Since sites like VistaPrint came on the online market, having business cards printed for your own small business is no longer a choice between cheap print-at-home cards and ones printed by presses for exorbitant fees. With these online printing opportunities, you can have short runs (250 cards) printed with premium options like gloss finish and foil accents for less than $100.
A dilemma arises quickly when deciding to go the on-demand business card printing route, though. Do you use a template? Pay a designer? Try to come up with something cool in your graphics program? How do you know it will be readable once it’s printed? Will the colors be right? The questions can come rapid-fire and become overwhelming, causing a lot of business owners to put off this important process.
The problem with ready-made templates – especially the ones available for ‘free’ in online libraries like the one on VistaPrint – is that potentially thousands of people are using the exact same design. It does nothing to help you stand out. People have cheated their way through the process by using the free designs and you’re stuck with a couple of choices:
Either pay a professional designer, or fire up Photoshop and design a modern little business card ourselves.
There’s no real question as to which option I’m going to choose. So let’s fire up Photoshop.
Modern Business Card Design Tutorial Details
· Program: Photoshop or other Graphics Editor with Layers Ability · Version: Illustrations use Photoshop CS5 · Difficulty: Moderate – A strong knowledge of Photoshop tools and their location is required · Estimated Completion Time: varies (at least 2 hours on average) · Prerequisites or Requirements: Will need a print template provided by the printer you will be using. For VistaPrint printing, the layered bleed-line indicated template is available here.
Step 1
To begin with, you need to understand what the mark-up lines on the template provided by your printer means. Start out by downloading a template provided by your printer; it’s important that you submit a file that is the proper size and resolution.
Since VistaPrint is arguably the most popular service, I will be focusing on their needs. After downloading their template (link provided above), you will open a Photoshop file that is 300 dpi resolution (or pixels per inch, using Photoshop-talk) in CMYK color mode. All of these elements must be the same when you submit the file for printing in order to receive a business card that is readable and in the right color.
Now, it’s time to really understand what the template you’re looking at means.
Using the VistaPrint business card template as an example, you will see a set of guides in blue and red that border the document. If you read the legend, it indicates that the blue line indicates the ‘safe area’ and the red indicates the ‘trim area’. These lines are a little wide because it can’t be guaranteed where, exactly, the cut will occur. It will occur somewhere within that space, though.
So, using these lines as a guide, you can understand what ‘full bleed’ means. Most printers recommend using full bleed – meaning that your colors cover the whole card, going outside the safe margin and even outside the trim lines. Keep all your text and important visual elements inside the safe margin. What this does is help ensure that your card will be colored to all edges and that nothing important will accidentally be cut off.
Step 2
If you have a website, logo, or graphics already created for your business this step is easy: choose your colors. All that this modern design needs are two colors. Since I have a color palette for my business ready and in place, I will be using two of the colors from that palette for the actual design and black and white for the text. This makes for a very clean, crisp look.
For your own colors, whether you have a palette you can pull from or are coming up with one, try to focus on high contrasts. Red against black, bright neons against white, vivid pastels against dark colors, etc. are all things to think about. What you’re looking for is something that will pop out and really grab the viewer’s eye.
The colors I will be using are #a9a0ab and #f2f2f2 (plus pure black #000000 and pure white #ffffff for text).
Step 3
Pick a shape, any shape. I’m going to use the butterfly custom shape that comes packaged with Photoshop in the lightest of my two custom colors, and set it so that it will purposefully get cut off for a more edgy look that draws the eye in further. Seriously consider using a unique shape, or set the shape off in an interesting way by twisting it, enlarging and cutting parts of it off, etc. The eye will fill in the rest, and you’re not looking stuffy and corporate while the eye does so.
The shape you choose should be solid, allowing you to place text on it, and it should represent your business in some fashion. A dentist could use a tooth, for example, or a caterer could use a spoon. Just take a look at your graphics, your products, or the tools of service that you use and inspiration will hit.
Before moving on, fill the background (the ‘Your Design’ layer if you’re using the VistaPrint template) with your darker custom color. See the second illustration attached to this article for an idea of what you should be (more or less) looking at.
Step 4
It’s already time for text! Amazing how quick and easy this can be when you have the right tools and a good idea in mind, isn’t it?
Seriously, though, we’re almost done with this design and you’re going to be ready to print your masterpiece with pride. Just take some time with this step so that you have the text both laid out and the fonts that you want -perfect-. Remember that your printer will use the file you submit to them exactly as it is laid out, they will not edit for typos, etc. If you can, get a second set of eyes to scan your piece to make sure there are no typos or other errors.
While doing my piece, I realized that I needed the butterfly to be larger to accommodate my logo (and still have it readable). After resizing it, I set it off-center again and placed my logo where I wanted it. For the remaining text, I lined the Name & Title lines up with my logo. Then, I used the largest amount of shape-space to place the rest of my text. Since the shape is floating off the right side of the canvas, I aligned the text to the right to accentuate this ‘sliding’ effect.
Reference the third illustration attached to this article.
Step 5
It’s time to save your card now that it’s edited for any errors and you have all the pieces in place. Make sure that you use a format that the printer you’ve chosen to use supports.
Most printers will support Photoshop’s native .psd format. To save as a .psd, just click “File”, and choose “Save As”. Make sure you save the card to a location that you will be able to find it easily when it’s time to upload.
If your printer requires a web-browser supported format, save your file as a .png so that the graphic will remain a crisp 300 dpi once you save. To save as a .png, click “File”, and choose “Save As”. Choose .png from the drop-down list and make sure that you save the file to a location you’ll be able to easily access when it’s time to upload your card for printing.
DO NOT use the “Save for Web” function. This will take your image down to 72 dpi, which will look pixilated and disappointing once printed.