Archive for the ‘Letterhead Design’ Category

In itself, having a logo is not the same thing as having a brand for a company. Although the logo is an important part, a brand is something much greater than just an icon. It includes the colours, the style, and the personality of the company. The aim of a good brand; to differentiate your company from others in the same marketplace and to represent qualities which your target market will find innately appealing. All other things being equal, a well branded company is much more likely to succeed in winning customers that a businesses with a weak or confused brand.

Here is a simple example to illustrate the point. Take two identical pairs of shorts with an identical price and put them in the same shop. Now if you add the Nike logo to one of them, you will find sales of the Nike pair will far outstrip the other. This is not just because of the logo, it is for what the logo represents to the buyer (higher quality, better engineering, better materials), and what the buyer believes the logo will represent to others when the shorts are worn (that s/he is wealthier, more professional, trendier etc.)

Creating a brand is not just for large companies, it is also vital for smaller businesses – especially if they are operating in a crowded marketplace. By becoming recognisable to customers and reinforcing positive values, the chances of winning new business and attracting repeat custom is greatly increased.

Creating a new brand for small & medium sized companies.

Many new businesses ask us to help them create a brand. It often starts with a logo design, but then takes the key logo qualities and expands them to a distinctive look, feel and tone of voice which ties together all the promotional material. Although every branding project is slightly different depending on the individual demands of the customer, here are the typical elements of a branding project.

Business Logo Design

The logo design will be the absolute cornerstone of a brand. It will determine the shapes, colours and characteristics which will then be expanded across all the company’s promotional material. All our logo design packages start with the creation of a strong design brief. By understanding as much as we can about the business and the target customers, we can ensure that the concepts we create will be suitable for the way the company needs to engage with its audience.
However, although we can advise, it is always our client who chooses the logo concept from our selection of ideas which they would like to take forward in development. While it is very important that the brand will appeal to target customers, it also has to be a logo design which the client themselves likes, believes in and is proud to use to represent themselves.

Business Stationery Design

The business stationery is often the first opportunity we have to expand the chosen logo into a wider design which will come to characterise the overall brand. The company letterheads, compliment slips and business cards do not allow much space or potential for text, but they all start as plain white sheets so allow plenty of space for the colours and shapes which will come to represent the brand. In terms of style, it is often the stationery which forms the bridge between the logo design and the broader design of brochures, flyers and other promotional material.

The stationery is also the time to think about a ‘tag line’ – a short and simple statement which tells potential customers instantly about what you do. The choice of words in describing your business can be as important as any element of the design in forming a brand.

Marketing Material

Now that the logo and colour schemes are largely determined, it is time to start selling the brand and the business to potential customers. In engaging new clients and establishing a brand, the choice of marketing material to use can be just as important as the message and design itself. If the brand is intended to be young, funky and fresh – then the choice of traditional A5 flyers might not be right for the brand. Likewise, if you need to convey values of trust, stability and tradition then choosing unusual marketing approaches can do more harm than good.

Alongside the choice of format, the design, the message and the tone of the text for your marketing material will all ultimately contribute to the brand. On each piece of marketing, it is important to consider all of these elements together as part of a greater whole. They should all be working together to create a strong message and an effective piece of marketing. Remember that a great brand is not all about strict rules on what should and shouldn’t be done. It is about a spirit and recognition which holds everything together.

Add Design can assist you in all aspects of developing an effective company brand. From professional logo design, to business stationery design, flyers and leaflets and business brochures and catalogues, we offer a full range of cost effective graphic design services.

Communication is vital for businesses and the material you use for communications can have a massive impact on the overall image of your business. This is why it is so important to get your business stationery design including your letterhead, business cards and compliment slips absolutely right. Sometimes our clients are a little unsure of exactly what to include on their letterhead, so we’ve put together this guide to take you through the key components to an effective letterhead design.

Contact Details

It probably goes without saying, but all business stationery should give people the information they need to be able to get in touch with you. A letterhead should include your contact address (if you have a different registered address, your contact address should be the one you use here) as well as your main phone number. You could also include an email address and the address of your website as people are increasingly using the internet as a preferred method to get in touch.

