Branding your business is essential for recognition, credibility and professionalism. Everything, from websites to flyers to business cards should feature your company branding and so should your company letterheads. Printed letterheads are an essential business material and should be used to head all letters, invoices and professional correspondence. While it may seem simple, designing a letterhead that accurately represents your business requires certain factors. Take a look…
1. Formal requirements
As well as your business name you must remember to include all contact details including your address, telephone number(s) and email address. If you’re a sole trader you should also include your name if it differs from the name of the business. You’ll need your VAT number and, if you’re a LTD company, the registration number and registered address are essential.
2. Keep it simple
Letterhead design should be clear and simple, so don’t over complicate it with intricate details or images. Your company logo, and a touch of your company colours are enough to show your branding without needlessly cluttering your design.
3. Size and positioning
The size of your design is important, as you need to consider how it’ll look when printed onto various paper sizes. Your creative graphic design needs to stand out and frame the page, while not being over the top or taking up unnecessary space. If you’re going to convert the use of your letterhead design (which we recommend to keep branding consistent) on compliment slips or other, smaller sized pieces, you may need to re-arrange sizes and positioning to make it work. Typically a letterhead is A4 portrait whilst a compliment slip is 1/3A4 landscape.
4. Consider a watermark
A watermark is a great way to incorporate more of your imagery or colours, without losing valuable writing space. Watermarks are a faded version of a logo or image that is blended neatly into the background. The faded effect means that writing or printing will show just as clearly over the design, so you can make a bigger impact without wasting space, this also exudes high quality and professionalism.
5. Print in high quality
Your letterhead will always look better when printed in a high quality. Letterhead printing should be of a high standard and so should the paper it’s printed on. If your company is particularly focused on being ‘green’ you should also print onto recycled paper.
Want some more inspiration for how to create your letterheads? Check out this great article from Envato Tuts+ Design: 25 Professional Modern Letterhead Templates
If you’re looking for professional letterhead printing, contact PrintUK.com today to see how we can help.