Designing Business Cards

When designing business cards the balance of form and function should be in line with the brand architecture and positioning.

You will see a lot of business cards that are not functional. Some of this is due to over-creativity, the "graphical overload". Some is due to the lack of knowledge of space, scale, and typography. You will see even more business cards that have been given zero thought to the brand's identity. Good business cards balance functionally and the right amount of creativity.

"Not all businesses need the same kind of card. ”

A company brand manual is a great resource for guidelines for type, color, spacing and general do's and don'ts. It should have the approved fonts best suited for your brand requirements, size, x-height, weight, variant, leading and kerning. If you do not have a brand manual for your company, remember, space on a business card is very limited, Before starting the layout design process get a list of all the required individual's information, ie: Name, Title, Contact info, etc.. One big mistake is not leaving room for the "worst-case" scenario.

Example: John Black may have fit fine on the original card design, but now you have a new employee with the name Jonnathon Reedwellington.