How to Design a Business Card (part 1)

Business cards are a very important item in the design world. At Art Tech Studio we create so many of them that it becomes second nature for some of us. This is a simplified version of what we do when designing a great card for a typical client. If you follow these guidelines you will be creating good cards right from the start, and awesome cards after only a few months of practice.

The first thing that you want to do when creating a business card is to set up your document with the correct document dimensions. You will need to get that information from your printing service. Most printers require that you add 1/8 inch to all sides of your document for bleed, and that you work at 300 dpi or higher. So a typical business card that is 2 X 3.5 will be 2.25 X 3.75 at 300 dpi.

Next you will need to have all the text that you will use ready to copy and past into your design. The best way to do that is to enter and save that info in a text editing program like word.

Decide on a basic color scheme. The best way to do that is to use some or all of the colors from the client's logo, or to at least use colors that will go with the client's logo. Some people like to use a color wheel, or color wheel software to choose their colors, and others like to choose as they design; using their design sense to choose what looks good.

The next thing that we do is gather or create the design elements that will go into the card. We decide on what those elements will be at any time during the process of creation, and sometimes even change our minds during the creation. Elements should feel right for the project. They should tell the story that you are trying to tell, without being so obvious or elementary that a child could pick the element, but not so out there that nobody gets it. Choosing the right design element is an art all on its own, and is one of the things that separate good seasoned artists from novices.

Part 2 coming soon.