Every company needs their own look when it comes to stationary. Whenever you send correspondence to a customer there needs to be a theme which runs throughout the business that will allow them to easily recognise it is from your company before they begin reading. A consistent theme, used over a long period of time creates this effect and gives customers a sense of assurance because they feel that the company is stable and professional.
Form Factor
The standard size for business cards is 90mm by 55mm; this allows them to easily fit into any wallet. A less well established convention is the order that contact information is displayed in. Generally the company name will carry the largest font, followed by the postal address, then telephone number and other contact information.
Contrast
When you make your own business cards there are a few reasons the contrast between the text and the background should be as extreme as possible. Firstly making sure that the text colour is completely different to the background will ensure that the text is easily read by people but also, if the business card is scanned and run through OCR (optical character recognition) software a definite contrast between lettering and decoration will make it easier for computers to read as well. Generally either using back text on a white background or vice versa is ideal. If you wish to use another type of colouring try to make the text a very light or dark shade of the colour you want to use and juxtapose it with the opposite kind of background.
Function vs. Aesthetics
It is worth keeping in mind that the primary purpose of a business card is to make your companies contact details available to people you want to contact you. This is why the text should not overlap the background or design. If it does, you may want to apply a gradient to the background to make a higher contrast at the point the text overlaps. Alternatively an outline or surrounding box around the text will help keep your contact information visible. The overall image of your business will also help you decide how much to embellish your business card. A cleaner look will put across a more professional image while creative companies may want to make more of an impact.
Theme
If you have already commissioned some sort of design for a logo or other stationary, it may be worth making your business card a continuation of that. If you have not yet used any kind of design for your stationary it is certainly worth making it continue as a theme throughout any other stationary. If you are able to send HTML emails (as opposed to plain text) you may also want to use the same artwork to decorate them as well. This is the best way to start turning your company into a brand in terms of time to impression, which is virtually instant and cost effectiveness.
Printing
Choosing a method of printing business cards is largely down to the number of cards you need. If you only require a small number on this occasion you may want to print them using a standard USB printer but keep in mind the thickness of the card going through the printer, is the printer capable? Then consider the quality, banding and imperfections will render that batch of cards useless. If you do decide to print your own business cards remember to make printing more as easy as possible.
You may have come across stand alone machines which print business cards. These machines are capable of consistently printing thousands of business cards at a time however you may find them restrictive in terms of design.
Printing companies will be able to supply you with a greater choice of templates (should you need them), paper types and printing methods. All you need to do is make sure that the number of business cards you are likely to need make using them cost effective.
However you decide to make your own business cards, these considerations should help make the right impression.
Design business cards online, graphically, with PrintMonster.
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