Business Card Design Project Walkthrough

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Business Card Design Project Walkthrough

I recently worked on a business card design project and thought it would be a great opportunity to use the

work as a base for a walkthrough of the design process.

The project was for James Clarkson; a driving instructor working out of Tadcaster near York with his

business, Visibility Driving Tuition (http://www.visibilitydrivingtuition.co.uk) . I really enjoy working with James,

and with a high level of creative freedom on his projects the design process is really fun! Let’s look back at

my process for creating the final concept of his business card, resulting in the finished printed product.

(http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk

/wp-content/uploads/2008/visib-business-card/visibility-business-cards-lg.jpg)

This business card project follows on from the initial logo design that was created a couple of months back.

With the business cards requiring this branding, the vector logo files were opened up in Adobe Illustrator.

Business Card Design Project Walkthrough http://blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/tutorials/business-card-design-project-wa...

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A new Illustrator document was created at the size of 88mm by 55mm, the standard size of business cards at

the print firm I use. The color mode is set to CMYK for print purposes and raster effects

(http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/tutorials/illustrator-quickfix-%E2%80%93-document-raster-effects) at 300ppi (although

no effects are used in this project it's worth remembering the setting).

Being a print project the document required bleed (http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/tutorials/designing-for-print-

setting-up-crops-and-bleed)at 3mm on each side of the document, therefore a rectangle of 94mm by 61mm was

drawn and centred on the artboard. This was then filled with 45C, 100M, 55Y and 40K to continue forward

the Visibility Driving Tuition brand colours.


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To add a little visual interest and depth to the card a slight gradient effect was added using the Gradient Mesh

Tool. The highlight was given the same colour swatch but minus the black (K) ink, this means there is a solid

coat of cyan, magenta and yellow but the gradient of black giving the overall change in tone.

Before placing any text or content on the card, a set of guides were placed. A guide was positioned on each

side of the artboard, then using the Move command they were positioned 5mm inwards.

The logo was placed on the front of the card, then scaled down to fit within the content area. Being sat on a

dark background the logo needed a light colouring, pure white was too brash and contrasting so this was

softened with 30% magenta.


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The web address of the Visibility Driving Tuition website (http://www.visibilitydrivingtuition.co.uk) was then set in

News Gothic (http://www.dpbolvw.net/click-3567583-6642797?url=http://www.fonts.com/findfonts

/SearchPage.htm?kid=news%20gothic) , the font chosen as part of the Visibility branding. Using a mixture of light

and bold variations the important section of the address was made to stand out.

Being an address of three parts a small amount of spacing was added between each word, this helps

differentiate the three making it easier to read with a passing glance.

An 88x55mm rectangle was drawn and positioned centrally on the artboard, this was then used as a base for

the crop marks using the Filter > Create > Crop Marks command.


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With the front of the business card complete the file was saved.

The document was then stripped back to the basic structure, and a copy saved as the rear of the card on

which the main details would be held.

Using a similar process, a grey rectangle was drawn (including bleed) using a fill of 80% black.

Using the Gradient Mesh tool, a single point at a lighter shade of 60% black was added to the top left corner.

This again helps add a little depth and interest to the design. With the rear containing fine text, the single

black ink ensured the printed reproduction was extremely crisp.


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An area at the base of the card was to be sectioned to include the three main services, this was drawn using alarge circle to produce a subtle curved edge.

Using a temporary rectangle at the size of the document the large circle was trimmed to size using thePathfinder tool.

The colour scheme used on the front of the card was continued in this bottom area, adding a slight gradientacross the width of the card and a thin stroke across the top edge.


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The logo was placed onto the document and positioned within the margins in the top right corner.

The name, job title and contact details were then laid out in the chosen font. For the name in particular, the

design style of the logo was continued through by setting the text in lowercase with a mixture of bold andlight weights. After some feedback an alternate version was also created for comparison with normal

capitalisation and spacing, but it was decided that the little tweaks added that little extra to the design and

were carried forward.

The three main services of driving lessons, pass plus and driver improvement were added to the lower section

using this same type style, aligning each one to the left, right and centre.


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To separate each item, a small circular point was drawn, aligned with the text and filled with the colourswatch used on the stroke for consistency.

