graphic design is developing with a rocket speed, and the updated business card design is the lucrative proof of it.

The best way to decide how to design a business card is to follow the example of big corporations, which employ a professional approach and use cards as opportunities to draw attention to their products/services.

Why should you create your own business cards?

Image source: Badcass

We must admit though, that business card usage had a major drawback in recent years-people decide more and more to use technology and to store contacts in their phones, instead of collecting cards.

Let me give you two reasons to design your business card:

• Business cards reflect your identity. If properly designed, they will certainly draw attention and they will make people remember who you are and which your business branch is.
• Business cards are time savers. As much as a person may like to use his new smart phone, he will not always be able to spend time inserting all of your data in it. Handing a business card will save time (both for you and your potential customer) and it would mean you gave them a carbon-copy of all the information you want them to know.

Make it stylish!

Image source: Bernard Maisner

We could all agree that most business cards are not interesting. Perhaps, it is not their purpose to be so. However, outstanding industries handle this problem quite well, as they employ excellent designers to make their brand stand out.

We are not discussing shiny, overdone and unrealistic cards, but rather something that looks sophisticated and can brag with excellent functionality. The main point is to balance looks and performance in order to create the best business card designs.

A sneak-peak into basics

Image source: Belinda Love Lee

Basic business cards usually contain a plain white/beige background and bold black text.

As simple as it sounds, this approach guarantees utility. It is a great idea for those responding to basic market needs, whose customers could hardly be impressed by fancy looks and excessive information. Go basic if you think that your customers want nothing, but the essential information.

Imagery cards

Sometimes, putting your photo on a business card (or even a caricature, when your business allows it) can be helpful for people to remember you and to recognize your work.

Applying images of photos and services can be even better, as it helps people associate your company with a particular sector and to understand your work even without further explaining. Black and white cards could also use bold color splashes, so that people would understand you’re there to make a difference.

Non standard cards

Image source: Georgi Grancharov

This is a wide-choice area that provides a lot of space to employ creativity. You want to be unique? Pay attention to how the card feels, rather than how it looks. Use non standard materials (wood, cotton) or design some interesting shapes (rounded edges, folds, etc). However, have in mind these cards can be really costly, compared to the normal ones.

Multifunctional cards

Image source: Jukebox Print

Its true-most people will throw the card in some corner and they will not remember to use it when the time comes. That’s why you have to consider multifunctional cards, which promote your brand, but serve another purpose at the same time.

You can provide cards with valuable information (calendars, timetables), discount coupons, or currency lists. Long story short-think about everything your customer may need.

Look at some valuable examples-hotels encourage people to visit them with a location map, while gas stations include a list of all additional services they provide. The more purposeful your card is, the more interesting it will become.

Original cards

Image source: Ryan Romanes

Originality is something everybody desires. Your business card can be the excellent tool, as long as you’re passionate enough to design it properly. You can employ a well thought business card layout with fancy details, extravagant means or rich colors-as long as it keeps up with your budget, there are no restrictions.

Time to create your own business card

Image source: Saint Bernadine Mission Communications Inc.

Before you start, think that your business card is the personalization of your business-it has to reflect the quality of your work; the history of your brand; and it has to tell an interesting story that customers will like.

Basic tips for designing a business card

Think about size

Image source: Ramp Creative

Take a standard format (3.5 x 2 inches) which can easily fit inside the wallet. Making a smaller one (if you wish to include less information) could be a good idea, but including a larger one will hardly make users want to keep it.

Include readable information

It’s not enough to include all the basic information-use fonts and sizes that are readable, and can help potential customers to locate and to contact you.

Find a way to impress customers

Image source: Ghost

Think about it – does your card look as professional and passionate as you are? What would you think if you saw the same card coming from another brand? Is it the real card for your business? Is there something you can do to improve it?

The initial 10 seconds make it or break it. It is the very moment when clients build long-lasting opinions about your work. Sounds ungrateful, but that’s how it is-we’re humans and we judge the book by its cover.

