Things To Know Before You Buy A Custom Business Card Design

14
Feb 2014

Posted by: Category:Graphic Design

 

Buying a custom business card design is apparently not too difficult task but still it could be much more easier and beneficial if you knew the metrics to checkout before you actually do it.

What Makes A Stationery Design Look Really Professional

Business card design for winning identity | source: http://www.yourdesignpick.com

Here are 4 essential things you should consider while buying a custom business card design:
1. Shape of Your Desired Business Card
2. Print material
3. Business Card Size &
4. Design format

Shape of your business card:

There are two types of business cards by shape, either die-cut or conventional business card. Before you get a custom business card design, bear in mind which one you want for your business and create your design brief accordingly.

 

Die-cut business cards

Die-cut business cards are special type of business cards which are not rectangular in shape. Die-cut business cards need to be printed using more sophisticated printing machinery and hence if you choose a design suitable for die-cut business card, it will cost you more than conventional business cards.

Die-cut business cards come in various shapes ranging from simple circle to undefined ones. So you will also need to specify its shape and dimensions in your design brief for a perfect custom design.

 

Conventional business cards

Conventional business cards are simple rectangle shaped business cards. Almost of them are same in size, usually 3.5×2 inches. However, if you want some twist with it, you can opt for different print materials other than regular paper.

So if you are going for conventional business card, also specify its size and material in your design brief. It will help designers prepare the best design for you.

 

Business card print material:

By the types of material, there are many possibilities for business cards but consider your budget and estimate the cost for your preferred type of business card material. It will help you figure out what’s the best type of business card for you. Based upon type of used material, there are following types of business cards:

 

Paper business cards

Paper business cards are easily available anywhere both online and offline. If you are considering cost-effectiveness, regular paper business cards are quite cheaper compared to all other types of business cards.

Paper business cards can be textured, glossy, matte or regular finished. Choose the one that suits best to your business personality & budget and get your business card design made accordingly.

 

Plastic business cards

Plastic business card can be transparent or non-transparent. Though transparent plastic business cards look quite appealing, you should bear in mind that such cards are usable only with one of its side. As you print on one side, another side of card will become useless for design purpose.

So choose transparent business card designs only if you need fewer details to be displayed and a simple business card design with minimal graphics. Also specify in your brief if you need business card design for transparent plastic material or the regular plastic material.

 

Metal business cards

In very rare case, metal business cards are advised as they are quite costly and hard to carry with and handover to others. If you are a kind of business that is rough and sluggish in nature, metal business cards can be ideal for you, otherwise it’s not recommended at all.

 

Wooden business cards

Wooden business cards are beautiful and looks sophisticated. So if you are running a highly professional business related to luxurious entities, you can go for wooden business cards.

For example, an interior designer’s business card would look great if its made of wooden material. If you are to choose wood as print material for your business card, ask your designers for business card mock ups made using wooden material.

    • If you have any other material in your mind other than paper for your business card, Ask your printers first if they provide prints on that materials or not.
    • In either case they do provide or not, clearly describe in your design brief which kind of material you are going to use for your business card.
    • Also ask your designers to give you design previews for the very same material. For example, if you are going to have letterpress business cards ask for letterpress business card mock ups instead of plain designs. It will give you better idea of how it will actually look.

 

Business card size:

Usually business card size is 3.5×2 inches but standard business card sizes around the world are matter of variation. See the following Wikipedia table to know more about it. In your design brief, include your business card size too:

 

Design format:

When you buy business card design online, one of the major problem you might face is incompatible design format. The business card design provided by your design should be in a printable format and for that you have to consider following tips:

 

Get bleed area included in design:

Bleed area is extra part (additional border space) of design that is kept as blank design space to accommodate with unwanted cutouts in design. See the following image to understand more about it:

Bleed area will save you from design cutouts when you get your business card design is actually printed. Also it will be useful later when you need to change business card size slightly.

 

Make sure the design format you get is print-friendly:

To ensure print-friendliness of your design, 1. consider the file format & 2. Consider image mode of design.

Most widely used print formats are .psd, .eps, .tif, .jpeg, .ai, .pdf and .png. Ask your designer which of these formats will be available to you and discuss with your printers if they could use it for their prints.

Image mode can be CMYK, RGB or any other standard image mode but most widely used is CMYK. So make sure that business card design supplied to you will be in CMYK mode only.

 

As you have chosen every aspect for your ideal business card design, now you can move to your designer and get your business card custom designed.

YourDesignPick is leading design company providing Graphic and Web designing services for business and individual purpose. At YourDesignPick, you can get your idea from literally 1000s of ready-made design samples and customize it as per your needs, all at quite an affordable price. So if you are looking for custom eye-catching design for your ideal business card, checkout YourDesignPick for further details.

We hope this post helped you. Leave us your suggestions if we are missing anything. We would be glad to have your feedback. 

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