How to Design a Two Color Business Card

Two-color business card designs are one of the best ways to add color to your personal presentation without going to the expense of four-color printing. When a design is well done, it is enough to make your calling card stand out.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Computer
• Software: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Quark, Corel or Publisher
• Adobe Acrobat

1. Open a file and set the page dimension for 3.5 inches wide and 2 inches high. This is the standard size for a business card.

2. Use the guidelines to create a 3/8-inch margin all around. Design within the space. Taking the design to the edge of the card is called close registration. Taking it over the edge is called a bleed. Both these conditions will incur extra cost by a commercial printer. Cards are printed with multiple cards on a sheet, and then cut. Close registration and bleeds result in fewer cards set up on each page, thus a higher printing charge.

3. Decide on the information that you want on your business card. A typical business card will consist of the business contact information. Block information together in an organized and balanced way.

4. Choose a font that gives your business card a personal touch. Decorative fonts should be limited to name or company name. Select easily readable fonts for the body of the text. Try not to use fonts smaller than 6 points and then only for the fine print.

5. Choose other elements to incorporate into the card like logos, graphics or design elements knowing they will need to be color separated. This calls for the use of vector art. If an element is multicolored it will have to be simplified in Illustrator. Art work that ends in .ai, .wmf, and some .esp file extensions can be ungrouped and the color of each shape changed by selecting the shape with the cursor and selecting one of the two colors you have chosen.

6. Place the design element in your design. Starting with a black and white design is the easiest way to design two-color. Adding red to the design in key places makes the design pop. Other color combinations that work well when printed are burgundy or purple with black. Navy blue and gold or blue and red are good choices too.

7. 
   Advanced Dialog Box

   To prepare the file to be sent to the commercial printers, create a color separated .pdf file. Go to "File," select "Print." Select Adobe PDF and open the advanced dialog box.

8. 
   Select Separations

   Select "Output" and then "Separations." Make sure only the colors you want to print are selected, and then print.

Tips & Warnings

• Illustrator is the best choice to design two-color business cards in because it allows you to manipulate vector art.
• You will need to use software that allows for the card design to be color separated. Any design elements like logos, graphics, or design elements will need to be color separated too. You will need to use vector art. Vector art is line art created with the use of points, lines, curves, and shapes that can be enlarged and still keep their crisp lines. The art is usually simple and can be filled with color. The color fill can be selected so that a two color design is possible.