Business cards serve as one of the most important tools for business communication. In order to make the best impression possible, successful professionals need to include a few key elements in every business card design. The following design fundamentals help to ensure that each card conveys the right message to potential investors, clients and business partners. You also need to be careful to balance practicality and beauty.
This really should be a no brainer, make sure to include both the name of the company and the person giving the cards on it. After all there is little point in having contact details if you don’t know who they are for! The individual name is particularly important as it gives recipients a face to associate with the company. It will help if the business name stands out, and for this reason it is often on both sides of the card. After all if you have two sides you might as well use them.
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Design trends in 2011 saw a sharp increase in unique and creative business card styles. While funky and cool elements were high on the list, classy business card designs still reign supreme for those who want an upscale feel.
Classy or Trashy?
In reviewing the most popular traits for a modern and elegant look, the basic principles of traditional design remain unchanged. However, there is a fine line between too much and not enough. Colour and texture were two common areas that can be manipulated, while still maintaining a classical feel.
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Promoting your business can be a tough job especially when you want to stand out from the tight competition. You need to know what kind of marketing tools would be ideal to get your message across to the right people. While promoting can be expensive, there are affordable alternatives like postcard marketing.
Postcard marketing is easy. All you have to do is create an enticing design, have it prepared through high-quality postcard printing, and have them sent to your clients. This way, you can grab their attention and increase the chance of gaining new customers.
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You might not know exactly what a QR code does, but if a client asks for one on their business card it’s time to learn. First, the basics. This is a QR code:
QR stands for ‘quick response’ and that’s a pretty apt description of what it does… Just scan the QR code with a smartphone and half a second later you’ll find yourself sent to a web page with the information you’re looking for.
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It seems like these days more and more designers are trained to design for the web and work on two-dimensional projects only occasionally. Surprisingly, designing for the web and designing for print are very different.
And while there are a number of blog posts and articles around offering tips to print designers looking to move to the web, there’s not any information for web designers moving to print. And with more and more designers being trained in the digital arts, it can be a bit of a challenge when your boss asks you to mock up a poster or a business card. Do you know the fundamental differences between designing for the web and designing for print?
Here are a few considerations for adapting the skills you developed in your web design course to the page:
Control the viewer
People look at web and print in different ways. One of the biggest, most important differences is the way we interact with the design. On the web, the viewer uses their hands to control the experience by clicking and scrolling. On print, the image is usually presented as a whole and the viewer uses their eyes to follow the lines and shapes presented in the image. With print, the graphics control the viewer’s experience whereas with web the viewer is in control.
So what does this mean? Graphics on print need to be more assertive than web design when it comes to telling the viewer where to look. Don’t worry as much about the web design rules you learned about viewers’ expectations (eg. The logo goes in the top left), but pay close attention to the way the image flows and make sure you draw the eye to all the right places: your viewer will need to be guided.
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