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12 Creative College Brochure Design Ideas for Student Recruitment

Direct mail is a popular marketing channel for college recruitment. Starting in the spring, more than a million high school students will be sitting down to take the SATs and PSATs, and most of these tests have a small box that the student can check to receive information on different schools.

For most campuses, that information will come in the form of college recruitment brochures. Any college admissions rep will tell you that a good recruitment flier is worth its weight in gold, which is why Printing for Less prides itself on supplying hundreds of thousands of custom designed fliers and brochures every year. And with an unprecedented number of high school students eagerly awaiting their chance to shine, there is no time to waste in promoting your brand.

Enrollment is expected to continue to grow to 20.5 million between now and 2027. Yet, with the cost of education on the rise, more and more are looking very critically at their college choices. Even with an overall 7% increase in the number of first-time freshman, more than a third are applying to seven or more colleges. While some hail this as an economic coup, many more are lamenting the number of students applying to too many schools.

But how can more choices be a bad thing? With all these potential students applying to multiple schools, the odds of them picking your campus improves too, right? Not necessarily.

You have to stand out, get noticed, and deliver the value your school brings in a clear and concise way. Nothing squeezes all of that information into a mailbox-friendly format like a recruiting brochure. The trick is to make your brand out-shine the other six. For that, here are some ways to make your school stand out from the pack.

I mperial College: London

by Mark Vaile

The Natural Sciences have never looked more appealing. Vibrant, organic, and yet still grounded this brochure for the London campus of England’s Imperial College kicks off our list to a great start. Colorful imagery captures your attention but doesn’t detract from the catalogue of the department’s projects and sponsors.

LaSalle College of the Arts

by Capi VietAhn

Invoking origami, this design’s inspired concept makes the most of a larger space by layered folds of card stock. When it does bloom, you will find nuggets of information tucked into each segment.

North Carolina State University, Engineering

by Jacob Fremderman

The future is now. Or next academic term, to be exact. The retro style 3D font immediately invokes a sense of futurism, while the minimalist layout and blocks of colour keeps the look fresh and uncluttered.

M uhlenberg College

by Misty Bourdess Wilt

Knowledge may be the key, but in this case a great die cut is the gate keeper to a fantastic brochure. Vibrant red detailing on a classic dove gray background updates the look and lures the viewer inside.

Goa College of Art

by Jeanine Soares

A beautiful brochure that showcases the allure a simple die cut and fold can create. The art nouveau style and square shape mirrors the album art of folk records of the 1960’s for a funky, grassroots feel.

CCA Graduate Design

by Martin Venezky

The cover of this brochure appears to honour the Asian wood block printings of the early 20^th century and their influence on the styles of Western artists. Add a piece of delicate, almost architectural line work and you can really see how the blend of landscape and urban development influenced this San Francisco artist.

Boston University College of Fine Arts

by Chandra Wroblewski

Another beautiful example of how die cuts can highlight an already great design. The dynamic exchange between the muted cover illustration and the colourful interior collage, only serves to highlight the finer points of the campus. Take a look inside, it says, and see at all the amazing and beautiful things we can accomplish together.

Virginia Tech College of Science

by Stephanie Strouse and Meaghan Dee

A simply gorgeous combination of Man’s attempts at permanence and the organic beauty of the natural world. The cover image brings to mind the Axe Historique in Paris, reminding the viewer of the precision and dedication required to create something lasting; a perfect maxim for Virginia Tech’s College of Science. And yet, by poking holes in that picturesque facade, they show hints at what is yet to come. A world of achievement lies inside their walls, if the student is dedicated.

Nebraska Independent College

by Tana Kosiyabong

This brochure is especially fun. It successfully imparts the idea that the future is a blank canvas and their students are the building blocks that will add colour and character to the world. The honeycomb design simply enhances the idea that each student is a crucial piece of the larger picture. With Nebraska Independent, you can continue to build upon the success of your predecessors.

Derwentside College

by Mark Coleman

This ode to higher education is sleek and well executed. It isn’t always easy to pull off monochrome, even harder for an ombre gradient. But Derwentside makes it look smart and not a bit overdone. This outer wall and underside of the roof may never grace the cover of an architecture magazine, but they have managed to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. Just like their students, I imagine.

