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Your Position: Home - Packaging & Printing - What 3 principles of design are the most important for designing a business card?

What 3 principles of design are the most important for designing a business card?

A business card is more than just your contact details—it’s a visual representation of you and your company. Effective business cards fulfill a number of marketing needs, including brand recognition, advertisement, call to action, and important contact information.

Keep reading to find out how to design a business card that will leave a lasting impression.

How To Make a Great Business Card in 6 Easy Steps

So, what makes a good business card? Everyone has their own opinion when it comes to crafting the perfect card. Lucky for you, we’ve compiled a list of tips and tricks from the leading marketing experts and skilled graphic designers to help you out. Follow these steps to learn how to design a great business card for your company.

  1. Organize Your Information
  2. Choose Your Size and Shape
  3. Decide On A Typeface
  4. Follow Basic Design Principles
  5. Include A Call To Action
  6. Finalize Your Design

1. Organize Your Information

The first step of business card basics is to decide what to include on your business card. The point of a business card is to provide customers with everything they need to know about your business. This includes your name and job title, business name, logo, phone number, physical address, website, email, social media profiles, and more.

You’ll also want to establish the hierarchy of these details. What should be at the top? What should be the largest? What is the most important for your customer to know? Once you have determined which pieces of information you want to feature on your card, it’s time to start designing!

2. Choose Your Size and Shape

How do you want your business card to appear? You’ll need to decide on an orientation: horizontal or vertical. You will also need to choose the shape and size before starting your business card design.

You can’t go wrong with a classic business card. However, if you want to stand out from the competition, you may want to consider experimenting with the shape of your card. Different shapes of business cards include:

  • Standard
  • Square
  • Rounded Corner
  • Square Rounded Corner
  • Folded
  • Circle
  • Oval

In North America, the standard business card size is 3.5 × 2 in. (88.9 × 50.8 mm). This should give you plenty of space to include your business information, contact details, logo, and more. Here are some additional dimensions you’ll want to consider when creating an effective business card design:

Bleed Area: 3.61 × 2.11 in.

When designing your business card, make sure your background color or pattern (if you have one) extends beyond the actual size of the card. This way, you won’t have to worry about getting your cards back from the print shop with white borders or misplaced design elements.

Safe Printing Area: 3.36 × 1.86 in.

Sometimes printers get misaligned, or the print shop cuts your cards slightly off-center. To make sure that nothing gets cut off, try to keep your design within these dimensions. All important text and design elements should remain in the innermost 3.36 × 1.86 in. of your card template.

Business Card Size in Pixels: 1050 × 600 pixels

If you are using a design program or software to create your business card, these pixel measurements will come in handy. Take note that the actual size of the card is 1050 × 600 pixels, the full bleed size is 1083 × 633 pixels, and the safe printing area is 1008 × 558 pixels.

3. Decide On A Typeface

Now it’s time to decide on a typeface! If there’s a specific font incorporated into your website, logo, or other marketing materials, we recommend using that same font on your business card for uniformity purposes. The typeface you choose should represent your brand. If your company is in tech, you should opt for technical, modern fonts. If you’re a writer, consider a serif or typewriter-themed font.

Regardless of the font you choose, it must be easy to read. Never use a font size smaller than 8pt. Additionally, it’s recommended to make your company name and logo at least 12pt, but preferably larger.

4. Follow Basic Design Principles

The most effective business cards follow the basic principles of design. Take into consideration design principles such as emphasis, hierarchy, pattern, white space, and unity. These all work in tandem to create functional, visually appealing designs. Check out our blog to learn how to choose your brand colors.

When it comes to good business card design principles, often less is more. Some of the most effective business card design concepts are the simplest ones. Busy or cluttered designs can overwhelm the eye, so it’s best to focus on simplicity and stray from unnecessary text or graphics.

5. Include A Call To Action

While a call to action (CTA) isn’t a universal business card requirement, it can be helpful when encouraging potential clients to take the next step. Entice customers with a special offer, discount code, social media shoutout, useful tip, or any other incentive that will get them interacting with your business. You can find fun or clever ways to incorporate the CTA into your design or simply place a QR code on the backside of your card and leave the front as-is.

