5 Rules for a Winning Business Card Design

Your business card is more than a handy way for people to remember your telephone number. It is a reflection of your company brand that your customers can hold in their hands and carry with them.

At times, it is the first thing that they see. For these reasons and more, it is important to have a business card that is the very best it can be.

Here are five things to think about when choosing a business card design.

1. Work with a professional. While there are many ‘do it yourself’ business card companies offering cheap printing, cheap and easy is not always the best option. It is easy enough to spot one of these business cards, and they say nothing good about your business. Work with a professional designer, ideally the one who is designing your logo and the rest of your letterhead, and get the first impression that your business deserves.
2. Choose information carefully. You don’t want your business card to be too crowded, but you need to include important information about your business. This means your logo, your business name (if it is not already included in your logo), and pertinent contact information. Exactly which contact information to include depends on your business; your phone number and email address are a given, and you may want to include a fax number, a physical address, and a website address if these are likely to be important to the people who receive your card. However, there should not be so much information that you break the next rule.
3. Conserve white space. What isn’t on your business card is just as important as what is on it. White space is crucial to the readability of your card as well as to your brand. White space makes a business card attractive, and if it is used effectively it will affect which parts of your card are read first.
4. Keep it simple. Although you may be tempted to go creative on your business card design—it’s a branding tool, after all—you should resist the urge to be too unconventional. Keep your type in moderate size and arrange elements so that they are easy to read. While unusual business card shapes may sound like an original idea, the shape of most business card holders makes this an impractical idea. The same goes for printing on the back of business cards—in most cases, it will never be seen. In most cases, staying with a traditional 3 ½ by 2-inch size and a standard format is the best idea. However, you should listen first and foremost to your graphic designer on this issue.
5. Buy high-quality printing. Once you have invested in a business card design that works, don’t sell yourself short by ruining it with subpar printing. Invest in a high-quality print job on quality cardstock. This will not ensure that your cards withstand the test of time in pockets, wallets, desk drawers, and all of the other places that business cards seem to end up, it will help make your brand synonymous with quality and value.