Stationery Design Services
Professional Stationery Design Services That Elevate Your Brand
From business cards to letterheads, our expert stationery design and branding solutions help UK businesses make a lasting impression with beautifully crafted, on-brand stationery that reflects your company's professionalism and values.
Professional stationery design and branding that makes your business stand out.
Inkbot Design offers comprehensive stationery design and stationery branding services tailored to your business needs.
Our expert team specialises in creating cohesive brand identities through beautifully designed stationery that reflects your company's professionalism and values.
With our deep understanding of design for print techniques and premium paper stock, we deliver print-ready business stationery that's perfectly optimised for production.
Whether you're printing locally or working with your preferred print company, our files are designed to save you money on postage and shipping costs while ensuring exceptional quality results.
We follow international print standards and deliver files in exactly the format you need, because stationery dimensions and specifications vary significantly across different markets.
Our stationery branding expertise ensures every piece, from business cards to letterheads, works together to create a unified, memorable brand experience for your customers.
Ready to elevate your business image with professional stationery design that gets results?
Request a Quote for Stationery Design
What Is Business Stationery?
Business stationery isn't just “paper with your logo on it.” It's a system of tangible brand assets. A physical uniform for your company's communications.
The Non-Negotiable Core
For almost any serious business, a few pieces are essential. Get these right first.
- Business Cards: The obvious one. A pocket-sized introduction.
- Letterheads: For any official correspondence, from contracts to welcome letters.
- Compliment Slips: For adding a brief, personal note to something you’re sending out.
- Branded Envelopes: The first thing they see. An unbranded envelope is a missed opportunity.
The ‘Context is Everything’ Extras
Beyond the core, other items might be useful depending on your business model.
- Branded Presentation Folders: Essential if you’re handing out packets of documents.
- Appointment Cards: If you run a service-based business with bookings.
- Branded Notepads: Can be a nice client giveaway or useful for internal meetings.
The Fluff: Where Money Goes to Die
Then there's the tat. The branded stress balls, the cheap plastic pens, the mouse mats.
Unless you have a very specific, clever marketing angle, most of this stuff is landfill in waiting. It cheapens your brand more often than it builds it. Focus your budget on making the core items exceptional, not on producing mountains of junk.
The One Thing You Can't Fix Later: Your Foundation
You can reprint a business card. You can change your paper stock. But if your core brand identity is flawed, you're just putting lipstick on a pig.
Your stationery design doesn’t start with picking paper. It starts with the building blocks of your brand.
It All Starts and Ends with Your Logo
Here’s a hard truth: a bad logo on a £5-a-sheet, gold-foiled, triple-thick card is still a bad logo. It’s actually worse, because you’ve spent good money to draw attention to how poor it is.
Your logo is the heart of your visual identity. It must be professional, and it absolutely must be versatile. Can it be reproduced in a single colour and still be recognisable? Does it work at a tiny size on the corner of an envelope and at a huge size on a banner?
If the answer is no, you have a logo problem, not a stationery problem.
This is why getting the core logo design right is non-negotiable. It’s the single most important investment, and it underpins everything else you do. Fix this first.
Your Colour Palette Isn't a Vague Suggestion
Brand consistency is how you build recognition and trust. Seeing slightly different shades of your brand’s blue across different items is jarring. It feels unprofessional.
Your stationery will be printed. That means your colours need to be defined in CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) – the four-colour process used in printing. Your website uses HEX or RGB (Red, Green, Blue). They are not the same.
A good designer will provide you with the exact CMYK values for your brand colours. Use them. Every single time.
And don't go mad. A strong brand rarely needs more than two or three core colours. Simplicity is confidence.
Typography That People Can Actually Read
Fancy, elaborate fonts have their place. And that place is very rarely on a business card or a letterhead.
The primary job of your stationery is to communicate information clearly. Legibility trumps quirky creativity every single time.
Establish a simple typographic hierarchy:
- One font for headlines (your name on a business card).
- One font for body copy (the address, the details).
They can be different weights of the same font family or two complementary fonts. That’s it. Keep it clean.
A Practical Look at the Key Pieces
Theory is one thing. Execution is another. Let’s get practical.
The Business Card: Your Tiny Billboard
The business card is not a miniature brochure. Its purpose is to exchange contact information quickly and effectively.
