The following is a guest post from our friend Dana at Japan Print. Japan Printing and Graphics is a family operated business dedicated to providing their customers with products of unparalleled quality. Headquartered in Downtown NYC, Japan Printing and Graphics is based in the New York’s financial district. Founded in the 1970′s, they have more than 35 years of experience in the print industry, which has allowed them to truly master their craft.

One of the most important, yet often underestimated marketing tools is a professionally designed business card. A business card serves as a visual representation of your company, instantly delivering contact information and brand recognition. If you want to effectively promote your business, its vital that your business card expresses your business’ personality and sets you apart. A great business card will influence its audience into believing that your business is top notch, and is much more likely to generate interest, leave a lasting impression, and can help maintain the overall image.

A business card must accurately represent your business and brand in order to help institute a solid presence. Here are three considerations for effectively creating and designing an impressive business card that will help you stand out from the crowd:

1. Content and Brand

It is imperative that the name, title, company, phone number, website URL and an email address are clearly displayed. Make the information is legible and appropriate typography is used.

It might seem obvious, but make sure you incorporate existing brand elements and keep the design consistent with other identity pieces.

2. Utilize the Senses

Sensory marketing is an important factor to take note of when designing the perfect business card. Through the overall design of the card you can increase the chances of being remembered by new contacts by stimulating a person’s senses. The overall design, color scheme, and even the type and texture of the paper all work together in unison, so make sure you take a person’s senses in mind during the design process if you want your business card to stand out and make an impression.

3. Use the Appropriate Font

You want your business card to communicate the nature of the business, and one way to do that is through the typography. Fonts convey emotion and have a personality to them, so don’t choose a whimsical font if you are promoting a real estate business. You want the font to be an accurate representation, so be sure to choose the appropriate typeface. If you’re a typographic newbie, the guide below might help you to find the proper typeface that shows what you want to convey:

Sans Serif

• Stability (Calibri and Helvetica Bold)
• Objectivity (Century Gothic and Franklin Gothic)
• Universal (Helvetica)
• Cleanliness (Verdana and Calibri)
• Modern (Arial and Myriad Italic)

Serif

• Impress (Bodoni)
• Tradition (Baskerville and Times New Roman)
• Comfort (Georgia)
• Reliability (Times New Roman and Baskerville)
• Authority (Garamond)
• Respect (Georgia and Trajan)

Slab Serif

• Strong (Courier)
• Bold (Rockwell)
• Funky (Bevan)
• Modern (Museo)
• Solid (Clarendon)

Modern

• Strength (Futura)
• Intelligence
• Chic (Century Gothic)
• Style (Majoram and Didot Italic)
• Sharp (Matchbook)
• Exclusivity (Infinity)
• Fashionable (Eurostyle)
• Progressive (ITC Avant Garde Extra Light)

Script

• Elegance (Bickham Script and Zaphino)
• Creativity (Lavanderia and Brush Script)
• Affectionate (Edwardian Script)
• Intriguing (Lucida)
• Feminine (Lobster)
• Friendly (Pacifico)

Display

• Friendly (Cooper)
• Unique (Spaceage Round)
• Expressive (Valencia)
• Amusement (Giddyup)