Business Card Design
Make an impression with a professional business card design.
Designing your own business card is time-consuming and difficult. You need to make sure the design is perfect, and you also need to make sure it's printed on the correct material. Don't risk your image with a cheap, amateur design. We create Business Cards that people remember.
When you finalise your logo and branding, it’s time to roll it out. You must ensure you represent your brand whomever you are and wherever you’re working. This means you must ensure your logo design and branding are present in custom business cards and stationery designs.
Your business card design is the physical media that connects you to customers face-to-face. It would be best if you had it to be the best possible iteration of your image, so investing in a professional business card design is essential.
When meeting new contacts, networking or attending conferences, exchanging cards is commonplace.
It’s almost the first thing you do after shaking hands, so you want to be sure your business card design is memorable and recognisable. As well as using it as a mobile calling card, why not use it as a powerful promotional tool?
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Client Testimonial
This was my second time working with Inkbot Design. I was pleased with the results, and the whole process went smoothly. Stuart has a good balance of listening to customers’ opinions and sharing professional views. Worth every penny! Highly recommended.
– Tatu Tamminen (Small Business Owner)
How to Design the Best Business Cards – Tips & Advice
Although we often try to downplay the importance of first impressions to relieve some of the pressure of new situations and encounters, no one can deny that first impressions count.
As a business, you ‘meet’ customers in many ways, such as face-to-face, through social media, your website, or even your business card design. That is why the best business cards should always convey the right message.
Of course, digital business cards with one-click save options are growing in popularity, but it is often said that the traditional business card will never die out. That is because, despite the convenience of online solutions, there’s still something to be said for a physical offering.
The challenge, however, comes in business card design.
How do we know what sort of design works best?
Reports show that 88% of business cards are thrown out within a week. Don’t let yours be one of them.
Use our simple, easy-to-follow tips and advice to make sure your business card makes an impact.
Addressing the Business Card Problem
Many businesses bump into the problem that they realise there’s no right or wrong way to ‘do’ a business card. A business card should be an extension of your organisation — a physical representation of your values, aims, and mission — the type of card that will create the most significant impact and have the most considerable influence over a potential audience is one that fits in your business style. It is often said that there are four very distinct types of successful business cards:
The ‘Business’ Business Card: Typically, a minimalist design gets straight to the point. Works best for Established businesses wanting to show off a professional/authoritative position.
The ‘Break the Ice’ Business Card: Informal, somewhat fun, and a real conversation starter. Works best for new startup enterprises that relate to a young, modern audience.
The ‘Show Off’ Business Card: Used to demonstrate examples of work and highlight skills. Works best for businesses operating in a creative field, such as graphics or photography.
The ‘Design’ Business Card: An unusual and unique design, such as the Lego Minifigure’ cards.’ Works best for companies in highly competitive fields who want to stand out from the crowd.
Despite this variety, and even though there’s no right or wrong when it comes to the style of business cards, there are some unwritten design rules that many successful businesses have chosen to follow.
These rules are typically based on creative design trends and customer analysis and work to ensure that the best business cards achieve their goals, rather than becoming just another statistic.
6 Tips for Designing the Best Business Cards
No matter what style of business card is on the table, the best business cards will usually follow a set of primary design points that can work to encourage recipients to take action while boosting brand visibility:
1 – Make it Convenient
Unless you have chosen a ‘design’ business card, which needs to be unique and genuinely helpful, one of your first considerations should be convenience. An important question is: how easy is it for your audience to receive, handle, and manage your business card and the information on that card?
While unusual shapes, such as star shapes, are memorable, they are not easy to handle, especially for recipients storing cards in traditional business cardholders.
Sometimes, a standard 3.5 x 2-inch business card can be more effective than something ‘different’. If you have chosen to go down a different route, consider other ways in which you can boost the convenience of your business card, such as leaving a blank, uncoated back to allow for note-jotting.
2 – Be Selective
Regardless of the shape of the business card you are going for, one thing remains the same: business cards are pretty small. In many cases, it will be impossible to include all necessary information without producing an over-crowded design and overwhelming your audience.
That is why your next consideration should be about the information you want to include. Finding the right balance between providing enough information to show you are the best solution for your audience’s problems and retaining part of your story to encourage potential customers to reach out and learn more.
In many cases, a business will probably want to include their logo design and company name, name and contact details, and a small snippet of what the company does.
3 – Consider Layout
We all know the importance of a good website layout, but many businesses overlook this when designing their business cards. However, the ‘rules’ of good web design can easily be transferred to business cards, especially regarding where the audience is statistically most likely to look. Which parts of the information are most likely to focus on?
Eye-tracking research has formed ‘gaze plot’ patterns, suggesting that a typical audience will first look for branding elements.
Therefore, it is often said that the best business cards will accentuate these elements, making aspects such as the logo, the business name, and the primary graphic some of the most visible parts of the business card, perhaps larger or bolder than other aspects.
4 – Include Visuals
While the ‘business’ business card style is renowned for its minimal, no-frills design, many organisations choose to include some visual aspect on their business cards. However, this visual does not need to be a primary element.
There is a strong case for including a visual aspect: 90% of information that the brain absorbs is visible, with reports claiming that visual data can improve retention rates by up to 400%, compared to the retention of the textual copy.
This can be hugely beneficial if you operate in a highly competitive market and strive to make your business more memorable.
You can include many types of visual identity on a business card, including examples of your work, pictures of your premises, fun design elements, or even your photo to add a touch of personality.
5 – Add a Call to Action
A call to action is a conventional technique used in content marketing. Using phrases such as sign up today, click here, or get in touch, the idea encourages readers to take action towards conversion in response to what they have just read.
While these phrases do not necessarily have a natural place on business cards, there are ways to add alternative calls to action that better fit the medium while still having the same overall effect.
As a primary example, businesses could use ‘Find out more at…’ and add their web address, boosting traffic to their site. However, with a rise in social media use, platform handles are becoming increasingly common on business cards.
These handles also benefit from directing audiences to networks that facilitate brand interaction.
6 – Make it Memorable
In point 4, we briefly touched upon the idea of adding your photograph to your business card. While not every business will be comfortable adopting such an approach, it is an excellent example of simple ways to make your business card memorable — to make it stand out from the crowd — without resorting to more unusual methods or going overboard.
Businesses in competitive markets, including some crucial elements, could significantly increase their customer base only because you are the organisation that the audience remembers.
It does not have to be a photograph: consider adding bold or vibrant colour, some form of an interactive element, clever or intricate design work, subtle texturing, or a unique font. However, always ensure you are providing an accurate representation of your business.
Think Continuity
While these excellent business card design tips can all help to ensure that your business card has the desired effect, gives off the right message, and helps to build a relationship with your audience, even the best business cards will ultimately fail if there is no continuity evident throughout your business design.
The idea of continuity has been increasingly crucial since businesses started adopting a multichannel approach to interacting and engaging with their audience.
For example, continuity in social media marketing is essential, ensuring that an audience receives a similar experience — and a similar impression of the brand — no matter their social network or platform.
It is the same in business design: every single one of your organisation’s advertising methods should offer the same experience and give off the same message.
That is why it is often recommended that you hire the same graphic designer for your business cards, logo, stationery, etc.