Klein College of Media and Communication

by Leonard Benfante

Just when we think that gray scale is done, Klein gives us another homerun. Even the fonts are larger than life. By sequentially spelling out ‘KLEIN’ one page at a time, the over-sized letters lure students further into the packet,. With the bright blue underscoring their message of success and individualized curriculum, their brochure hits it out of the park.

These are just a few ideas to spark your imagination. To find out how to make these looks work for you, give us a call at 800-930-7978. Speak to a live print expert to get started on brochure printing today!

Why Printers Prefer CMYK Versus RGB

Technology is in a constant state of flux. But although the hardware, software, and processes you use will be unique, the basic approach toward managing your color tends to remain the same year over year.

It’s a common misconception that before any type of printing, all images must be converted to print in CMYK (the four process color printing inks: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black — the key “color”). While it’s been the traditional practice for decades, many consumer inkjet printers now have more than just four process inks, meaning those printers are capable of printing a few hundred or even a few thousand times as many colors as you’d be able to create with just CMYK color printing.

But when you are sending a print design to a professional press, you will still need to convert your color space to CMYK. Otherwise, you risk getting strange, muddy or simply incorrect colors back from the printer.

The Skinny on RGB and CMYK

RGB stands for the independent color channels that make up the digital light display: red, green, and blue.

Think about it: every digital image you’ll encounter has been, at some point, an RGB image. This is true even if an image is currently in the CMYK color space, because the devices that likely captured that image — digital cameras and scanners — operate in RGB. They sense and store red, green, and blue light instead of physical pigments.

While progress in flexibility has been made, CMYK conversion is still required when sending out your artwork and images for commercial printing. And converting everything to CMYK before you send your files to print can also guarantee that the printed results match your expectations.

Why Manage Color?

Some designers completely ignore color management and still get acceptable colors in their printed pieces (with “acceptable” meaning good enough for a school fundraiser flyer or a bulletin about the next company picnic). But if you care about getting precise results consistently and want to make the best possible impression on your audience, then you’ll definitely want to pay attention to color management.

“Color management” is an official-sounding term for changing colors to control the visual consistency of your colors from one display (laptop, smartphone, glossy color brochure, color newspaper) to another. Maybe you need to alter your RGB colors so that your boss’s newly designed presentation looks the same on a large wall monitor as it does on your computer screen. Maybe you’re going to have to convert the RGB colors in your piece to CMYK so that they’ll exactly match your client’s brand standards once their newest printer gets the file.

Converting RGB to CMYK

The “shortcut” that many designers take when they have an RGB image that needs to be in CMYK is to toggle the Document Color Mode or Image Mode to CMYK Color.

But not so fast. If your artwork was originally in RGB color mode, you may notice that the new CMYK values aren’t whole numbers. This is because there’s a wider spectrum of options with RGB color, meaning when you convert to CMYK, there’s a chance your printed colors won’t exactly match your original intentions.

This is why some designers choose to design in CMYK: they can guarantee that the exact colors they’re using will be printable.

It’s a bit like translating from one spoken language to another; you can get the general meaning across, but the exact word-for-word translation often doesn’t correlate. Similarly, the translation of RGB colors on your screen into physical CMYK printing ink combinations that will print may be a “good enough” approximation but won’t be perfect.

Convert to Profile

The best way to convert an RGB image to the CMYK color gamut is with “Convert to Profile.” A profile is a description of the output device that tells your software what the colors mean; it defines what cyan should look like, what magenta should look like, etc. “Convert to Profile” means you’re trying to make things look the same from one profile to another.

To “Convert to Profile” in an Adobe product, go to your Edit menu, scroll down to Convert to Profile or Assign Profile, and then choose the profile for the printing device or display environment. You may notice there are many different RGB and CMYK profiles.

For example, RGB looks different from sRGB, and the appearance of CMYK depends on your exact output conditions. Once you’ve checked your original colors and then set the best destination target, your software can manage your colors correctly.

Any visual change you notice once you’ve converted RGB to CMYK using Convert to Profile might be very subtle, but be aware that sometimes the colors in your image may change significantly. Typically, CMYK makes colors look more dull or desaturated.

Why Would You Keep an Image in RGB?

Staying in RGB can allow you to keep your options open (options which disappear once the wide color range of RGB has been reduced to the much more limited CMYK space).

