A guide to effective busines card design

A good card begins with a good logo. Ideally a logo should be simple in design, related to the company or product and easily identified so it is not confused with other companies and products.

One thing to watch for in logo design is to make it so it can easily be enlarged or reduced in size. This will save you big bucks re-doing it various ways for use on everything from cards or small ads to banners. One or two colors are best. One of those 'colors' should be black because it's presence tends to sharpen the entire logo for easy identification and focusing...besides it'll save on color washups when printed since black is considered a basic standard.

As for card design, be inventive but not confusing. Be careful what you put in the middle of the card because that is where people look first. Arrangement need not be symetrical but it should be logical. No partial address at the top and the rest at the bottom, for instance.

Beware of having numbers too small to be easily read...especially the telephone or cell phone numbers. Stick to clear, clean, easy to read fonts without excess hooks and curves. On a card, clarity is essential!

Consider using a colored background card because they tend to stand out in a card file and are often viewed first.

Avoid rounded corners. Why? Because when people are thumbing through Rollodex listings, they often do it by the corner of the cards and rounded corners make it easy for it to be overlooked or stuck between two square cornered cards.

Hope this is helpful.

Sandi Bowman