Logo

Your logo is vital to your brand and it helps people to identify your company. It also builds confidence as it lends legitimacy to your letterhead, as well as adding one of the key points of interest. Traditionally, the logo was always at the top left of a letterhead but with many of our clients looking for something more innovative we have previously placed logos in many different locations, including as a ‘watermark’ across the main part of the page.

Tagline

A lot of businesses like to include a brief tagline on their letterhead design to let people know instantly about what they do. This could be a short mission statement or something which describes the business. For example, Add Design uses ‘The online graphic designers.’ This lets people know what we are (graphic designers) and what makes us unique (we work online). A Tagline is especially important if you are using the letterhead to engage with new customers, as they many be unfamilar with the brand and what it is that you offer them.

Company Number

You are legally required to include your company number somewhere in the design of all business stationery, so you should definitely include this somewhere on your letterhead.

Registered Company Address

Again, you have a legal requirement to include your registered company address on your business stationery. Often, this will be different from your main contact address so we often include the registered address in the footer so it is not confused with the preferred address for communications. Alongside the registered company address should be the full registered name of the company, or if it is a trading name then you should include the registered company it belongs to.

VAT Number

Depending on what you are using your letterhead for, you might or might not have to include your VAT number. If you are using the stationery to send out invoices or credit notes, then you will definitely need to include it. If, however, you are using your letterhead for correspondence only then it will be up to you whether you choose to include your VAT number or not.

Accreditation Logos

Many of our customers include the logos for accreditations and professional memberships which they have. This adds significant weight to the company presentation and is one of the key ways of instantly showing your quality of service to customers. If you do include accreditation logos then ensure that you will be accredited by each organisation throughout the period you expect to use the letterhead (otherwise you will have to reprint if the accreditation changes). You might also need to check the rules on usage for each logo as many accrediting organisations have strict rules on how their logos can be used.

Business Stationery Design – Add Design are UK graphic designers offering a full range of graphic design services to clients in the UK and internationally. Our business stationery design packages include professional business card design, logo design, letterhead design and compliment slip design.

Here at Add Design, we know that all companies want to appear professional and attractive, but they often operate on tight budgets – especially if they are just starting up. Here are some top solutions for helping you show your clients, competition and everyone else that you mean business without having to break the bank, with Add Design’s range of fixed price graphic design packages for business logos, business stationery, flyers, leaflets and brochures.

For instance, your business logo design is one of the most important things to do well. Get the right logo and it will act as the cornerstone of your brand, helping your company create a professional, distinctive look across all the material you produce now and into the future. We understand that you can grab a logo image off the internet for next to nothing, but you really need to think carefully about whether this creates the right starting point for the success of your company. The graphic designers at Add Design can create a completely bespoke logo for your company for a very good price – our prices start at just £75 and we tailor all our work to your needs, making sure you get exactly the business logo you need to get the company off on the right foot.

A good business card design is another really important marketing tool and business cards are vital for helping you create the right impression instantly. Once you’ve got your professionally-designed logo, this can be developed into a brand which can be extended onto your business cards. Most customers you meet will see quite a few business cards in a single day, so it is important that yours stands out against the others both in design and quality. This is something that can be done by using our graphic design services. All our prices include design, print and delivery, so you can benefit from a comprehensive package with no hidden costs. The killer business card is certainly an investment worth making.

We can also produce a letterhead for you to help extend the reach of your brand even further. After all, many businesses frequently send out letters to potential clients as well as current customers and it’s really important that you make sure your brand stands out and is distinctive. Once a customer is familiar with your company, the chances of you being used again is greatly increased. Our cost-effective letterheads are printed on a high quality 120gsm bright white paper to instantly create the right impression. However, for companies on a really tight budget we have another solution. Our electronic letterheads are absolutely perfect as you can just print them out from your own printer whenever you need them. As well as for letters, the electronic letterhead can also be used for a whole range of other documents, including professional-looking quotations, invoices, terms and conditions and more. At just £75 for a self-printing letterhead, all of this adds up to make them a very cost-effective branding solution for companies on a budget.