Because of today’s crossover between digital and print, the same artwork must often do double or even triple duty. Maybe one photo will be both printed on a magazine and posted on a website. Perhaps your image will be printed in a booklet, but the printer hasn’t yet been chosen and you’re still expected to meet the deadline for design. Maybe you’re still waiting on a few outstanding quotes for paper stock before the definite specs will be chosen.

The best way to efficiently manage all this uncertainty may be to keep your artwork in RGB. That way, you’ll be able to repurpose the same artwork with less effort. You’ll be able to target it to multiple outputs using the relevant output profiles.

Another reason to keep your images in RGB is because you’ll often need to go back and make edits (like additional retouching or color correction), and it’s much more preferable to make image edits in RGB, where much more of the original image data still exists.

If you really need to convert your artwork to CMYK, at least wait until you’re sure no more edits will be needed. The reason? Once you’ve converted your artwork to CMYK, you’ll never be able to convert it back to the original color range and intensity. So keep your options open, and let your software program (like Adobe InDesign, for example) do the any conversions to CMYK at the very last possible moment: when it’s time to go to print or export to a PDF.

Need help with your printing? Talk to a live print expert today: 800-930-7978.

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20 Best Free Fonts for Business Cards in 2026

What are the best business card fonts?

Sadly there is no single answer, but we can look at fonts that make a business card do its job: make you memorable.

There are hundreds of websites that are loaded with free business card fonts, so even though you have more choices than ever before, you can be overwhelmed. We see a lot of business cards at Printing for Less – and some certainly leave a bigger impact on us than others. We’ll dig into what makes the best fonts for business cards.

What’s Important About Fonts for Business Cards?

Business cards are small, so we tend to think of them as somewhat innocuous. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. Getting your foot in a customer’s door requires A LOT of leg-work and after all of that, no one wants to blow it with a run-of-the-mill business card. You want to make a statement. But all you have is a measly 14 square (front and back) inches to do so.

You should choose a bold font that fills the space of a business card. Of course, in the hands of a master designer, even a small typeface, script font can work for the rest of us, go big with your business card font or go home.

Here are some examples of fonts we love.

Euro cine

Brilliantly dramatic with just a hint of suspense, Eurocine was inspired by Italian movie posters of the 1970’s. Walking the line between glamorous and edgy, it grabs the viewer by the lapels and demands a second look. It’s bold lines can fill the space on a business card very well for a dramatic, in-your-face look that is still classy.

Milkshake

Thick, round, and wholesome, Milkshake’s classic feel invokes gleaming chrome and Sunday afternoons. Vanilla (but never boring), these lines can stand alone or blend well with others. This is a great font for resumes, CVs, and titles and headers in your designs.

Sofia Pro

Lovely, harmonious, and just a little bit spunky. A fantastic multi-use font, Sofia Pro brings a touch of playfulness while retaining its sense of poise. This business card font looks great scaled up to dominate a design or as a the small print. With so many options for line weight, you could do an entire project just using Sofia Pro.

Quicksand

Childhood cartoons were practically PSAs for these jungle hazards. Instead, this Quicksand sucks you in with tidy concise lines reminiscent of a raked desktop Zen garden. Find your business card bliss with this elegant font.

Geometria

As elegant as a modern sky-rise in downtown Tokyo, Geometria embodies a gorgeous minimalism without sacrificing form. With this business card font, your business has no where to go but up!

Acherus Grotesque

Sounds like a Bond villain, but looks like it belongs on Broadway? Don’t let the name fool you, this font is beautiful in its simplicity. Never harsh, Acherus Grotesque is nonetheless sharp and will nicely round out your look.

Neuton

Reminiscent of periodic tables and grade-school alchemy (J+C = 4ever !) Neuton has a playfulness that other serif fonts can lack. And with TWO different italic forms, which is unusual for any business card font. We find this is a very popular font with younger professionals.

Alcubierre

Clean, sweeping lines make Alcubierre a breath of fresh air. And an open spread and smooth form elevates and gives it a distinctly Continental atmosphere.

A ileron

Aileron is a comfortable font that sits well on the page. Round and softly curving, but with a self-possession that asserts an easy maturity. It comes in a wide selection of weights, so it can be used in almost any situation. We trust Aileron and so will your customers.

