Top Trends in Designing and Printing Business Cards

Business cards have evolved greatly since their 15th century emergence in China. They began as simple cards containing black text on a white card to nearly any creative and colorful design you can imagine. Vital to any business and business person, business card printing and design has seen several strong trends emerge recently. Below are the top trends that any company can use for creating an impressive and popular business card design.

Full Color - With advances in technology making full color printing affordable for any business, full color business cards are now the most popular design. Black and white business cards are only used for those companies in which black and white are a part of their image.

Offset Litho - Offset lithography is a commercial method of printing that results in highly professional printed materials. Digital printing is great for short-run orders, but offset litho saves the most money when ordering wholesale amounts, such as with business card printing.

Stunning Image - In an attempt to stand out, designers are incorporating stimulating graphic designs and captivating images into the business card design. With tutorials for design programs such as Photoshop now online, many amateurs are able to create stunning designs for business card printing, which may be the reason for such a large movement in this design aspect of business cards.

Corporate Font - Most companies today are using corporate identity packages for creating and strengthening their brand image. Most packages include a corporate font, which means that companies are requiring employees to use this font in all of their marketing designs, including business cards.

Unique Logo - Every business card contains a logo designed uniquely for the company it represents. Sometimes the designer places the logo in a corner on the front of the card, while others choose to place the logo on the back in a larger size.

Rounded Corners - More unique shapes for business card printing have emerged with the improvement of die cut printing. Rounded corners seem to be the most popular form of die cut printing since it is more affordable while still able to fit in a wallet.

Plastic Printing - Many business cards are being printed on a plastic substrate, since plastic business cards last forever and look amazing. Common designs include a blank background for a see-through look and a ribbed plastic for a textured look and feel.

Glossy UV Coating - This coating has replaced aqueous coating because of its higher durability and sheen. A glossy UV coating also makes images and colors more brilliant and attractive than a regular gloss does.

Raised Print - Some business cards are using raised print for texture on their business cards. The idea is that when you hand your business card to a client, they'll be more likely to rememeber the card that had textured fonts.

Incorporating some of these top trends into your business card printing will make your business cards more noticeable and also more popular. Allow your brand to be the unique feature in your design so that your business cards don't look like they are a carbon-copy of a competitor's design.