We also think company brochures are a great way marketing your business, but we understand that a lot of companies want to save on the cost of printing and posting as it is often this that pushes up the overall price. This is why our graphic designers work so hard to create fantastic-looking brochures that can either be emailed out to people or made available online. This allows you to distribute your brilliantly brochure quickly and simply to customers without the costs of either printing or postage.

Our Add Design graphic design services are perfect for any business that is watching its budget but still wants to benefit from high quality design. Plus, the price we give you is the price you pay: we don’t have any hidden extras or unexpected surprises in our costs as all prices include design, print and delivery.  Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you’d like to find out more.

Business Stationery Design typically includes the design and print of business letterheads, business cards and compliment slips. This article deals with letterhead options – information on business card design and compliment slip design will be published in another post.

Letterhead Design

At Add Design, we offer three different types of letterhead – standard printed letterheads, print-your-own letterheads and e-mailable letterheads.

Each type of letterhead is bespoke designed especially for your business, but they offer different levels of flexibility to suit your budget, circumstances and the way you communication with your clients.

Standard Printed Letterheads.

This is the traditional option. These letterheads are bespoke designed, printed on high quality paper and delivered directly to your door. When sent through the post or handed to customers, they provide an instantly professional appearance with bold colours, crisp lines and high definition print.

We can print as many letterheads as required, but for the best prices we often recommend a minimum order of 500. When it comes to printed business stationery, there is always a cost advantage in ordering a larger quantity. This is due to the set-up costs and the economies of scale with printing. For more information and prices on our standard printed letterheads please visit our business stationery design page.

The Print-Your-Own Letterhead.

While standard printed letterheads are most cost effective for larger orders, there are many instances where a business might want just a small quantity of letterheads. This might be because business stationary is not often used, or because details are soon to change. Luckily there is a solution – the print-your-own letterhead.

We can still design a stunning letterhead for your business, but rather than send them to print we supply the design to you as a high res PDF. This allows you to print the letterheads through your own printer when required. You can then put them back through your printer to print the letter or main content.

Most home printers cannot print right to the edge of the page, so we create your PDF letterhead design within the main part of the paper so it won’t show these margins. We also make sure that any text and detail is slightly larger and bolder in colour than our standard letterheads to ensure proper reproduction.

The aim is to give your business a perfectly professional letterhead, but with the convenience of printing as you go along.

The E-mail Letterhead.

Some of our clients don’t want to print their letterhead at all. Instead they want to write a letter on Microsoft Word and e-mail it directly to a customer.  This method is especially useful for sending out quotes and project proposals

To ensure that your communication always looks professional and strongly branded we can design a letterhead template within Microsoft Word. Using the headers and footers of the page, this template can contain all the usual letterhead information. So when your customer prints the document at the other end, they are in no doubt about who wrote it and sent it to them.

How can we help? Whatever your individual requirements, we will make sure that your business always look professional. For advice on getting the best from your business stationery please contact us.

Business Stationery Design – click here to view our range of packages

Add Design offer a full range of business stationery packages to clients locally in London, Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk and throughout the UK. Our online design and print service is the convenient and cost effective choice wherever you are located.

Starting with nothing but a blank sheet of A4, designing effective business stationery is a challenge. The majority of our clients want something which is practical, professional, but which will also carry their brand effectively to the customer.

Practicality in fact is one of the chief factors which will influence a letterhead design. Afterall, the reason for a letterhead is to carry a message to the customer, so we need to make sure that any design will not interfere with the text area or distract from the overall message. The design also needs to be multifunctional and versatile. An informal and friendly letterhead design is great for communicating with new customers, but will fall down when being used to demand payment or provide legal information.

With all this in mind, here are a few of our previous business stationery designs alongside an explanation on how each was designed to enhance the brand, and meet the demands of the customer.

A Corporate Stationery Design.

We had already created the logo for this Timber Export Company, and wanted the stationery to develop this new brand. The customer needed the stationary to be bold, eye-catching and modern, but also wanted to make sure that the size and importance of the company was reflected as most communication would be with major European companies. Our choice of a block colour banner hopefully achieves this balance – interesting, modern but still corporate.

