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Business cards are very useful and are standard business stationery items. Almost all profitable businesses invest in designing a business card as they are the first point of contact between a brand and interested buyers, sellers, or investors. Exchanging business cards is a more personal way of communicating, which has a more significant impact than seeing display ads and newspaper ads. Most people don’t realize that business cards aren’t just a point of contact; they can also be used as a point of sales. You can market your brand and showcase all that your brand stands for in a confined small area.
People realize the need for unique business cards, breaking the norm, and experimenting with various business card designs. When you pay attention to something most people don’t, it by itself impresses the receiver of your business card because of for your drive to sell and the entrepreneur in you. Here are some of the best business card trends we will be seeing in 2021:
1. Transparent and Clear Business Cards:
Many brands are making use of transparent and clear materials for their business card designs. It gives the otherwise opaque rectangle a breath of fresh air. No matter how much you edit the texture or material, most business cards from afar would run the risk of looking similar. With clear business cards, your cards are bound to stand out from the crowd. Now you can either go entirely transparent or partially as per your design preferences.
2.Plantable Business Cards:
Brands that have an ecological sense and approach towards nature attract more credibility and feel-good factor about themselves that are significant advantages in today’s world of extreme competition. It shows that you still care for nature as a brand and are doing your bit to preserve it or not harm it. 2021 is going to see plantable business cards that have a recycled texture with seeds embedded below the surface. Once you are done using the card, you can tear and bury it. This can be a memorable experience and create a bond between you and the receiver.
3. Edible Business Cards:
Now no one imagined creating business cards that can be consumed! But if you are in an edible business, having edible business cards presented to your clients and customers is marketing them your product and showing how serious you are about your niche. The flavor of the business card can be a sample of your best-selling cookies, chocolate, fruit, or more. Such an approach would ensure that your customers remember you for a long time. You need to ensure that this business card has a long edible shelf life and prepare it accordingly.
4. Paint Dipped Business Cards:
This kind of business card involves dipping business cards in any medium of paint. Usually, dye, acrylic, or watercolors are used. These dyed business cards give plain-looking business cards an accent color. Since dipping them by hand won’t produce consistent and controlled results, all your cards would have a slightly different design from each other. Thus, each business card becomes unique while following the same overall card design true to your brand.
5. Painted Edge Business Cards:
This is one of the most used yet effective business card trends that are likely to be seen a lot in 2021. You paint the edge of the business card with colored ink. Usual business card designs would emphasize on front and back of a business card; this trend breaks that barrier and uses the edges. The cards look more playful and easily distinguishable this way.
6. Interactive Business Cards:
If you think about it, business cards, for the most time, have remained a one-way communication platform where a brand owner shares their details with their prospective clients. This reformed a little during 2019 with widely gained acceptance of interactive design elements in business cards. These design elements are still going to be popular, and more innovative interactive elements would be experimented with.
7. Glow in Dark Business Cards:
This is one of the fanciest design elements that are not going out of style anytime soon. The same can be implemented in business cards as well. Generally, business cards follow design elements that make them look very mundane and repetitive. There is no fun element as such. Using glow in a dark element would help break that monotonous communication and add fun to design. This helps in increasing your brand’s memorability.
8. Tearable Business Cards:
Any card that includes the receiver taking some action would be easily memorable. Tearable cards can be an ideal business card for supposing a divorce lawyer. The business card can be torn in half and shared by both parties. The clients would remember such attention to detail more than they would remember a standard business card from some other divorce lawyer. Such cards need to be designed to hold all necessary information on both sides of the card, and the tear from here instruction is clearly labeled.
9. Fabric material Business Cards:
While paper is the number one recyclable product we think of, there are other available options. These days, the fashion and furnishing industry is mostly taking a more in-depth look at materials such as fabric swatches and leftover cloth for creating unique business cards. If you are from a creative field, fabric material business cards would work to testify to your creativity in showcasing your work.
10. Sample Business Cards:
The primary function of business cards is to inform prospective clients about your business. In 2021, businesses would take this one step further and make business cards so that it also holds a sample amount of the product they want to sell. For this, there could be business cards in the shape of a teabag for a tea selling business.