With the crop marks set in place the rear of the card was then complete. The design was soon approved andready for printing. All text was converted to outlines to avoid font troubles.

Each file was then saved as an EPS.


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The two EPS files were then converted to PDF files using Adobe Distiller's Press Quality setting.

To save sending two separate files, the two PDFs were then combined into one file using Adobe Acrobat.


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/wp-content/uploads/2008/visib-business-card/business-card-art-lg.png)

With the two files combined into one high resolution print file the business card artwork was ready to be sent

to print.

One final check was made using the Output Preview option within Adobe Acrobat by heading to Advanced >

Print Production > Output Preview. Each plate can be viewed individually to check for stray colours and the


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reproduction of gradients. The Total Area Coverage also highlighted that there were no areas that risked over

inking, with the exception of the crop marks that were set in registration black

(http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/articles/the-ultimate-guide-to-designing-with-black) .

The files were packaged up and emailed to the printer, the order for 250 double sided cards with a matt

lamination on both sides was placed.


/wp-content/uploads/2008/visib-business-card/visibility-business-cards-lg.jpg)

In just a few days the cards arrived by post, all the colours looked fine, the text was nice and crisp and the

gradients had been reproduced as planned, adding a nice soft variation of tone across each side of the card.

Written by Chris Spooner

Chris Spooner is a designer who has a love for creativity and enjoys experimenting with various techniques in

both print and web. Follow Chris' daily design links on Twitter (http://twitter.com/chrisspooner) , and be sure to

check out his second blog over at Line25.com (http://line25.com) .

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42 Comments

Jenny Stewart says:

January 5, 2009 at 5:29 am

Good looking business cards and nice walkthrough! Thanks!

Erika says:


Using Distiller was a pleasant surprise. Gonna have to try that!

tobi says:


nice cards!

Gfx-DZine says:


Can I ask what the reason was for you to first save it as eps first and then create a pdf opposed to Save

As to a PDF right from illustrator?

Chris Spooner says:

January 5, 2009 at 12:37 pm

As I recall, saving as a PDF directly from Illustrator preserves features such as gradients and

transparency which bumps up the file size and could cause problems. Distilling an EPS will

flatten any transparency or effects into a much safer file.

DANA says:


Why did you do it in Illustrator?? InDesign is the tool for layouting …

Chris Spooner says:


I briefly touched on InDesign in the last business card tutorial, I personally used Illustrator out of

ease, especially with the gradient mesh and use of various vector shapes.

These would need creating separately and imported into InDesign.

I tend to use InDesign for multi-page designs where the layout features really come in handy, for

smaller jobs Illustrator works well.

Brian says:


13 of 19 4/6/2012 5:02 PM




Totally agree. InDesign is great for multipage layout but for poster/biz cards/one page

designs I always go for illustrator for convinience and rapidity of execution. (This last one

is debatable depending on you “best” program.)

Illustrator all the way!

intuitiv says:


Great description.

How long does the process for designing the cards take (all inclusive)?

Stefan

John Paul says:


Stefan, That all depends on the designer and how well they know illustrator. The first card I ever

designed took me two hourse, but i had never used illustrator.

Now I can do the comp in about 30 mins to an hour, get approval, then prep for print, which

takes maybe 30 mins depending on the design.

moih60 says:


thanx great work and good finish

ismail says:


thanks a lot. this is perfect for me, because im doing a logo plus buisness card at the moment and the

way you did seems to be a good one… ill try to follow that walktrough/tutorial

greetings from germany

Nikki - Logo Design Guru says:


Great Tutorial. Thanks for sharing. I am always trying to learn how to be a better designer and these are

helpful. Thanks

Marco says:


Once again a great, high quality article that I’ve expected :) . Well done Chris, keep up the good work:

This is a super start for 2009!


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Bobo says:


Great post, Thanks.

NetOperator Wibby says:


I recently had busniess cards made so seeing this process showed me some things that would have made

it a quicker process. Thanks for the post.

Soh says:January 6, 2009 at 3:09 pm

Sweet… Im gna use this for my next business cards. Thanks!

eloy ibarra says:


thanks for the knowledge…saludos!

Andrew Kelsall says:


Great tutorial Chris.