U buntu

Now you can take the look of your favorite operating system with you anywhere. Not surprisingly, we see this font used by technology companies, coders and developers. The font is surprisingly versatile but we recommend pairing it with other fonts for balance and symmetry.

Ambarella

Now your business cards can have the look of hand lettered calligraphy. Ambarella has an old world charm with a new world sensibility. And we think that it would look positively bewitching foiled on a matte card stock!

Shadows Into Light

Shadows Into Light is a delicate yet practical handwritten style font. Like a beloved kindergarten teacher, it is playful, up-beat, and if given the opportunity, would probably lead the sing-along with a ukulele. If you’re compelled to use Comic Sans (you madman), consider this business card font instead.

F uturacha

Futuracha is far too much fun not to include here! Looking like a print sample from a Martian edition of The Great Gatsby, the design was actually based upon the lengthy antennae of cockroaches. How can something so gross create something to beautiful? It’s a design mystery. Give Futuracha a try and turn any logo into a stunning visual with only the click of a button. This font looks fantastic when it is embossed with a metallic foil.

C heque

This fun font started as a student project but quickly took off. Its antique vibe appeals to the Jules Verne fan and speakeasy moll alike.

Cute Punk

A little bit naughty, a touch playful, and very very cute! This font is for the person that doesn’t take themselves too seriously. This font looks great when it is used in square designs. If you’re doing a square business card, consider this font.

Find some retro funk with these next two 80’s throwbacks

Lot

It’s Game On with this Tetris-esque blocky font. What’s not to love? The ‘C’s even look like PacMan®!

Paralines

With this font, you don’t have to put on the red light. Like a neon sign for your business cards, these letters practically yell ‘Come and Get It!’

Tag Type

Be outstanding in your field. Capture the rebellious spirit of plein air artistry with this free font.

Elixia

Words almost fail the simple beauty of this font. Graceful like crystal field theory yet angled like an empress cut diamond, Elixia speaks for itself. And it can go for days.

Kust or Brux Font

Technically, these are two separate business card fonts but they are way too cool to pass up, so today you’re getting a freebie.

Both Kust (from the Latvian word ‘to melt’. I mean, how rad is that?!) and Brux Font are brush style fonts, but have their own unique markers that just rock my world.

Kust, with its fat Japanese calligraphic notes and Eastern European feel, blurs the line between avant garde impressionism and the rustic aesthetic.

Brux Font on the other hand, is pure business card font. It is an Icelandic birch forest, it is Ansel Adams’ ‘Monolith’, it is Tom Sayer whitewashing a fence. It is poetry.

Either way, you’re good.

So, there you have it! Personally, I can’t pick just one. But I do need a refill. Perhaps a Toasted Marshmallow Sweet Potato Chai latte? (I hear it’s ‘Yam’my!) so here concludes your 20(ish) Free and Effective Fonts to Use on Your Business Cards.

Need help with your print? Talk to a live print expert today: 800-930-7978.

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5 Steps to Designing a Unique Promotional Calendar

At Printing for Less, we print and ship tons of custom calendars for our customers, and we’ve noticed that themed calendars make the biggest impact as a marketing asset. Picking themes and images for each month of the year can be a challenge, and it is a common question our designers try to answer. Here are tips from those print design pros to help you generate unique calendar themes in a few simple steps.

Step 1: Plan Your Monthly Calendar Themes

There is a holiday for every type of company. Whether you run a restaurant, a dental office, or are a C.P.A, there is a calendar theme relevant to you. First, decide what your goals are. Do you want to reach new customers? Do you want to cement your relationship with existing customers? To increase foot traffic or raise awareness about a new program?

Do you want to sell more cupcakes, raise cavity awareness, or start tax return season early? What do you hope to achieve?

And finally, how do you want this to take effect over the next month, six months, or the next year? If you have multiple goals that need to be achieved during certain months, you can gear your promotional themes for each month of the year.

Step 2: Choose Holidays to Highlight in Your Calendar Theme

Your calendar theme and your goals should be reflected in your holiday or observance selection. For example, if your goal is to increase foot traffic during certain times of the year, choosing to celebrate certain weeks (such as Small Business Saturday) with reward programs or promotional events can generate interest. You can print a discount code right on the calendar, and honor it only during that week or on that day.

