As a graphic designer, it’s important to establish yourself as a brand before you go out and try to start making other people’s brands. Not only will establishing your own identity show off your skill of branding to potential employers, but it also should reflect yourself as a designer, it’s one of the few times as a designer where you’ll be able to stay completely true to your personal style. When making your own brand, one part of the brand you can’t forget to make is your stationary (business card, letterhead, envelope), as it is the first thing most people will see of your branding. So today I wanted to look at the three most important pieces of a graphic designers stationary.

Business Card

Your business card is the most important piece of your stationary, as it is something your potential client/employer will see first about you, if you’re a graphic designer with a poor business card, it’s going to give a very early poor indication of your skills as a designer. It’s important that you get all the information you want onto your business card, giving anybody who sees it multiple choices of how to contact you and a link to your website, so that they can see even more of your work.

Letterhead

Your letterhead isn’t something every client may see before they hire you, but they’ll most likely see it afterwords. Your letterhead will be very important as a layout for your invoices with clients, so while not something a client will use to decide whether or not to hire you, but giving your client an undesigned invoice seems unprofessional and designing one isn’t that much work after you’ve got your letterhead together. Don’t forget that the letterhead has many uses beyond your invoices as well, so it is important to make even if you don’t think you’re going to use it for invoices..

Envelope

A designed  envelope is a nice touch to make any piece of mail you send feel a bit more professional and cohesive with your brand. It’s very important to not go overboard with an envelope design, there are strict guidelines that you have to follow when designing an envelope that the US Postal Service has, so make sure to keep them in mind when designing something you plan to mail. Something simplistic is ideal with the envelope, but make sure it still fits in with the other stationary that you have, as cohesion is key between all your branding, and the envelope can be hard to fit in with the rest.