Personalize Your Business Communication With Letterhead
In this era of depersonalized and digital everything, almost nothing serves to form more of a personal communicative bond than physical mail. The tactile sensation that comes with the opening and unfolding of a piece of correspondence is an almost forgotten pleasure.
If you want to make a serious impression on your business contacts, customers, or potential customers, then snail mail may actually still have some purpose for you.
However, sending personalized correspondence on plain sheets of paper does little to impress. Why not create a stunning letterhead for your business communication? With a little help from our design tips and guidelines and the help of a good printer, you’ll be well on your way to creating a favorable, lasting impression on your clients and others. Read on for eight tips to creating a eye-catching professional letterhead.
1) Maintain Your Branding
You’ve most likely already spent time, energy, and/or money establishing a look for your brand. That look should transfer to your letterhead as well. But don’t feel like you need to cram your entire logo onto every piece of communication.
Sometimes dividing the logo between an envelope, reply card, and letterhead can make the stronger impression.
2) With Eye-Catching Letterhead, Simplicity Is Elegance
Whatever design elements and flourishes you may choose to incorporate into your new letterhead, please keep in mind that simplicity is elegance in the eye of the beholder. The last thing you want is to design a letterhead that is already busy, and then begin adding more printed elements to it.
3) The Devil Is in the Details
When designing anything, you must pay attention to the details themselves. But keep in mind that as much time as you spend scrutinizing the font, logo, and flourishes, those whom you communicate with will see the package as the sum of its various parts.
4) Proper Use of Space With Company Letterhead Design
Remember, the whole point of having a letterhead is so that you can create and send personalized business correspondence. If you don’t leave space to comfortably do so, you’ve kind of defeated the purpose. Also, pay attention to the negative space between your various design elements, checking for balance and symmetry.
5) Letterhead and Font Selection
If you have an established brand, chances are that you’ve already selected a font for use on your business cards, in your email signatures, and on your company website. You should use the same font for your letterhead. If all of the above branded materials are employing different typography, you may want to work on unifying your brand’s visual presence before you get to work on designing a letterhead.
6) Special Effects
Check with your printer regarding what may be available to you in terms of special printing effects like foils and embossing. But please remember tip number two above: simplicity generally equals elegance. So maybe keep the special effects to a minimum.
7) The Right Tool…
Not all software is created equal. Actually, not all software is created to do the same tasks equally. The gold standard of design software for print is Adobe’s InDesign program. With the help of a couple of online tutorials, you should be able to create your custom letterhead and save your files in a format that your printer can actually use to deliver top-quality finished product. If you’re not comfortable with InDesign…
8) Consider Tapping Out
Design, like dance or drumming, is something that often looks simpler as it becomes more complicated. There are reasons why professional designers (for example, their talent and practice) are professionals. You’re probably really good at running your business, and unless that business is graphic design, you might consider hiring a pro to help you get the best letterhead you can.
Other Points to Consider
We hope that you have enjoyed reading through our tips on designing and creating your own stunning letterhead for business use. We’d like to leave you with a couple extra tips. When working with a printer, always request a proof before you place your final order. Also, don’t order too much — nothing’s worse than having to recycle reams of beautiful unused letterhead just because your office relocated down the street.
And if your business is located in the Portland metro area, remember East Side Printing Co. is here to help design and print your professional letterhead. We’ll even deliver it right to your doorstep, and if it’s your first job with us, we offer 25% off your job, up to $250!