An Impressive Stationery Design

An impressive building needs impressive stationery. This manor provides the very highest level of care to its elderly residents. In consultation with the client we had already developed a new logo which shows-off the building, and now we needed a stationery design which would leave people in no doubt of the very high level of service and care which new residents can expect. The intricate design, watermarked logo and choice to use a 120gsm Conqueror Laid Cream Paper all contribute to a very high-end feel.

A Stylish Stationery Design

Breaking the tradition of letterhead design usually means breaking from a classically geometric design. This letterhead for a Heating and Green Energy company does this by using bold waves in deep colours for a design which is striking, but which still builds professionalism. Most importantly for a company promoting renewable energy products, it also conveys a modern approach with the obvious connection between ‘Green Energy’ and the streaming waves which twist across the letterhead. These waves have now become the signature brand identity for this company and weave their way through all the publicity material.

How can we help? All our fixed priced stationery options are bespoke designed for your business. From full-on corporate, to something a little more wild, we can design business stationery which instantly gives the right impression.

Business Stationery Design - click here for information on our range of stationery packages.

Right from being a graduate and applying for that all important first job in design, I was aware of the importance that good stationery made in conveying an impression of me and selling my skills. On a limited budget with just a pack of the best looking quality paper I could find, and my ink jet printer set to high quality print, I set about applying for jobs in the fiercely competitive world of design. It was the intriguing format of my CV that grabbed the most attention and allowed me to walk into my first job with relative ease. Back then, I regarded my CV as a more detailed version of a business card; it conveyed a clear impression of me and contained information about what I did.

Nowadays it is advisable to keep CVs clean and simply laid out. Back then, before home PCs were quite so common, I went to town on creating a CV that stretched the limits of my design software. The thinking behind this was to force the recipient to engage with the CV in an interesting, playful way, as well as guiding them through the information in a systematic but exciting way – using not just the words, but the design and layout to stand-out from the other candidates.

Needless to say my passion for creating business stationery design with an instant ‘wow’ factor continues. Letterheads, compliment slips and business cards can be incredible works of art, representing your business in an exciting way, and should not simply be viewed as white sheets of paper with the logo in the top right-hand corner. Many businesses are aware of the importance of professionally designed business stationery and an increasing number are after something with that extra ‘something’ going beyond a simple layout and crisp logo.

With the rise of the internet and most marketing material in electronic format, it’s now more important than ever to use all printed material to its maximum promotional advantage. After all, if it is one the main items that you are going to get printed (rather than put into digital format and uploaded), why not make your business stationery design look totally fabulous?

I had the luxury of time and a limited number of companies to contact which meant I could print and hand finish my CV, allowing me to innovate and explore creative ways of promoting myself on a small budget. On larger scale this simply wouldn’t have been practical. This is why convention prevails in the world of business stationery design – business cards in a landscape credit card size and compliment slips in landscape DL-size. For companies looking to make their business cards and compliment slips stand-out from the crowd, something as simple as a curved corner can add interest. For the less budget conscious, a whole host of print finishing options can create exciting results from embossing, spot gloss, dye-cutting, punch throughs, and folded designs.

Letterhead design presents slightly different challenges to a designer, as innovation in shape and layout are often over ridden by more practical criteria. The conventional A4 size and matt paper type of letterheads ensure they can be put through office printers with ease and can have any amount of information or type layouts applied to them. There are also certain pieces of information that are required by law if you are a UK based limited company. The company name must be included, its place of registration, its registered number and the address of its registered office. More information makes designing an unusual letterhead far more tricky and it is often down to the skill of the designer to work around these limitations.

Ultimately, despite its very practical applications, it’s worth viewing business stationery design as an important and potentially exciting piece of promotion. Hiring a designer that can create professional business stationery designs that work around the practical requirements of the stationery but can design something engages, stands-out and is remembered may well help get that all important job or customer.

How can we help? We have created innovative, eye-catching and stylish stationery designs for every type of business.  To discuss how to get the absolute most out of your business stationery, please contact us.