At Ireland Website Design, we also design business cards for you and your business as part of our overall company branding and image services.
A business card can be the first interaction and glimpse into your company that a potential client, peer or even potential stakeholder can get when they meet you at first. Whether this is at a networking event or even in a more casual social setting, being armed with a good business card is a vital tool for ad-hoc and opportunistic business promotion. Here, we take a look at what makes a good business card and how our expert designers go about this.
Business Cards Make a First and Lasting Impression
For somebody who has never met you before and knows nothing about your company, you giving them your business card is their first tangible impression of your business. As such, you want to make sure that they take only positives from the card. While it should obviously state your name, position within the company and contact details, having your company slogan (or mission statement if applicable) printed onto the card provides a little more insight into the operations of your company. With this, business cards can make the first impression and also a lasting impression to the recipient.
Be Sure it is Appropriate for Your Business
Logically and socially, certain images and colours connote certain things. Red and orange are seen as warm colours while blue and white are seen as cold colours for example. That is why all design aspects such as images and colours need to be considered so that they apply to and provide a visual link to your business. A business card for a vet should not feature an image of a motorbike on the card – logically if there is going to be an image here, it should really be of an animal(s) or animal related objects such as a dog’s lead and collar.
Multipurpose – i.e. use this for a discount
Some business cards can also serve the purpose to offer something to the recipient if they retain and use it at a later date. For some businesses this is more applicable than others, but for those where it does apply a special offer can be given i.e. bring this business card to the gym at your next visit and avail of a free workout session. While this is a good idea and adds multipurpose uses to the business card, it has to be remembered that this will not suit certain industries and also may not be to everyone’s tastes in terms of being the first impression of the company.
Maybe simple is best for you?
All things considered, you may just want a simple black and white business card that states your name, job position and contact details on one side and the company logo on the back. This is perfectly fine and serviceable and in some instances can provide a nice simple break to the avalanche of more complex and ‘fancy’ business cards that are in circulation today. This however comes down again to personal tastes and is dictated by what the business card holder wants their business cards to do.
Don’t Cram
Traditional business cards measure 2inches x 3.5inces – this is not a lot of space. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you can fit in text on both sides, pictures, logos and more on your business cards. While you can technically do this, it means that your text will have to be printed in a small font to fit around imagery (which will have to be scaled down thus losing detail on the image) and compete for space with the overall busyness of a complicated business card.
While we specialise in website design, a branch of our team also specialise in company branding and graphic design and are experts in their field. Talk to us today to discuss your business cards needs and the type of design you have in mind. Depending on your order and specific needs, we can give you a free pack of up to 100 business cards.
