How to Design a Business Card (part 2)

After gathering your basic elements and ideas together, it's time to begin laying it all out. Choose a background color for the first side, and fill in your bottom layer (I am assuming that you know how to use image editing software here. See future Blogs for technical tutorials.) Lay all your critical elements, such as logo, images, and text where you think they will look best.

Choose a font that will look good, be readable, and make sense for the project, and apply it to your text. Your choice of font is critical. You must know what looks good and what works. The wrong font will ruin your design. Look at the fonts that we use at Art Tech Studio. Look at the use of fonts in high end magazine ads. Basic fonts like Times New Roman, Americana, and Ariel are safe and look good. Strange or flowery fonts have their place, but use them carefully and sparingly if at all. You can use up to 3 different fonts in most projects. But be sure to keep it simple.

Arrange the text and other elements where you think they look best. Symmetrical designs often look amateurish. Put elements off center, but balance them with the placement of other elements on the card. The layout should be balanced from top to bottom and side to side. It will feel right when it looks right.

In part three of How to Design a Business Card, I will discuss the finishing touches.

Randy