Print Design TipsTips and Information About Printing

Your letterhead is an essential piece of your stationery package and it is likely to be seen by more people than any other item you may use – you need to get the design and feel of the letterhead right because it is your constant representative to the rest of the world.  A letterhead forms the center piece of your entire stationery package and is an essential piece of printed material when it comes to creating yor beand identity.

Remember your letterhead will end up in all kinds of places and situations and will be seen by a good number of people who it was not initially sent to – every time someone sees your letterhead, or for that matter any piece of yoru stationery, it is an important opportunity to promote yourself and yoru business as well as convey your business communication.

Basic Components

As a minimum your letterhead should contain the following:

• Logo
• Business name
• Contact information including telephone number and website address along with your mailing address and email

Footers and Headers

It is typical to break a letterhead down into the header (at the top) and the footer (at the bottom) with the main body free to present your text.  By organizing the letterhead in this way you instantly  create a space to maximize what you wish to say but at the same time have designated space to include your basic and optional components you wish to include.

Break the header up into three distinct sections – far left, center and far right – and make sure you leave space between them so that they do not merge into each other which will create a cluttered look.  Typically a header will be between half to 3 inches and a good hint is not to use fonts less than 8 pts as less than this becomes difficult to read or allow the information contained to be easily located on the letterhead.

Similar guidelines apply to the footer but with the additional caveat that this is where you are more likely to put the “small print” such as corporate and legal notices.  Again use no less than 8pts font size because it still has to be readable but a good touch is to separate the footer with a color band or “hairline” from the body of the letterhead sitting above it and this can neatly tie into the brand identity you are trying to create.

Backgrounds

Using a background is an excellent means of differentiating your letterhead from the rest of the pack but it should be understated to ensure it does not take over the appearance of the body of the letter.  A watermark using your logo or business name is an excellent means of achieving this and is especially effective when you are using full-color printing – ask your print and design partner for samples so you can see the effect.

Be careful with the colors you use in the background as you must remember that dark (black or less often, blue) text will be running across the body area of the letterhead – if you have black background and black text is printed across it then it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to read.