6. Finalize Your Design

The last thing you want is to open a freshly-printed box of new business cards only to discover there’s a typo. One of the most crucial business card design tips is to proofread, proofread, PROOFREAD! Ask a coworker or friend to double-check your card design for spelling errors or anything else that may look a bit off. It never hurts to enlist the help of a second set of eyes! Additionally, double-check and adequately label your final files to avoid any printing confusion.

Once you’re 100% positive that your design is ready to go, send it off to the print shop! Make sure you choose a trusted establishment with experienced professionals who will do your design justice. As we previously discussed, quality is what makes a great business card. Check out these tips for deciding how much to spend on your marketing budget.

Choosing The Right Design Agency For Your Custom Business Cards

Business cards will always be a must-have marketing tool, because nothing beats the first impression of custom branded identity print pieces. Don’t settle for a premade template that thousands of companies are already using—you deserve a design that is unique to your business!

At MARION, our design studio is skilled in digital and conventional mediums to effectively communicate every aspect of your business strategy. We custom design and print business cards on a range of paper stock options and print finishes to grow your brand awareness and satisfy your marketing needs.

Schedule a free consultation today to learn more about our graphic design services in Houston, Texas.

Tags: business card design, business cards, design tips, digital marketing, marketing agency, networking
About Emily Dundee

Emily Dundee is a lover of all things digital marketing. When her eyes aren't glued to a screen, she's most likely eating Tex-Mex or spending quality time with her three small dogs.

Tags: business card agency

Design can seem simple, but when pen hits paper it can be frustrating to visually express the message you’re attempting to illustrate.

While the elements of art are considered the building blocks of design, the principles of design can be seen as the rules. Whether you are an entrepreneur or an aspiring designer, understanding the principles of design will enhance the functionality of your latest graphic design product.

Once you understand all of the design elements, it’s easy to get ambitious and want to include multiple shapes, different colors, or types of lines and fonts. But without the principles of design, you’ll end up with a composition that is disconnected, confusing, and difficult to navigate.

Principles of design

Every design is created with an intended message and audience in mind. By employing these five principles, you’ll be on your way to creating an effective and comprehensible design.

What are the principles of design?

  1. Balance
  2. Alignment
  3. Proximity
  4. Repetition
  5. Contrast

Tip:You can implement these principles using any graphic design software.

Balance

Imagine you’re riding a seesaw –too much weight on one side will send the other person flying up into the air. Elements of art carry weight as well. Although it is visual weight and not actual weight, there is still a similar seesaw effect when a design is not balanced. The overall appeal of a composition relies on how the visual weight is distributed. Similar to a seesaw without balance, the viewer's eye will sway towards one part of the composition, leaving the rest of the piece unseen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Balance can be categorized in three ways – symmetric, asymmetric, and radical. When the elements of a composition are equally balanced then a design is considered symmetric. This kind of balance creates a sense of order and formality within a piece so it is often employed in the designs of institutional architecture art and religious art. Radial balance –a variation of symmetrical –is when elements of a design are arranged equally around one point.

Asymmetrical balance, in contrast, incorporates opposite weights, so that a composition is not necessarily visually equal, but still has symmetry. Asymmetrical designs are typically more interesting visually when compared to symmetrical –hey create movement within a piece by leading the viewer’s eye around the entire composition.

 

Alignment

Although alignment is typically overlooked, without this tool a design would lack a sense of direction, unity, or organization. Alignment simply refers to how elements are placed on a page. Its purpose goes beyond organization, it is vital for enhancing the overall visual appeal of a design or page layout.

Designers take into consideration the way that people naturally scan a page when creating a product. Each type of alignment –left, right, centered, and justified – all differ in how and when you use them. In English-speaking countries, text is generally read from the left to the right, so left alignment is the most common. However, for certain purposes –such as promotional, decorative, or in smaller bodies of text –the other types are strategically utilized.

 

Typically, alignment is applied to two specific design elements: typography and images. Graphic designers attempt to create a balance between the two so that both images and text are visually appealing and have a seamless connection. Through good use of alignment, a composition will appear neat, clean, and readable to an audience.

