Making business cards at your local printer may be what you've done in the past, but it's high time you looked into ordering online business cards. Ordering online business cards is easy and inexpensive, and you can usually choose to upload your own artwork or select from hundreds (if not thousands) of high-quality, professionally designed business card templates. If you've never ordered online business cards before, here's an illustration of the design process.
Working with an Online Business Card Design Template:
Prints Made Easy advertises more than 10,000 business card design templates, which may seem too many to choose from. While it can seem overwhelming at first, but they're usually organized by category or keyword, so it's not as formidable a task as it may appear!
Begin by selecting a category related to your business or to the type of background you'd like to have. At PrintsMadeEasy.com, you can search by keyword (a VERY handy feature), by category, or immediately upload any artwork you have:
When browsing the templates, ask yourself:
Does this design work well with the amount and type of information I need to include? (You don’t want your text and the images to compete with each other. Generally speaking, if you need a lot of text, choose a less complex or smaller background image. If your text is minimal, the design can be bolder and busier.)
Does this background suit the style of my business - formal, casual, artsy, traditional?
Will it stand out without being too far out?
Does this design tie in to any existing slogans, products or marketing campaigns?
It's also enjoyable to browse categories and cards at random until inspiration strikes. And remember that you can make a picture "fit" by broadening your search to look for backgrounds that illustrate product benefits.
For example, a background with a smiling baby may suit a daycare center, pediatrician or diaper service - all of whom would hope to have a smiling baby as a product benefit. Creative taglines can also relate a product or service to a particular background theme.
Working with the Online Business Card Template:
The design area of PrintsMadeEasy.com has been tested and refined to make it as easy as possible for you to enter text and format the card to meet your needs. Don't be afraid to play around and see what you can do!
Online business card templates load with pre-selected layouts that have been chosen especially to suit the card. However, you can change the layout (options are shown) to better fit what YOU have to say.
For my illustration, I typed the word “pets” into the keyword area (I also own PetBusinessCentral.com) and here are the results. You’ll see that there are 84 templates – I could narrow it down by searching for have also searched for dog (60 templates) or cat (30 templates):
So I clicked on a card I liked, and here’s what the page looks like where you edit your information:
It's not obvious, but remember that names of text fields are suggestions, not requirements. You don't have to put information in every text field, nor do you have to put your name in the "Name" field. If you want your website address to be where the company name normally goes, that's fine. Try it and see how it looks. You can also put an underscore (_____) or asterisks (***) in a text field for extra design flair.
Make sure font choices are legible. Be careful of all caps (especially in Script fonts), and make sure letters are large enough to read. (A font size of 12 or larger is a good choice for important information like phone numbers.)
Also, be sure there's sufficient contrast between the color of the font and the background of the card.
There's no substitute, really, for getting in there and just playing with it. Designing online business cards is fun to do and easy to try. There’s an “Undo” button, so you won't hurt anything, and you can start over whenever you want or save your current effort. You can add more artwork, too. Just click on the “Continue” button when you’re done.
Be sure to check spelling and verify numbers before submitting your card - that's your responsibility, not the printer's, although Prints Made Easy does have a team of top-notch designers who'll look at your card before printing.