It’s great to see how you pproch things compared to myself and others. I was just wondering which

printers you used? I tend to use RCS (based in Retford), but I’m always looking into other printing

services for reference.

I hope you don’t mind me dropping a link to an article I wrote for a driving instructor I did some work

for, including a Business card design here:

http://www.andrewkelsall.com/logo-designs-and-marketing-for-gedt/ (http://www.andrewkelsall.com/logo-

designs-and-marketing-for-gedt/)

Daniel says:


Very inspiring!

JeremyOLED says:


I’ve been thinking about getting some business cards for myself, and this will be enormously helpful.

Thanks a lot

TonyAgana says:


15 of 19 4/6/2012 5:02 PM




Great tutorial. Just a quick point with printing grey. Referring back to your tutorial on black printing

techniques, is there anything similar we should consider when printing grey? I’ve printed a few grey

backgrounds in my time just using percentages of K but with hugely varying results – for instance

printing 80%K on a glossy 100GSM stock came back almost black but on a roller banner (vinyl) it had

a very distinct reddish hue. Any tips for mixing CMY into the K to get a true, flat grey?

Cheers man, great work.

PS Blade or Owl? ;)

Abbas Arezoo says:


Great walkthrough, always interesting to see how other people go their design process. A agree on using

Distiller. It’s a much safer bet than saving straight to PDF from Illustrator, even if Illustrator has got a

lot better at this over the last few versions.

You could probably lay the business card out in InDesign but what’s the point? Illustrator is just as

capable, and there’s no right or wrong way of doing it (unless you layout in Photoshop). Stick to you

strengths that’s what I say.

haber & news says:


thank you very much.

Supreet says:


This is really awosome and very helpfull to design B-Card from scratch.

Thanks.

rendyo says:


concept makes perfect…

thanks…

korean says:


Very good!! thanks~

Dainis Graveris says:


oh, thanks really, exporting part for print design was a little bit unclear for me and results always didn’tcame out as I wanted, so huge thanks :)


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Bob Sacamano says:


Nice card design…what what the process for the logo? Is that just one font, or did you play around with

that as well?

Seriously good job, colour selection works well

joyoge designers' bookmark says:


Great tutorial and perfect concept.Thanks for sharing..

Anabela do Rosario says:

January 12, 2009 at 10:57 pm

This is a great step-by-step tutorial!!

ellen s. says:


Thanks for this tutorial, I really enjoy seeing other designer’s methods for creation. Good work!

Sean McArthur says:


I thought I noticed a gradient on there. Looks beautiful. But doesn’t it cost extra to have so many

colors (gradient)?

projectautomatika says:


nice walkthrough! thanks for sharing!

graphic designer says:

January 15, 2009 at 11:18 pm

Excellent designs man. I was so amazed

Jason Warth says:


This was my first time visiting your site, and I have to say — this is one of the most fulfilling tutorials

I’ve ever read. I am reasonably experienced in graphic design (esp. Illustrator), but I probably learned 7or 8 new things by reading this.

Kudos to you for a well-written tutorial, and especially for the contextual explanations that are too

often overlooked.


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-J

Dean Perry says:


Hey,

What company do you use to print the business cards?

Liz says:


I’m currently using Illustrator CS4 – does anyone know how to add the crops marks now that the filter

function no longer exists (Filter > Create > Crop Marks)?

Gfx-DZine says:


Hey Liz,

In CS4 Crop Marks now became an ‘Effect’ (thus lives in the Effect menu). This means that it’s

‘live’ (/dynamic) now. So you can draw a rectangle, then go to Effect/Crop Marks and the crop

marks are applied.. but if you resize your rectangle, the crop marks move too! :D

Cool but I must say that myself almost never use them – as I provide my designs in PDF to theprintservice I tick the Crop Marks (and bleed if applicable) option in the Save As PDF Illustrator

dialog.

Hope it was helpful, take care,

Mike

Raul says:


great!

just when i wanted to get a visiting card printed and didn’t know where to start at

Calvin says:

January 18, 2009 at 12:19 am

nice post.

branding is one of my faves.

especially when you are given creative freedom.

thanks for the tut

http://calvin-t.blogspot.com/ (http://calvin-t.blogspot.com/)

Tim Smith says:


Cool post!! Love the step by step!


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Business Card Design Project Walkthrough

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