11. Coaster Business Cards:
Coaster Business Cards make perfect sense when you think about them. Coasters are used frequently by many people, irrespective of what profession they are in. They are going to interact with it many times in their office time. Why not sell your business idea there itself. Here you are providing the prospective clients with a solution for their everyday needs while also subtly promoting your business and reminding them of you when he uses the coaster.
12. Minimalist Design Business Cards:
Minimalism in design is not a trend that is going to fade away soon. More and more development in this design style is explored every year. This simplicity and cleanliness highlight the essential details and are easy for the viewer to look at. 2021 would see minimalist business cards to add modern fonts in various settings. Designers could also add one bright element for exploiting the contrast to draw interest or keep it simple if the client demands that.
13. Sliding Business Cards:
These business cards make use of movement for capturing the user’s attention. It can be used whimsically or playfully. The user can slide one part of the card to see the contact information or show an implied message for them. Some applications of such cards could be to use three vertical slices, which look like graphs with a steady increase in growth, showing your business is profitable or that you elevate your client’s business. Such reinforcing of trust and confidence can help your clients feel better about their decision to partner with you.
14. Big Typography Business Cards:
Typography is generally looked at as a supporting design element and ignored as a potential hero element in any design project. This might change in 2021. Business cards with bold and big typography use would replace introducing other design elements for making a business card stand out. This is not to be confused with watermark logos. The text would be stretched across the entire dimensions of the card and limit the whitespace’s scope. The main selling point of such business cards would be that they get straight to the point.
15. Heavy and Durable Cardstock Business Cards:
Generally, designers pay a lot of attention to a business card’s color, layout, fonts, and other design elements. However, one often forsaken design aspect that designers are paying more attention to now is the cardstock GSM. Using the correct cardstock can translate a lot of your business values and what you’re trying to portray. Heavy and durable cardstock depicts your business to have quality and stability at the core. Make sure to get samples made, so you have a look and feel of the card before finding the right one that fits your budget and feel you are going for.
16. Unconventional Text Alignment Business Cards:
Another variation in business cards is typography and changing the conventional norms of placing text in defined alignments. Generally, the text is supposed to flow left to right. Try experimenting everywhere on the confined area of your business card. You can go up to down, down to up, top left, bottom right, vice versa, and wherever. Just make sure you do it for a reason and that it doesn’t hinder readability because that would beat the purpose of the business card.
17. Stamped Business Cards:
Expect manual printing to have a fair share in the trend of business card design in 2021. Using an ink pad and rubber stamps would give the business cards a creative and crafty character. It is also easy to make as the tools needed to make such cards are very portable, making them won’t take any time. Hence you’d never run out of business cards to give. It is also highly versatile. You can use the same stamp print for branding, packaging, and other brand communication platforms to create a consistent branding statement.
18. Clever Puns and Symbols in Business Cards:
Designing business cards in 2021 could use some humor or smart play on words and phrases. Words affect how people think. Suppose you add a few witty lines about your brand in your business cards. In that case, it could provoke their excitement and minds, further motivating them to take action. Also, using puns related to your brand’s niche would reflect your business’ awareness and alertness about the niche, making you look more credible and reliable in the eyes of your customers/clients or whoever receives your card.
19. QR codes in Business Cards:
Business cards have already started seeing QR codes. It has been a beneficial feature in closing the gap between the digital and paper world. Especially after this pandemic, many restaurants also started using QR codes for customers to scan and access menus to reduce the touchpoints for many people that could lead to the possibility of contamination. Similarly, by applying this trend in your business card, you can redirect your potential customers to your product page or product demonstration and be responsible for yours and their health.
20. Vintage Inspired Business Cards:
Vintage design is a source of inspiration that drives some of the design trends each year in some or other way. They have their subtle effect on business card designs, too, and they help make them look appealing and aesthetic. You can make use of iconic movie dialogues, characters, or even phrases that callback to a particular era or product/feeling that your business is into. This way, your clients would know that you are a cultured person running the business with immense knowledge and also appreciate the nostalgia you help them achieve through your brand communication. You would be serving them the product or service you offer and the good feeling of nostalgia and escape from modern reality whenever they think of your brand.
These are the 20 Business Card Trends in 2021 that we should be seeing this year. Adapt to any of these styles that makes sense for your business to give yourself an edge over the competition and present your work in the most appealing manner possible.
