Five Tips for Creating a Great Business Card for Your Company

The following is an excerpt from an article we recently published at ArticlesBase:

Some business cards look great while others definitely give an amateur appearance. Many cards give the impression of a well-established business while others exude a different feeling altogether. What is it that makes some business cards give off a different impression? There are several things that can affect the overall impression of your business card when you present it to a prospective customer, client, or in some cases, employer. By focusing on 5 major areas, you can create a business card that is more effective and professional in its impression.


Visual Appearance
The first thing to keep in mind when designing a business card is its visual impact. Most modern companies have fortunately started exercising more creativity with their cards and have moved away from traditional, plain looking business cards. Many business owners now see and understand that those little 2" x 3.5" cards are important marketing tools. Be creative with the use of color, fonts, and imagery.

Paper Quality
Paper quality is judged and notated in many confusing different ways. For example “80# Text” and “80# Cover”, the first is thin like writing paper and the second is thicker, like a thin business card. There are three things that matter in determining what paper stock is going to produce a quality business card.

1. How thick the business card stock is.
2. How dense/compressed the business card stock is.
3. The quality of the finish on the business card stock that will be printed on.

One point is equal to 1/1,000 of an inch for card stock. Therefore, 15 point card stock is .015 inches thick. Paper with more points is thicker but not necessarily sturdier and paper with fewer points is thinner. Fifteen point paper is good for business cards if the paper is also quality made. It is common to have thick, cheaply made paper.

Let me discuss items #2 and #3; these two issues are more important to consider than the first. Most people, however, focus solely on the first question, “How thick is it?” Paper density and the finish quality of the paper that will be printed on is determined by how the paper is “calendered”.

“The calender is a series of hard pressure rollers used to form or smooth a sheet of material. The purpose of a calender is to make the paper smooth and glossy for printing and writing.” -Wikipedia

Think of it this way - in terms of bread. A slice of Wonder bread is much thicker than pita bread. It is how the bread is made that is more important than its thickness. Pita bread is denser than Wonder bread. When it comes to online business cards, not all thick papers are created equal either. You can have a 15pt thick card that feels cheap and spongy, yet it is still 15pt thick. On the other hand you can have a 15pt thick card that feels stiff like a metal blade. More expensive and higher quality papers are highly calendered and have that feeling of quality, thickness, and snap everyone desires for their business card.

To read this article in its entirety, please go here.