Garmahis

To start with modern business card design, I’d say that business cards are obsolete. The role of paper business cards decreased drastically with the appearance of social networks, and virtual business cards. So business card design should change as well. I don’t know about you but I don’t keep business cards anymore. I use them to add the person I met to LinkedIn or my Google contacts. I want to see the person picture, his background, not just email address or phone number. After I used business cards to put someone in my database it goes straight to the Recycle bin. Is there sense to spend a lot of time on creative design, expensive materials or ways of printing?

I don’t think so. Further I put down some tips based on my own experience for the modern business card design.

1. Business card design should be simple and readable

Business card should not make people puzzled. You obviously don’t want them spend time trying figured out what you wanted to express by using some fancy design. Name, logo of your company and contact information, there should not be any extra elements. If you want to stand out, business card won’t help if you are not stand out yourself.

2. Business card design should NOT evoke negative emotions

Don’t forget: positive impression for one person could mean completely opposite for another. The impact of controversial design could be tremendous. The last thing you need is to evoke negative emotions. The more neutral business card design is the better.

3. Business card design should be NOT expensive

Why invest efforts in the thing which is obsolete? Not expensive business card design does not mean you should by DIY business cards and use your home printer. Most of the time, digital printing on the rather thick paper would be sufficient.

4. Business card should contain up to date and correct information

Nothing could be worse than email, phone number or website address in your business card which doesn’t work. I don’t know about you but it’s either my personal information changes or I want to tweak design. Usually I still have quite a lot of unused business cards when I already needed to print new ones. So save a dime and don’t print too many at once.

5. Don’t pack too much information into business card

The white space rules everywhere, including business card design. If you’re trying to tell the story on your business cards or pack there as many digits as possible believe me it’s not the right vehicle to do so. Does your business partner really need to know 5 phone numbers, 3 emails, 2 faxes plus full address wit postal code? Choose only most important for your communication channels and stick to them.

Want more of this? See these posts:

1. How to avoid mistakes in graphic design business
2. Web design questionnaire: Top 10 questions to ask
3. Why email is still the best way for communication with clients
4. Why avoid RGB to CMYK conversion before print
5. 120 ways to graphic designer self promotion