Don’t worry – it is not Mission impossible. There are tricks and tactics to use to create a professional business cards and which can make your card interesting and could even distract customers from flaws you don’t want to be seen.

The W-set: What, Who, Where, Why?

Image source: JWT Brussels

We might be repeating this, but it is very important-the essential factor of a good card is the information it contains. The best way is to pack names, addresses, logos and job titles; and to display them in an understandable manner.

Once again, don’t exaggerate with information-you want to balance between contact data and clear, beautiful appearances. If not sure, stick to the essentials: Name, website, email address, and phone number/s.

Trends don’t necessarily concern you

Image source: Loco Starr Group

There are many trends, pitfalls, and even misconceptions people tend to follow when designing a business card. For instance, you may think that a 3mm bleed, as provided by the printer, is your solution. Don’t do it right away, but check whether it actually suits your style and whether you can do it.

A commonly followed approach is to design cards with sharp borders, in order to avoid misalignment, Guess what? If you did the alignment properly, borders really don’t play a role.

Readability

Image source: ResKate Arts & Crafts

Between too much information and too small typeface, the typeface size is not the thing you should cut. Resist this temptation and exclude information you think is not so essential. Be careful with it-text will look more readable on screen than it does on paper, and you don’t want corrections once it is done. Let’s say that the best option is 8pt.

No borders

If you can, avoid borders completely. They may look stylish and elegant, but they can produce a ‘lop-sided’ effect once they are cut. Most printers have an already established margin for separating your cards, and it might happen that just few millimeters will destroy the visual result you were expecting.

Colors or no colors?

Image source: Jukebox Print

The same as in other design branches, bright colors can be a helpful tool to stand out and to deliver successful messages, Besides, they can make people recognize you and distinct you from all similar providers on the market. However, brave color games are only for those who professionalized in them, and they are the only ones that can create something exiting and original, and not kitschy.

It doesn’t mean, however, that simplicity has no advantages. A powerful black and white contrast can even be more memorable, and it is often perceived as more sophisticated.

More information

That is why you have the back side of your card-write everything you think would be useful for your customer. Put your personal data or social media links, or define precisely your job space.

You’re absolutely free to organize this information however you like. When it comes to content, don’t forget email addresses, phone numbers, websites, etc. You can also use QR codes, to make the web information look good and accessible.

Imagery

An image is worth 1000 words. That’s especially correct when it comes to awesome business cards. Assuming you already included vital information, you can use the other side to apply more visual tools.

It could be a photo of your product, resources, or whatever that is related to your business. If you have a logo, don’t forget to include it. At the end of the day, the important thing is to fill the space, because people are very likely to look at it too.

Hiring professional help

Hiring a professional for designing the coolest business cards is obviously the best choice, but it’s not like all of us could afford it. In fact, with some modest knowledge and big-time motivation, and you could create a personal card on your own.

Double-checking

It’s not just about cards; it is about every paper masterpiece! Check it as many times as you repute necessary, before you send it for printing. You certainly don’t want to notice there was a tying mistake once you’ve printed and delivered it.

How To Create A Brand Image With A Business Card

As you probably know already, the brand is the sum of all experiences with a particular product or service which is building both reputation and future expectations of benefit.

Building your brand as a designer isn’t an easy task and you should be very careful about it because your image and your future income depend on it.

One way of branding yourself is through a business card which isn’t just a calling card, but a snapshot of your brand.

People are aware that business cards tell a story and they are influenced by that story about you and your work. If you do it right, you will transmit the essence of your brand and it can be a sales piece, a mini ad for your services. However, if you fail at creating a good business card, yours will just be one of many that are forgotten or thrown in the garbage.

You should know, if you don’t already, that a memorable card creates a memorable brand. If you are the kind of person who goes at conferences or meets with various people you should have a memorable business card. The people that you are giving cards to already have dozens of them at the end of the day and you have to give them a reason to keep yours or remember you.

