Most business cards are pretty simple: little white rectangles of card with the organisation’s contact details on them. These are easy and cheap to produce thanks to digital print companies who will do it for you online, but they risk looking the same as everyone else’s. If you do go down this route, make sure you opt for something high-quality: heavier card stock than most (start at 400 gsm), good quality print and a decent finish. This will make your cards look and feel more professional than the competition.

Getting creative

If you’re not satisfied with this approach and want something a little bit more special, then think carefully about what you’re looking to communicate. Business cards are part of your branding, the image you project to potential customers. For this reason, it’s good to make sure the design of the card fits with your wider branding, to achieve consistency – you don’t want it to stand out as odd or awkward against your other promotional material.

The good news is that there is almost infinite variation in what you can opt for. Business cards are getting more and more creative, with some really innovative and eye-catching designs around. It shouldn’t take long to pull some ideas together – just search on the internet and you’ll be amazed at what other people are doing. You will find that business cards now come in all colours, shapes, finishes, and even materials. Some are quirky, some are clever, others are useful in themselves and serve an additional purpose to providing contact details. 

Some guidelines

The best of these cards do at least two additional things, aside from giving away contact details. They tell the person who receives them something about the business, and they give a sense of your flair and creativity. The more intriguing and unusual examples might be best suited to the creative industries, where showing your ability is such an intrinsic part of gaining new clients – handing over a card that demonstrates this almost wins the battle without having to show them a portfolio.

However, care should be taken by anyone looking to go down this route. Make sure that the card’s design is linked to your business in order to give a strong message to the customer. For example, one personal trainer’s ‘card’ was actually a piece of stretchy rubber, like an exercise band. When pulled, his name and contact details were revealed. This clever idea only makes sense because of the exercise equipment connection. For a lawyer or garden designer, it would come across as arbitrary and odd. There are some beautiful metallic-finish cards that work well for engineers and technical industries, but again, these can give a strange impression in other situations. The whole point is that the design should reinforce your branding – not just be an eccentricity or a curiosity for the sake of it.

Some ideas

Think carefully about what sector you are in, what your business offers, and what your unique selling point (USP) is. Is it expertise, is it excellent customer service? What is the message that you want to convey with your card? Are there any materials you characteristically deal in, such that the ‘card’ would constitute a sample or taste of your work – whether fabric, metal, wood, or more unusual objects (there are some excellent circuit-board and SIM-card style cards out there)? Are there typical tools or objects of your trade that are relevant – luggage tags, playing cards and even seed packets have been used. Just keep it relevant.

Conclusion

The sky is the limit when you’re designing your own business card. Make sure that the design adds something to your message and is in keeping with your branding. That way, people will both have a note of your contact details and a tangible example of what you can do – a winning combination.

This article was supplied by printed.com, digital printing supplier and an accredited member of the Direct Marketing Association.