Keep in mind that the holiday that you choose doesn’t always have to be directly related to your cause. For example, National Pizza week is January 7-13, even if you aren’t a pizza restaurant, you could offer a coupon to your customers for a free pie from a nearby pizza joint. This generates positive credibility in your community by showing your support other local businesses. You can piggyback on a larger ‘corporate holiday’ too -maybe offer a discount on products related to the corporate holiday.

example of corporate holiday marketing — National Nutella Day is real, and the sort of corporate holiday we need more of.

With that in mind, try to stay constructive. Not every holiday has to be upbeat (looking at you National Return of Daylight Savings day) but you can make it positive for your image and your customers.

With so many to choose from, it can be difficult to limit yourself to just a few calendar ideas for each month. But remember that you want to keep these events memorable and special to your clients. Ultimately, keep your final count to about one or two events (day or week-long observance) per month.

Step 3: Coordinate Your Calendar Theme with Your Business Cycles

Every business has their busy seasons and their slow seasons, and having an idea of your company’s highs and lows will go a long way to maximizing those promotional events. Guaranteed, you will always find at least one time of the year that is known around the office as ‘Hell Week’. And if there is one time of the year that you do not need to increase foot traffic, that is it.

Do you traditionally see a business slump in May? Add some May calendar ideas to your list, like Small Business Week (the first week of May). Call these out on your calendar, or promote your business directly on the calendar pages for these slower months.

If all else fails and you aren’t sure when to schedule your promotions, you can always check out an article like this one on Inc.com. While not specific to a single field, Dan Breeden’s article on the peak times and important sales dates for different industries is a great starting point.

Step 4: Combine Your Themed Calendar with Other Marketing Ideas

Rewards programs, promotional items, giveaways, etc. always make the customer feel valued, appreciated, and above all, special. Studies have shown that relevant and quality branded swag creates an 85% name recall in customers.

Does that mean that you have to drop a lot of money into your promotional items? Not at all. The best items are effective because they are memorable. So make themed swag a part of your promotional program.

For example, January is Slow Cooking Month, Soup Month, and Sunday Supper Month. When sending your promotional calendar to clients, you could include a set of complementary laminate recipe cards. This free gift is inexpensive but a nice way to encourage name recognition every time a client makes dinner.

Step 5: Choose Your Type of Calendar

With so many options, it can be difficult to decide what kind of promotional calendar you want for your clients. But that is where Printing for Less can help. With our talented staff of Customer Advocates, we are ready and willing to help you design the perfect promotional calendar to suit your needs. We can offer a variety of calendar sizes, paper options, as well as inks, foil stamping, embossing, and die cuts.

Need help with your printing? Talk to a live print expert today at 800-930-7978.

5 Easy Ways to Hang Posters Without Damaging Your Walls

Search for the ‘Best way to hang posters’ and Google will bring back an almost limitless supply of How To’s. How to hang posters, how to put posters on walls, how to pick the best tape for posters, etc. But while it is handy to know the difference between ‘double-sided’ and ‘magic’ tape, or pick up yet another miraculous dorm-room use for toothpaste, you may not want to look as though you actually live in a dorm.

So, here are our recommendations on ‘How To’ elevate your look and showcase those posters in offices, living rooms, and, yes, even dormitories.

How To Pick Your Materials

Beyond your usual pencil and tape measure, there are a number of tools that you can use to efficiently and evenly hang your poster. And for some, you don’t even need a hammer!

Depending on whether you want a more informal look or a classic presentation, you have plenty of options to choose from when hanging posters. Renting has become so common that there are tons of choices for hanging materials that don’t require putting a hole in your wall.

Sticky-backed Velcro® strips, hooks, and even plastic eye-holes are inexpensive and handy alternatives. Just keep those specified weight limits in mind.

Light-weight pieces, like an unadorned poster, can be mounted simply with decorative tacks, poster putty, or flat adhesives like double-sided tape. However, an adhesive that is attached directly to your poster can sometimes cause creasing or wrinkling. It also limits your ability to make adjustments without damaging your piece, and can potentially leave marks on your walls. You can read our suggestions below, but if you are stuck on double-sided tape, always test your adhesive in an inconspicuous area before you use it!