Most of the times, during a so called networking session a person will be unable to associate the faces of the people that he met with the business cards he received. Of those many cards, he will remember only a few which are standing out from the crowd.

Developing a great brand

A vital role in how a market perceives your brand is played by the mixture of colors, fonts and style. The visual elements of the brand need to be considered very carefully if you want them to have a positive impact on your potential clients.

The visual element that you should start with is color because it plays a big role in the decision that your potential clients will make. The colors that you choose will resonate and create an association with your brand.

The meaning of colors are generally the same, but they can be radically different in some places of the world, like the Asian countries. If the people that you are giving business cards to are from North America, Europe or Australia, then you should know the meaning of colors for your audience:

• Red: Passion, enthusiasm, energy
• Green: Success, growth, honesty
• Blue: Knowledge, loyalty, intelligence
• Yellow: Wisdom, optimism, joy
• Purple: Luxury, sophistication, nobility
• Orange: Creativity, vibrancy, activity
• Black: Power, authority, seriousness
• White: cleanliness, innocence, simplicity

Another element that is important in building your brand is the font selection. Fonts are important in establishing the brand image and promoting the brand personality. Each font has its unique way of generating an emotion and it is important to choose the right one for your audience.

For example, serif fonts have a serious style and can be used to transmit sophistication and strength. Sans-serif fonts are not perceived as serious as serif ones, but that doesn’t mean that they are frivolous. Instead their image that they are creating is sleek and modern.

There are people that are advocating for script or handwriting fonts and are stating that their usage on business cards delivers an interesting effect, but the truth is that a handwriting font will only make a business card harder to read.

Regular size or something totally different?

The standard size of business cards is 2″ x 3.5″ due to a lot of factors. People are generally conservative about the size of the card, especially because its size is recognizable as of a business card’s. The other reason for this size’s popularity is the lower price than of one’s with a strange shape.

If it is cheaper, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t opt for an ordinary one. On the contrary, you should better pay a little bit more to get a more interesting card. There are modern printing and cutting techniques that can deliver even the weirdest shape that you can think of.

Printing

It won’t come as a shock when I’ll tell you that digital printing is the most common way of printing business card these days, being done with inkjet technology or laser printers.

Besides the digital printing methods, there are also other interesting methods which could deliver a really good results. One way of printing cards is with the help of a letterpress. This can be a little bit expensive, but it creates an insanely beautiful effect that will surely be remembered by a person who is used to seeing a lot of flat cards.

Contact information

You should try making your business card uncluttered. To do this you will have to avoid adding unnecessary details like your address. Nobody cares about that anymore because you won’t receive physical mails and if a meeting would take place, details like the location will be discussed over phone. The necessary fields should be:

• Your name
• Phone number
• Email
• Website

There are people who manage to squeeze fields like twitter username or a slogan, but that is either being done on the back of the business card or by sacrificing the space between the elements.

Business card examples and ideas

A person’s business card can be considered one of the most important marketing tools that he has.

With it, you are giving you contact information to potential clients or existing customers to make them loyal. In order for the business card to do its desired job, it must be professional, attractive and memorable.

This can be certainty if you make sure you follow a set of rules. For starters, your logo must be simple and symbolic to your company’s services and the industry that is associated with. Placing your website and email is a must.

People will be searching for a website where to look for more information about you and your business and also for an email if they want to contact you. If you’re missing these two, you would better keep the cards to yourself, cause handing them to people would be useless.

It is important for your card to be attractive and memorable.

Try to think about the fact that some people receive hundreds of business cards from various individuals and they rarely remember any of them. Making your business card memorable is really important.

Another thing that I’ve noticed people tend to appreciate in business cards is their quality. Your image is reflected by your one of your creative business cards and if you have one with a good paper quality and colors, the first impression of a possible client will be far better than from a regular business card.

You’ll find a lot of interesting business cards examples below. Hopefully, one of these business card design ideas will help you design your own unique piece.

