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A great business card design should be impactful enough to stand out. When you think about iconic corporate business card examples, one of the first to come to mind is Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s notorious ‘I’m CEO, B—’ card that was made famous in the film The Social Network.This card showed off just how arrogant and aggressive the then-22-year-old Zuckerberg was about the business that was right on the cusp of taking the world by storm.
These infamous business cards were eventually pulled and replaced, with their designer, Brian Veloso, suggesting that they “were an excellent representation of the company culture at the time […] their replacement reflected the changes a young Facebook needed to go through to be where it is today.” Andrew Bosworth, a Facebook executive, also believed that the business cards were “intended as a joke for his friends.” Although these business cards made a great impact, they were not actually intended to be used in a professional, corporate environment.
Taking inspiration from Zuckerberg’s incredibly personalised corporate business card example, we’ll help inspire company card ideas by sharing design tips that don’t compromise your professionalism.
Design Tips: Choose an Unusual Shape
With modern digital printing, it’s never been easier to show off your creative flair. You can go completely out there with a business card shaped like something you sell or use. Some corporate business card examples include ones shaped like a comb for a hair salon or a cupcake for a bakery. If you’d prefer something more subtle, rounded corners and square business cards are a great way of differentiating yourself from your competitors.
We love business owner and UX Designer Anusha Iyer’s mini business cards – the bright colours are perfect for this year’s eye-catching design trends and their unusual shape means a potential client could easily find them again in their wallet.
(Source: Flickr)
Design Tips: Play with Texture and Colour
Another massive benefit of modern technology is that full-colour professional business card printing doesn’t have to cost the world – in fact, a lot of online printers won’t charge any extra cost for this. It also means that there’s a huge variety of textures you can play around with for your company card ideas, including spot UV (also known as gloss laminate). This is where you add a shiny coating to certain areas of your business card to either make them stand out or to create a pattern. How something feels in your clients’ hands is so important for making a lasting impression, so why not take advantage of our free spot UV templates?
(Source: behance.net)
Design Tips: Include Your Logo in Your Design
Below is Twitter CEO Evan Williams’ business card. It's a very minimal, business card design featuring important contact information on one side and the business’ logo (Larry the Bird) on the other. The logo is what really stands out here, especially in the recognisable blue Twitter brand colour. If you’re struggling to design a memorable logo for your start-up logo, check out this blog for some awesome tips!
(Source: DesignBolts)
Design Tips: Use an Inspiring Quote
Whatever your field, it really helps to find a quote that suits the industry your business is in. For writers, consider your favourite literary quote or, if you work in the legal sector, you could use a quote from a speech you found moving. We love life coach Steph Williamson’s motivational quotes – they give the impression that she’s supportive of her clients/target market and they also show her values.
(Source: stephwill.com)
Design Tips: Suit Your Brand Style
Like all external communications, your business card should reflect your brand and resonate with your target market just as much as a banner or an email. If you’ve already created your company’s brand guideline, you’ll know exactly what colours to use, the fonts, the logo, the style of artwork – everything! The business card design below shows an illustration of Anna Bond, CEO of stationery and lifestyle brand Rifle Paper Co. This style is very indicative of the Rifle Paper website and it also shows personality and creativity without compromising Bond’s professionalism.
(Source: Pinterest)
Design Tips: Make Them Clever
Humour related to your industry is a great way of adding some personality to your unique business card design without losing focus of your goals – just like the example below! This extremely clever design tip for a guitar instruction business card uses spot UV on top of a guitar-string diagram to indicate finger placement for a C major chord, which is one of the first chords a beginner would learn. It’s fun, it’s related to the industry and it’s really memorable; we love it.
(Source: Lovely Stationery)
Design Tips: A Cut Above the Rest
Another company card idea is to change the edge completely. Great for showing your creative side, rounded corners are sure to get your business noticed. They’re alternative without being too show-y and over the top! We particularly like game developer Dave Makes’ business cards – the rounded corners combined with spot UV to create a pixel effect gives it a really modern feel: the perfect marketing tool for a game developer to reach out to their target audience!
(Source: Design your way)
Design Tips: Stand Out with Photography
Depending on your industry, showcasing your service with photographs is a fantastic way to demonstrate what you’ve got to offer. This works particularly well for businesses who offer a visual service, such as wedding planners and hair salon business cards. If you get it right, adding a photo of yourself is a great way of making sure you’re remembered – especially after networking events where potential customers and clients will have received countless business cards and met loads of different people! A Finnish design company, bananas, create a modern twist on headshot business cards by only showing part of the business card owner’s face. This stops it from being too corny while the brand is still recognisable.
(Source: Elegante Press)
All these fantastic company card ideas demonstrate that there are plenty of ways of showing off your personality in your business card design without compromising professionalism. We hope you can take inspiration from these corporate business cards examples to create something that’s unique to your business.
If you use any of these tips, we’d love the see the finished product. Share your print with us by tagging us on social media @instantprintuk or #instantprintuk.
You don’t have to be a graphic designer to make your own business card. Start designing now with our free templates!
