Steps to follow when preparing to design business cards

Businesses use digital means of communication to connect with consumers easily and quickly and even continue to stay in touch regularly. However, they still face to face meetings are essential for developing long-term business relationships.

Meeting the company representative across the table makes the interaction more authentic. The business card allows potential customers to evaluate the company to decide about entering into a business relationship. The business card is like a thumbnail impression of the company that opens up new opportunities for exploring the company through close interactions.

Business cards are the most cost-effective way of advertising your business that supports branding efforts in a great way.  Designing business cards needs some deep thinking about describing your business within the small space of 3.5″x2″, which is the standard size of wholesale business cards, most impressively to enhance brand recognition and generate more customer leads.

In this article, we will discuss the most critical elements to consider when designing business cards.

Design theme

To enable the business card to depict your business, choose a theme for the card design so that there is a common unifying element in the design that paints a picture of the business.  The business card must match with the business as well as the occupation if used by professionals.

For example, a florist must choose a card design with a theme with certain elements to describe or hint at the kind of business it relates to.  Minimalist designs with flat tones can be the kind of theme that goes well with this type of business.

However, choosing a flashy theme composed of a neon color scheme might not work well for a florist’s dainty and soft products.  To create the theme for the business card, it is enough to choose one design element of the color palette.

Paper type and size

The paper size is an essential aspect of business cards that impact the design. Selecting the paper size and its type serves as the canvas for creating a more impactful design with unified looks. Nowadays, people are exploring non-conventional card sizes beyond the standard 3.5″x2″ business cards.

People are trying out other shapes of business cards like hexagonal, square, and even circular or round business cards. Choose the paper type from the available card stock, matte, glossy, kraft, linen, and other premium paper options.  The paper type and size should help uphold your brand identity in the best way while staying within the budget.

Bleed

When designing the business card, keep in mind the bleeding area of the portion of the printed area on the card that would be cut off.  The edge of the card that may contain some design would be trimmed when finishing the card to give an identical look to all the cards.

Creating a bleed design area on the card template will provide you with an idea about the usable space of the card for creating the design by placing the design elements within the boundary so that there are no issues with the final design of the card.

Budget

Since business cards are not part of the printed office stationery but more of advertising materials, you must provide the expenses within the overall marketing budget. Considering that business cards are low-cost advertising, you can include them within the advertising budget but with a separate head.

The budget will influence card type and the design because all kinds of cards might not suit all designs.  Your budget should allow you to create the most befitting business card that advances your business prospects.

Printing methods

After choosing the type of card and its size, and the card design that you feel would be most suited to present your business in the best light, think about the printing method that can help recreate the design most beautifully on the card.

Ask your printer about the options of printing the selected card that would ensure the best quality and make the design look most vibrant. The printing method is critical because the same printing method does not work well for different card types.

There are various printing techniques to create the most attractive card design, from offset printing to digital printing. It further helps to add more to the design by choosing embossing, lamination, foiled, varnished, and other finishing techniques. Awareness about the printing techniques makes designing business cards easier.

Choosing color modes

The printing methods choose either the RGB or CMYK color modes depending on the print media.  Red, Green, and Blue are the chosen color mode for desktops, cameras, and TVs. Professional printers use the CMYK color mode, which stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key, or black.

Knowing how the color modes work should help decide which colors would produce the best effects for your business card.

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