TRUF Creative

imagine: Apple iMac Business Card

Cyla Costa

Sanda Jelicic

Madult (3D Glasses Business Card)

Andrew Barron: Custom Stamp Business Card

Caroline Biosvert

Tiny Twiggette

Flowers by Dolly

Baywood Cinic: Tattoo Removal Business Card

JUKES DESIGN

Paul Johns

dken

Henry Billington

Alexandra Whitter

Mystique

CARVD

Michele Brusasca

Leah VanWettering

Crius Energy

Cinema Candy

Pierre Desmarais

Megacultural

Rodaq

The Black Mongrels

Martina Flor

Ubiquitous

Confiance Garantie Winery (Cork Business Cards)

The Company You Keep

Hello Elo

Daniel B. Marques

Tiko trip

Levin Tahmaz

Culinaria

Eva Hsu

Ana Canedo

Fifth Street

Stainless Steel Business Card

GIR Project Management

Tiffani Ink

Noel Pelavin

KinastDesign

Design For Good

Aluhu Creative

Typography Studio

Look. Listen. Smell. Eat.

Quick response

You & Me

Royal Sweetness

Atelier Pall

Makers Mark

Sfera studios

Mahyar Zaker Jafary

Hendrick Rolandez

Falegnameria Ciprari

Jen Shannon

Rust and Martin Interior Design

Summit Financial

Balsa Wood

The Highbrow

Rhino Studio

Creaam

The Happy Salon

Dane Holmquist

Jessica Scalin

Lucian Bern Hard

Match Point Studio

Nicolas Duprat Photography

Miguel Otero Fuentes

Jerod Squared

Man About Town

The Shayne Co

Robert Teague

TrafficGenie

Burn the Book

I Am Tiago

TAM Cargo

Ayako Okada

Kamygraph

Lure Hair

Joel Felix

Ai Portici

Loose Collective

Sensitive Designs

Vision Center

Blink

Eirik Sorensen

Lea Alcantara

Sassen Design

Garage Junkies Depot

Joel Felix

Beer Table In Brooklyn

Exit

Steven Whitely

Orderin

Rose Crescent

Fufurufo

Ninja BTL

Secret Agent Man

Sharp ideas

Bolt Barbers

Pop Grub

Whitescape

Savviva

Metrio

Nils Gustafsson

Soni Consultants

Translucent Photographer Business Card

Tina Smalcelj

Teaching Shop

Dreamten Studios

Mathias Tanguy

Ana Perez

The Gamut

Black Diamond

New Record

Fizz Coasters

Sonic

Sensus Design Factory

Sapphire Ring Co.

Fox & Rose

Orange

Chad Smith

Mathias Tanguy

Moss Optical

The Number Mill

Telegraph

Lia Martini

Afroditi Jewelry

Pablo Abad

Peter Gaillard

Si Maclennan

Hot Popsicle

Space Invaders

Genius Division

Kthim

Roland Martial

Sylvia Prats

Pinkograf

Zynga

Sean Adams

LEONARDO ZAKOUR

Alan McCormack

Luke Lucas

Laser Creative

New Frontier Group

Object Inc.

IS Creative Studio

Strange But Efficient Business Cards

Most people forget about a person’s business card because in many cases you tend to see a dull, simple and common one.

But there are some people who don’t just make or ask for a creative custom design, but also for a creative shape or something that other people haven’t thought about when making a business card.

These examples of business cards that are out of the ordinary are a sure thing when it comes to business cards because you will definitely remember them and also the person who owns it.

I have never thought in my early designing days that I’ll see good business cards design created from a different material than paper, but I’m happy that I was proven wrong later when I saw cards made of cloth, plastic, metal and even wood.

Out of the ordinary helps a lot for your business in this case and if you are in a creative domain, it will surely earn you some points, proving that you have imagination and a good source of business card design inspiration.

Enjoy the following cool business cards.