Middle-weight pieces, such as posters with a binder frame or other light frame, can usually be supported with a commercial hanging strip. These strips can be found at most stores and are available in a variety of sizes, styles, and weight-capacities. If you’re unsure as to what type you need, choose a slightly higher capacity for extra stability.

Heavy-weight pieces, such as fully framed posters, may need to be supported with nails or screws.

To avoid unnecessary damage to your wall, be sure to place your nail or screw into a wall stud, or use a sheet rock anchor to provide necessary support.

Start With a Clean Canvas

Before hanging your poster, quickly inspect the wall for unsightly scuffs, dirt, or residues that can inhibit your adhesive materials. Painted or wall-papered surfaces are easily cleaned by gently wiping them down with a soft damp sponge.

Most sticky residues (maybe left over from the last attempt at poster hanging?) may be removed with a little rubbing alcohol. This evaporates quickly and cleanly, but again always test it on a small, inconspicuous spot first. Ensuring that your wall is clean and ‘poster-ready’ will remove any distracting blemishes and make your job easier.

The (Other) Golden Rule

Choosing the right spot for your poster is more of a science than an art. To maximize the visual experience and the comfort of their audience, art galleries are often arranged with the centre of an individual piece at eye level.

For an average American this will be anywhere from 57-63 inches from the floor. This means that in order to put your poster at eye-level, you will have do a little math. But don’t worry! It’s easy.

First measure the length (including any frame) of your poster from top to bottom: that is your total length.
Then, divide your total length in half: that is your mid-point.
Pick a number from 57 to 63: that is your average height.
Subtract your mid-point from the average height that you chose. This new number will tell you where on the wall the bottom edge of your poster will be.
Finally, measure up from the floor and mark that point gently on the wall with your pencil. Do this two more times, on either side of your first mark.
When you are ready to hang your poster, line the bottom edge of it with those three marks. Erase any visible pencil marks and step back to admire your nice and even poster that is at the perfect height.

This technique will work for most individual posters. But don’t limit yourself. A wide-open wall space can seem daunting, but this is your place to play.

Depending upon the size or shape of your posters, you can showcase a single piece or a group to change the feel of your space.

When grouping your pieces, place the largest posters first to avoid over crowding. Larger posters may be placed further apart than smaller ones, but a good rule of thumb is to not space them more than 6 inches apart.

Keep in mind any furniture that will be nearby and allow about 12 – 24 inches between your furniture and the posters.

How to Frame Your Posters

Love that vintage-inspired poster wall? Opt for double-sided tape and layer your posters to maximize the impact. This technique presents each unique aspect of your posters. You can even distress or tear posters to create peek-a-boo panels of eye-catching interest points. Keep it simple to avoid overwhelming your audience and losing the organic effect.

Sometimes the long, clean lines of a pristine poster just beg to be shown off. Avoid the ‘dormitory’ look with a smooth matte and a carefully arranged layout. The extra step of backing your pieces with poster board will make your posters more durable, less prone to curling, and make placement a breeze. To give your posters that extra POP!!, try utilizing an extra thick mounting adhesive to the wall. The floating effect of just a half-inch will have you walking on air.

Do you want a Pinterest worthy space but have just too many posters to choose from? Try mounting decorative bases or painted canvases to your walls and swap out your posters to fit your mood. Or hang your posters on gallery-style wires with clips or a magnetic two-piece binder. Makes it classy, but without the commitment.

Nothing elevates a poster like a well-chosen frame. Encase that ragged poster in a floating glass frame for an instant collector’s piece. Display your black and whites in something vibrant for an instantly modern look, or your monochromes in something understated and allow them to shine. A frame immediately creates a sense of permanency and importance, converting even the most casual poster into something special.

From advert to political statement, the poster is being re-imagined. Give those posters gathering dust a second life with one of our tips and tricks and upgrade your look.

Need help with your poster printing? Talk to a live print expert today: 800-930-7978.

8 Back of Business Card Design Ideas to Enhance Your Marketing

All hail the humble business card! While its primary purpose is to let people know how they can get in touch with you, this small piece of paper says a lot about who you are and what you have to offer. It pays to get creative with it, which is why savvy professionals know to the up the ante, especially when it comes to their business card back design.