Proximity

When designers move elements closer together or farther apart, they are employing the principle of proximity. There are two major reasons why a designer would employ proximity: to create connections or deploy them.

When we view elements of design near each other within a composition, we perceive those elements as related. By placing elements away from one another, a designer is able to convey that there is no relationship between them. The relationship between elements creates relevancy, organization, structure, and hierarchy.

Proximity is also relevant when a designer is attempting to communicate a message or achieve some type of outcome, especially within the field of marketing and advertising. For graphic designers, using close proximity is considered a creative branding tactic. As you can see in the Unilever logo the small shapes are laid out very close together making our brains perceive them to be a single image of a "U.”

 

Proximity is especially important within UX design. How a designer chooses to organize elements within a page helps reduce clutter and make the layout more understandable. It also aids in the users' natural progression of a page, since relatable, compatible information is grouped together.

Adding white space to a design is an element of proximity that designers will employ to strengthen groupings as well as differentiate elements from one another. This aids in the creation of focal points, which on most websites, are in the form of call to action (CTA) buttons, such as “sign up” or “learn more.” By isolating the elements of a CTA, a designer is able to guide a viewer to that part of the page and enhance a user’s experience.

Repetition

Repetition is achieved by repeating an element more than once throughout a design. While this may seem simple, designers depend on the principle of repetition to create a feeling of organized movement and consistency within a composition. In any design, you’ll find yourself having to repeat elements, but by doing so, you'll be able to strengthen and unify the visual appeal of a design.

The principle of repetition can also be an important business tactic. The visual elements of a company’s brand identity act as the face for how a company is perceived. Utilizing repetition is not only useful within a singular print, but can also be effective when it is displayed throughout a company’s design portfolio. A strong logo that is repeated throughout social media, business cards, brochures, web design, etc., enhances a consumer’s experience and makes a brand recognizable.

Besides the actual method of repetition, designers typically incorporate repetition through wither, rhythm and patterns. Patterns –the repetition of more than one design element working in unison with each other – are typically seen within physical forms of design such as interior design or architecture, but is also popular for the background of web and app pages. Rhythm refers to space in between elements that are repeated. Designers use the intervals between elements strategically to create a sense of movement for viewers.

 

 

 

 

 

Contrast

People say that opposites attract and this can be true for elements of design as well. Imagine a composition without contrast –every color, font, shape, etc. would be the same size, and that design would be rather dull. Contrast is the tool that makes a design “pop,” making it memorable for viewers.

Contrast also aids in the usability of a composition. A design’s organization is dependent upon how contrast is used to lead a viewer’s eye towards what is most important. For instance, if all the content within a design was the same size, how would your audience know what information is the most significant? Through contrast designers are able to highlight certain elements they want to emphasize, creating a focal point for an audience and a visual hierarchy.

However, working with contrast is not always a simple task for designers. In order for contrast to be an effective principle of design, designers must achieve balance. You'll notice if you start to research examples of strong contrast that successful designs alternate between only one to three elements. Adding too many variations of shape, color, or font can confuse viewers and weaken a designer's intended message.

Using the principles of design

Although these five principles are considered the “rules” of design, there aren’t any strict guidelines on how to use them. This might be daunting for a beginner, but like most experienced designers, you learn to trust your eye.Sometimes, it can be useful to go against the principles of design, as long as the most important information is being communicated effectively.

Take this print ad from Fotolia for instance – by making the text extremely congested, the designer has strategically defied the principle of alignment and balance, and in doing so, they've created a focal point for the advertisement. The contrasting colors and repetitive typography directs the viewer’s eye straight to the brand name, Fotolia – the information most important to communicate.

These five principles – when used effectively – can be a valuable tool for designers. No matter which type of graphic design matches your business's needs, the functionality of design will be enhanced by employing  the principles of design.

Ready to start using these five principles in your own designs? Learn about the best free graphic design software you can download today.

What 3 principles of design are the most important for designing a business card?

5 Principles of Design (+How to Use Them For Your Business)

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