I have a pet peeve about this. I was once handed a card by a marketing consultant. It had their name, phone, email, website, X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, and a QR code. My eyes glazed over. I couldn't find the email address in the sea of icons. The card was a failure.
Here’s the rub: White space is your most valuable tool.
A great business card needs only this:
- Your Logo
- Your Name
- Your Title
- Your Company Name
- One Phone Number
- One Email Address
- Your Website URL
That’s it. That’s the lot. All this information should be presented clearly and cleanly. Anything else is noise.
The Letterhead: Your Official Voice
A letterhead frames your most important communications. Its design should be professional and understated. The content of the letter is the hero; the design is the supporting act.
Your logo and contact information should be present but not overbearing. Top of the page is traditional, but a design that places it at the bottom or side can also work, as long as it's out of the way of the main content.
A crucial point people miss: test how it looks as a PDF. More and more “letters” are sent as email attachments. Does your design translate well to the screen? Does the file size remain manageable?
The Compliment Slip: The Handshake on Paper
The compliment slip has one job: to make a generic mailing feel personal. It exists to carry a short, handwritten note. “Thanks for this,” “Here’s that document you asked for,” “Great to meet you.”
The design should be minimal. Your logo, “With Compliments,” and basic contact details. Don't clutter it. Its power is in its simplicity and the personal touch it enables.
Paper and Finish: Where Good Intentions Go Bad
Once the design is solid, you choose your materials. This is where people either smartly elevate their brand or make it look tacky.
Understanding Paper (The Simple Version)
You’ll hear printers talk about GSM, or ‘Grams per Square Metre’.
It’s just a measure of weight and thickness. Standard office paper is about 80-100 gsm. A decent business card starts around 350 gsm. Heavier paper generally feels more substantial and premium. It’s that simple.
You’ll also choose between finishes:
- Uncoated: Natural, slightly textured feel. Absorbs ink. Great for a rustic, organic, or seriously corporate look. Easy to write on.
- Matte: A smooth, non-shiny coated finish. Makes colours look crisp. Professional and modern.
- Gloss: Shiny, reflective coating. Makes colours pop. It can look a bit cheap if not used carefully. Often used for flyers and photos.
Choose the finish that matches your brand’s personality, not what’s on offer. An eco-friendly food company should probably use uncoated, recycled stock. A high-tech startup might lean towards a matte finish.
A Word on Special Finishes
Foil stamping, embossing (a raised effect), and die-cutting (custom shapes) can add a “wow” factor. But they can also scream, “I have poor taste.”
Here's the rule: use a special finish to highlight one specific thing, like your logo. Don't foil your name, emboss your logo, and die-cut the card into the shape of a van. It’s desperate.
These techniques are seasoning. A light sprinkle can enhance the flavour. Too much ruins the dish. Ask yourself: Does this serve the brand, or is it just a gimmick?
The Sustainability Question
Choosing recycled paper stock isn't just for “eco brands” anymore. It's a signal of conscientiousness. Given the choice, using a high-quality recycled paper can be a subtle but powerful statement about your company's values. Many modern recycled papers have a premium feel and excellent print quality.
Blunders That Scream ‘Amateur Hour’
It’s often easier to spot what’s wrong than what’s right. Avoid these common mistakes.
- Inconsistent Branding: The colours on your card are different from your letterhead. The logo is stretched on the envelope. This is the cardinal sin. It makes your entire operation look sloppy.
- The Obvious DIY Job: Using a free online template that 10,000 other businesses are also using. Investing in professional design is investing in differentiation.
- The Pointless QR Code: My favourite thing to hate. If you use a QR code, it must lead to something specific and valuable. A portfolio, a booking page, a special offer. If it just goes to your website’s homepage, you’ve wasted precious space that could have been used for, you know, reading your web address.
- Cheap Printing: You can have the best design in the world. If you get it printed on flimsy paper where the colours are muddy and the edges are fuzzy, you’ve wasted your money. Good printing brings good design to life.
- Forgetting Function: A business card with dark grey text on a black background might look “cool” in a design file, but it’s useless in the real world. You must be able to read it.
Building a Cohesive Stationery System
Think of your stationery not as individual items, but as a family. They need to look like they belong together. They share the same DNA: the same logo, colours, fonts, and general layout principles.
