Business cards are a must in representing businesses, big or small. It is for this very reason that such a small piece of paper can demand such attention from all business owners. However, if you're looking into designing your own simple business card, you can do by following these simple steps.
STEP 2:
Practice designing a business card. About.com's business card makeover project can give you ideas on how to spruce up a business card. Take what you learn from other reader's redesigns and incorporate any improvements into your business card design the first time so that you won't need a redesign!
STEP 3:
Write down all the info you want on the business card. Basics include your name; job title; company name; address; email; fax and telephone numbers, including cell; and logo. Optionally, if you have the room, you can also add your slogan and/or a list of services or goods.
STEP 4:
Decide if you want to print a one-sided or two-sided business card. Two-sided business cards are more expensive, but you can include more information that way. The back could have your optional items from Step 3, or you could use the back for useful information, like emergency phone numbers in your area. This useful information will give recipients a reason to keep your business card even if they don't think they need your service or product.
STEP 5:
Sketch out where you want to place the elements listed in Step 3. Your name and logo should be the focus of the business card.
STEP 6:
Find a font that is easy to read, which generally means you should stay away from curly scripts. Even though serif fonts are easier to read at smaller sizes than sans serif fonts, with business cards, you really aren't limited to serif or sans serif. Choose the one that best conveys the personality of your company.
STEP 7:
Choose what color(s) you want your business card to be. It's always a good choice to use a color for the text that is in your logo. Either that, or use black for the text. Gold is classy touch, but it can look a little cheesy unless the font is thin and elegant. Use colors that represent your business. If you run a spa, blue tones would work well because they're relaxing. If you're an aggressive injury lawyer, a red graphic or logo would look good with black text.
STEP 8:
Pick a card stock that matches the tone of your business card design so far.
STEP 9:
Try to include a business aspect into the design. A clever idea for a movie studio or talent agent would be a business card that looks like a ticket stub, as shown here. Another cool idea is the hair and make-up artist's addition of bobby pins to look like hair. A bonus of this technique is that the recipient would keep the card just for the bobby pins if nothing else (remember Step 4? Giving people a reason to keep your business card other that just for your info?).
Tips: To make your name stand out, place it in a differing font from the rest of the info and/or make it bigger.
Everyone is going green and this seems to be a trend that isn't going away. Consider printing your business cards on recycled paper and printing them with vegetable-based inks. Customers and prospects will appreciate what you are doing to help the environment and may hire you based just on this information. PrintPlace offers eco-friendly business cards as does GreenerPrinter.
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