Business card vavoom

I'm currently working on some business card designs for several clients through Defteling Design. While each client is quite different, they all have one thing in common: they want a business card with a strong visual impact. As they should!

Often your business card is the first impression a potential new customer has of your company or organization. You may not even have a chance to talk to a person beyond giving him or her your 30-second elevator pitch so having a memorable business card will increase the likelihood of this person remembering who you are.

So I thought I'd pull some examples of effective business cards that I've designed over the last year or two. I won't show you the cards for Neighborhood Notes again (check my earlier post here) but needless to say, their unusual shape, double-sided printing, and single rounded corner definitely leave a positive impression.


This card that I designed for Scott Lochard has served him extremely well. I used the back of the card as a little billboard to reinforce his logo and tagline. The flood of black makes the viewer really take note of his logo. On the content-side of the card, I decided to go vertical to make Scott's card stand out from many of his competitors' cards. And again, I reinforced his image by using the icon (illustration) portion of his logo and printing it very faintly in the background, covering the entire card.


Here are two more examples that use a flood of black on one side of the card. In both cases, I've screened back a portion of their logo for visual interest and brand continuity while adding a tagline to give the reader a better sense of what the company is about. The other side holds all the contact information as well as the official version of their logo. Each card also has an additional element to make it stand out: the left card is skinnier than standard size while the right card has four rounded corners, softening the sharp effect of the logo.


These two cards are both standard size but make use of both sides of the card very differently. The left card uses one side with a photographic image and large logo to convey a sense of the owner's services (interior decorating). The right card leaves the back mostly blank with just a lightly tinted logo; they discovered that their clients like to write notes on the back regarding certain spa products they've tried.


Lastly, my own cards for Cecily Ink reflect my color palette and a range of patterns. When I meet someone, I may not always have greeting card samples with me, so having an array of different business cards gives that person a sense of my design style.

You may not be able to tell from the photo, but the logo on the front and the contact info on the back are actually on a narrow sticker that I wrap around both sides of the card. Yes, it's more work for me to hand-apply the stickers to my business cards, but it does give me a sense of connectedness while I'm doing it – plus, I saved on printing costs since I was able to print the business cards on the same sheet with my greeting cards and the stickers with my packaging labels. Hey, who doesn't like saving a few pennies?