Business Card Design

Business cards are the most popular marketing tool of small business, and it's no wonder - they're portable, affordable, versatile and when you hand them out you expect that the people you hand them to will actually use them. Yet more than 90% of business cards wind up in the trash the day they're received.

So how do you make a distinctive, memorable business card that doesn't cost a fortune to print and won't get thrown away?

Business card design is more than just the look of the card, although that's important - it includes the text on the card as well. And to get the most mileage from business cards, you should also design them with marketing and your brand-image in mind.

If people don't say "That's a nice card," then the chances are, it's either not nice at all, or there is just not enough to make them want to look at it again.

To compensate for this many designers started designing oddly shaped cards. This worked well for most. The key was to make sure that it wasn't too much larger than other cards so that it would still fit in a wallet, case, binder, or rolodex.

Now, it's no longer enough to just come up with a neat shape. Cards need to have interesting information, look professionally designed, feel nice - basically have something on them that when handed out in large number at a trade-show or other event, will be noticed in the pile that gets tossed on the desk at the end of the night.