Before we get to the backs of business cards, let’s talk basics. A business card, though tiny in scope and appearance, is actually a pretty key part of your individual or company marketing plan.

And people are paying attention. Seventy-two percent of them consider there to be a connection between the quality of your card and the quality of the product or service you have to offer. And 39% will choose not to do business with a company whose business cards look cheap.

The business card front and back each has their own distinct purpose. The front is where you want to convey your name, title, and contact information, and the back is where you have space to go a little more in-depth. Here are eight tips to making the back of your business card stand out.

1. Opt for simplicity

The trick to effective back of business card designs: simplicity. Remember, your business card is a snippet of information about you—it doesn’t have to tell your whole story; just inspire people to learn more. This can be a hard task to master when you’re staring at the blank side of your card and trying to figure out what to put there.

You want your business card to look pleasant to the eye, which means achieving a balance between design and emptiness. Thinking of your business card like any other piece of marketing copy shows why simplicity is so important.

Effective marketing involves getting your point across as succinctly as possible and avoiding unnecessary fluff that takes away from your main message. Apply the same principle to the backside of business cards and you understand why “less is more” continues to be reigning principle.

2. Blank doesn’t have to equal white

A caveat of the simplicity rule is that blank doesn’t have to mean blank. An original design or photograph is an excellent way to creatively utilize space on the back of your business card without overloading it. This is especially true if you’re an illustrator, designer, photographer, or another professional in a creative field.

Quality comes first when it comes to your image. Aim for 300 dpi or higher so that the design doesn’t appear grainy once it’s printed out. And if it’s in your skill set, use your back of business card design to showcase your skills, highlighting work you’re proud of or creating something new. It’s a great place to show off what you can do.

3. Share an evergreen tip

In the same vein as using back of business card designs as a place to display original imagery, you can also use it to share your expertise by including a useful tip. People will be more likely to hold on to your card if it shares information they might need.

For example, if you’re a plumber you can share a quick tip on how to fix a running toilet. Or if you own a bakery you can include a small chart detailing how much cake you need to feed a crowd. When prospects hold on to the card for the tip it offers, they’ll also hold on to your contact information.

4. Turn your card into a coupon

Another great way to get people to hold on to your business card design is to make it do double duty as a coupon. Use the space on the back side to share a deal that’s only for cardholders, such as 10% off their bill when they display the card at the time of service.

Even if they’re not in need of your business now, they’ll hang on to the card in case they are later. This is an ideal way to stand out if you’re in sales or another field where your card is less about creative design and more about securing leads.

5. Direct to your social accounts

If your brand uses social media as part of their marketing strategy, the back of your business card is an excellent place to direct people to your channels. The front of your card can get easily bogged down if you’re trying to share too much, so using the back specifically for your social media account information is useful. Because it’s simple and straightforward text, you’ll get your point across quickly without upsetting the balance of the space.

6. Be smart with your color choice

Colors have subtle subconscious meanings, and you can take advantage of this when you design the back of your card. Bright colors like yellow and orange connote energy and optimism, while cooler colors like blue and violet are indicative of dependability and stability. And there are other ways that colors play into perception as well — think green for things related to the environment and black for luxury products.

Use the power of color to your benefit by opting for a solid stain on the back of your card that connects color with what you’re trying to convey. In addition to giving off subconscious cues, it will help you stand out from the stack of basic white business cards on a prospect’s desk.

7. Direct to video

You can’t exactly put a video on the back of business card design (yet), but you can absolutely use it as a place to direct to one. Give a quick run-down of what the video will entail (i.e. “5 cyber security tips all businesses should know” or “How to get stains out of grout”) and then include a QR code that people can scan on their phones to get to the video itself. Business card backs are a great place to do this, and it’s a helpful way of furthering a prospect’s journey down the sales funnel by bringing them to your site.

8. Map it out

If you want to go visual but aren’t quite sure how, consider putting in a map that either directs to your office or outlines your service area. Maps are streamlined, practical, and nice to look at, and they’re also an efficient use of space. You can work with a designer to create a unique map design, or you can just put together something simple from the web. Whichever way you go, it’s a good visual reminder of where you’re at.

Get a custom business card that shows off just how much you have to offer. And if you need some help, let us know! We can help you design a business card today or have you speak to a print consultant to come up with your ideal design.

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