Anyone can design their own cards and
order them from online printers for the price of a dinner. Not all
business cards are created equal, however. There are a lot of
poorly designed business cards out there! Here are some tips for
designing a professional and aesthetically pleasing looking
business card.
Let's start by looking at a poorly designed business card and see
how it can be fixed.
Misuse of Fonts and Color
Color does grab people's attention, but that doesn't mean that you
should use bright colors all throughout your business card
design. With all the colors vying for attention, there is no
natural focal point. People will tend to glaze over the whole
card and the opportunity to make a good first impression is
lost.
Using different fonts, font colors and font sizes helps emphasize
certain words, but just because you can, doesn't mean you
should. You want your text to be easy to read and to have a
natural flow. In the example above, the text with
wide-ranging styles is scattered all over, forcing the eye to
wander and lose attention.
Also, cheesy clipart is so last century!
This improved version has many of the same elements, but simple
re-positioning and careful choice of fonts makes this business card
easier and more pleasant to read. I used the Print Shop's
opacity tool on the photo to blend it into the textured background
which is one of the graphics found in the program.
Other Important Considerations
- Ensure you provide a bleed as
specified by your printer.
- Avoid using a border around the
entire card, as this will show misalignment in the trim if the card
isn't perfectly cut.
- Don't use low resolution
images. They will print pixelated and make your card look
very unprofessional.
- This is a business card, not a
flyer. Don't be tempted to cram information onto every inch
of space. It would look so crowded that most people won't
bother to read it.
For how-to help on using The Print
Shop, you can post your questions at the Encore Print
Shop forum. (You will need to register in order to post.)
written by lindarobin