A simple one-page brand style guide can be your best friend here. It specifies your colours (CMYK values), your fonts, and rules for logo usage. It’s the blueprint that ensures consistency for you, your staff, and any printer you use.
When your physical stationery perfectly matches the branding on your website and your social profiles, you create a seamless brand experience. This builds trust. It shows you are organised, professional, and in control of your image.
It’s a Tool, Not an Ornament
Let's circle back.
Your business stationery is not an afterthought. It’s not something to be ticked off a list with the cheapest template you can find.
It’s a powerful, tangible tool for communication. It’s a physical manifestation of your brand’s promise. When you hand someone your business card, you are handing them a small piece of your company. It should be considered. It should feel professional. It should feel like you.
Getting it right shows attention to detail. And in business, the details are everything.
If you’re realising your brand’s foundation isn't as solid as it should be, that's a problem worth solving. For direct, professional input on building a brand that works everywhere, from a screen to a business card, you can request a quote here.
For more brutally honest observations on branding and design, you’ll find plenty more on our blog.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does professional stationery design actually cost?
Look, here's the thing—most businesses spend more on coffee each month than they do on stationery design that represents their company for years. Our packages start from £400, and when you consider that good design can close deals and attract better clients, it pays for itself with just one new customer. Cheap design costs you money in the long run because it makes you look unprofessional.
Why can't I just use Canva or design it myself?
You absolutely can. Just like you can cut your own hair or represent yourself in court. But here's what happens: you spend 20 hours creating something that looks “fine” instead of spending those 20 hours making money in your business. Meanwhile, your stationery screams “amateur” to potential clients. We've seen businesses lose £50,000 contracts because their business cards looked like they were made in PowerPoint.
How long does stationery design and branding actually take?
Typically 7-14 days from brief to final files. But here's the real question: how long have you been putting this off? Every day you delay is another day you're handing prospects business cards that don't represent the quality of your work. We can rush projects in 3-5 days if needed, but planning ahead gets you better results.
What exactly do I get for my money?
Everything you need to print professionally: business cards, letterheads, compliment slips, and any additional pieces you require. All files come print-ready in multiple formats (PDF, AI, EPS), with CMYK colour specifications, bleed areas, and crop marks. Plus, brand guidelines so you never have to guess how to use your design properly.
Do you handle the printing as well?
No, and here's why that's brilliant for you: we design files that work with any professional printer. This means you can shop around for the best prices, use local suppliers, or even print in-house. You're not locked into our printing costs forever. We give you the freedom to save money whilst maintaining quality.
How many revisions do I get?
Three rounds of revisions are included because frankly, that's enough to get it right if we're both doing our jobs properly. The first draft captures 80% of what you want; revisions fine-tune the rest. If you need more than three rounds, you probably didn't give us a clear brief, and we'll help you fix that upfront.
Will my stationery work internationally?
Yes. We design to international print standards because your business might expand beyond the UK. American business cards are different sizes, European letterheads have different margins—we handle all of this so you don't have to redesign everything when you grow.
What if I don't have a logo or brand colours yet?
Perfect. Stationery design is actually the ideal place to establish your brand identity because these pieces need to work together anyway. We'll create a cohesive brand system that extends beyond just stationery, saving you from the nightmare of mismatched branding later.
Can you match my existing brand exactly?
Absolutely, but sometimes we'll suggest improvements. If your current brand colours don't print well or your logo doesn't work at business card size, we'll tell you. Our job is to make you look professional, not to blindly copy something that doesn't work.
Why should I invest in professional stationery when everything's digital now?
Because the businesses thriving today understand that standing out requires going where others aren't. When everyone's hiding behind email and LinkedIn messages, handing someone a beautifully designed business card makes you memorable. Physical stationery still closes deals, especially in property, legal, and consulting sectors.
What information do you need from me to get started?
Your logo (if you have one), brand colours, content for each piece, and examples of stationery you love or hate. Most importantly, tell us about your ideal client and what impression you want to make. We're not just designing pretty pictures—we're creating tools that help you win business.
What happens if I'm not happy with the final design?
Here's our guarantee: if we haven't nailed your stationery design after three rounds of revisions, we'll refund your deposit and part ways professionally. But in five years of business, this has happened exactly once—and that was because the client changed their entire business model mid-project.
