Business Card Design
A business card is an important business tool for most people; it is a convenient way to network with potential clients. You will meet a lot of people over the course of your career and having a card to give to everybody that you meet will make sure that they have your information if they ever need to use your company's services. Of course this requires having a well designed business card.
The most important thing when it comes to designing a business card and something that a lot of people overlook, is that the purpose of the card is to convey information. While it is always desirable to have a card that stands out you don't want to do it at the expense of the information on the card. It is critical that your card be easy to read and that it include your name and contact information. It is also important to make sure that it is clear what you do. Most people just put their company name on their card but in many cases that doesn't really explain what your company does. This should be clearly displayed on the card.
Over the last few years adding graphics to your business card has become quite common, in large part because new technology makes it so easy to add them. However just because you can add graphics to your card doesn't necessarily mean that you should. The problem with graphics is that in many cases they take over the whole card and make it hard to read the information on the card. This is something that has to be avoided. In many cases you are better off going without graphics. If you decide that you need them make sure that you keep them simple.
The way that most people these days are trying to make their cards stand out is with the use of color, you will see cards in all sorts of colors these days. This can be effective but you have to make sure that the colors that you choose suit the image that your company is going for. Your business card will reflect the image of your company for a very long time! If you are an accounting firm you likely don't want to have your staff out there handing out bright pink business cards. The other thing to be careful with is to make sure that the use of color doesn't make the card difficult to read. The writing really needs to standout from the background.
A lot of business cards these days are made from materials other than paper. This can be a great way to make your card stand out but it will add significantly to the price. You also want to make sure that the material you use won't make it difficult for the person to whom you give your card to carry it around. That metal card may seem like a good idea until the person you gave it to has to go through security at the airport.