How to Design Your Business Cards Using the Golden Ratio

Whether you print inexpensive business cards or premium cards, remember that the most important aspect of the business card is how you distribute the information. There is no alternative to a good standard layout that is easy to navigate.

Business cards are a commercial good. Your main role is to get your contact information into the customer’s hands, and secondly, to do it in a way that appeals to them.

When printing business cards, you should be careful to avoid both extremes when choosing to print specialty cards for their added appeal, but they are given away sparingly due to their cost. On the other hand, some may choose to print cheaply while compromising on print quality.

Offset printing offers you the best of both worlds. It offers you photo-quality, full-color prints for the price of ten cents a dozen. With the right design, you can have expensive business cards that you can give away without a second thought.

Below is a methodical guide that you can follow when making your business card design.

1) Golden Ratio or Fibonacci Number: In simple terms, it was discovered that there are patterns in nature that explain its aesthetically balanced appearance. The ratio is found to be 1: 1.618. Your 2×3.5-inch business card roughly follows this ratio, as do most business card designs, although the conversion is often inaccurate. Follow this as a guide and use your intuition to make it functional.

o Design: There must be a ratio of 1: 1.618 between colored and non-colored area, or graphic and non-graphic space.

o Text: The smaller text should start with a 9 point font size, while the name directly above these texts should use a 14 or 15 point font size. Your business name should use 22 point text.

o Use this ratio to create various formulas for your business card graphics and overall layout.

2) Rule of thirds

o You can also substitute the rule of thirds, which is also another design concept and is a rough estimate of the Fibonacci number.

o Perfectly centered designs are boring, hence the term deadlock. The rule of thirds uses an asymmetrical balance that gives your design more tension and therefore more attractive. Just create a nine-by-nine grid and place important elements at the four points created when the lines intersect.

o You can also use the rule of thirds when trying to create divisions for your design. There is the lower third, the middle third, and the upper third. The bottom third can be used to contain your contact information, where your name is right in the middle of the bottom third grid.

o The middle third can contain the empty space that is important to give your business card a breather. If your text is in the right panel, you can place your graphics on the left. Remember to keep observing the three point rule for vertical divisions. The top third can contain your company name and slogan.

Whether you choose to print inexpensive business cards, create a good design to make it look like a million dollars. It combines having aesthetically pleasing cards that are easy to navigate at a very inexpensive price.