Jose Rodriguez

Charleston Naturally

Ed

Pastelz

Butter Label

Karen Tong

Business Card Catapult

TAM Cargo

Deck

Chaput Real Estate

Gehring sales and service

Sergio Nouvel

Francesca Pasini

Francois Laplante

Sack Wear

Veronika Tamchynova

Yuka Suzuki

Solve Design Studio

Depux

Activa Media

Marian Bantjes

Greek Electrician

Nina Gregier

Alex Lopez D.

NB Signs & Designs

Guillaume

Loulou Dreaming

Andrew Sithimorada

Sergio Freitas

Razor’s Edge

Jean Baptiste Gouraud

Green Pac

Cube 3 Club

Studio on Fire

V Communications

Atomic Vibe

Creative Business Card Designs

It’s hard to imagine how difficult it is to create a business card that has an out of the box design, outrageous or not, but memorable at least.

Most of the times designers find themselves very enthusiastic about what they’re working on, but in the end they realize that what they’ve designed is nothing more than ordinary.

Designing an ordinary one isn’t necessarily bad if you stick to some standards, rules and guidelines of designing a business card, but what you want for your client and, especially, what the wants for himself is to have a great business card, not just a regular one.

The client wants a business card that stands out of the crowd and makes his image memorable.

A good step that you could take for assuring that you have the basis for creating an awesome business card design is to read tips, tricks and guidelines from professionals that have been in this industry for a while.

Another good step would be to have in your memory a bundle of great business card ideas and trends that they follow.

Bentply

Color and the Kids

Root + Branch

Boardinker

Square

Eastside Music

Bag Avenue

Yeti Frozen Custard

John Russell

Sasha Pikula

Total Content

Brand Architects

Checkthis

CARVD

Boolab

The High Five

Workspace

Obllique

Chiara Ceccaioni

Rich Brilliant Willing

The Wellgro Co.

Henry Billington

Banjo Music

Attido

Fundamental

Rama Estudio Taller

Ewa Smuga

Milky

Luciano Balzano

PC Med Center

Cinzia Fortuna

The Awful Waffle

Vicente García Morillo

Mission Yoga

Cosmetics and Care

Mind Your Business

Piping Hot

Fat Cow

Gabrielle Blair

Frederic Tourrou

Teddy Bear

Gema Architecture & Interior Design

The New Zealand Cheese School

The Chain Reaction Project

DIncense

Ryan Johnstone Electrical

HUB Collective

Richard Skiermont

Rodaq

Lopes Brenna Architetti

Yellow Duck

Alternate Expressions

Chumpae Bus

DJ Kreme

Ebolaindustries

Bird on a wire

Aluhu Creative

Bayko

Sabrina

MadeBrave

Mais Pilates

USB Memory Direct

Domestic Construction

Patrick Offczorz

Dustin Friesen

Youngha Park

Frank The Tank

Alex Lopez D

Shyama Golden

Frantisek Krivda

Loulou Dreaming

Thirty Dirty Fingers

Artcadia

Ricotta & Parmesan

Alex Thomas

Sergio Freitas

Jean Baptiste Gouraud

Anstudio

Kelli Fox

Razor’s Edge

Geotypografika

Mahyar Zaker Jafary

Koodoz Design

Junpiter Futbol

Pour Elle

Olivier Pineda

Nick Mealey

StockPodium

BizzyIzzy

Hero

Let’s Fox

Web Design Harlow

Carl Åsman

Tatsuya Aoki

DesignNine Media Limited

Activa Media

Ending thoughts

Image source: Studio Giraud

We live in a digital world, where paper cards seem to have lost their importance. However, they’re still in full possession of their functionality and they are the main representations of your business and your brand’s professional identity.

Business cards matter because they create a good/bad first impression and they contribute to the company’s development. Therefore, if you’re different; your company is different; and they way in which you perform your work is different-share this with as many people as you possibly can.

The formality of business cards is a guarantee for reliance and confidentiality. Well-structured and clear information will secure credibility and excellent communication with your customers.

As you see, the best business cards are more than artwork. They are good-looking marketing means which convey information for a purpose. It is up to you to decide whether you can benefit from the opportunity, and to design them according to your goals.

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