Business cards are a compact, easy to carry, extremely informative method of advertising yourself and your business. Business card printing is one of the easiest and least inexpensive of the many standard advertising options. The low cost of business card printing makes them easy to hand out, but the design can sometimes lack the impetus needed to make the receivers of your card hold onto it. Here are some ideas on how to get creative with your business card design so that it is remembered, kept, and used!

Backgrounds can make or break a banner ad or brochure panel, so creating exciting backgrounds that engage a potential customer is very important. Organic designs like that of a stained glass window can work in many different settings. This tutorial walks you through how to create a grungy, stained glass look that you can easily adjust later to meet the color scheme of any design.

Since design is a creative process, designers generally don’t follow a list of steps in a strictly linear fashion. They go back and forth from stage to stage until the end product looks right. Nevertheless, having a general guideline gives designers a place to start even if they don’t follow it exactly.

By and far, one of the easiest ways to create random effects in Photoshop is to use the Render -> Clouds feature. In this tutorial we will walk you through an easy way to create a layered, grungy background that you can use for designing and printing posters, flyers or just about anything where you need a stylized, grungy effect.

Many designs call for a blueprint theme. Whether a business is rolling out a new strategy, a client in the construction industry needs work, or you want to incorporate aspects of the blueprint look into other projects – a blueprint design technique can come in very handy. In this tutorial we walk you through some steps to get a blueprint design that you can use whenever you need it.

Whether you are making “Wanted” posters for a Western theme or just need to create the look of old paper for a design project, there are lots of techniques to create this effect. Ideally you can have at your fingertips a method that is scalable – so it works on small and large images – and consistent – so it looks the same from image to image if that’s what you need. This tutorial will teach you how to create that coveted “old paper” look using Photoshop’s built in layer styles tools.

Lighting is one of the more difficult aspects of an image to balance, but can be the difference between a printed brochure or poster that grabs attention or gets passed over. In this tutorial we will show you how to add light beams to your image in non-destructive method so you can adjust settings later.

One of Illustrator’s most powerful and overlooked tools is the Appearance Panel. Think of this tool as a super-Style feature: you can add an infinite number of effects that remain completely editable and the Appearance you create can be quickly added to new objects. Many designers close the Appearance Panel because it seems redundant when you have swatches and styles available. But as we will demonstrate, the Appearance Panel creates opportunities for incredible efficiency and creative exploration.

Postcards are a popular print advertising medium for businesses of all sizes. Whether you are a professional designer or staff in the marketing department, setting up a template for postcard printing is a smart way to get quick, consistent results. In this tutorial we will only use a two-color design for brevity’s sake, but you can design with as many colors as you would like. Just keep some of these tips in mind.

Anyone designing graphics has – or will – run into a situation where a client provides a logo in BMP or JPG format. These rasterized images simply do not scale well when large printing projects require hi resolution images. The worst is when the client uses the logo off the website and expects a full-size, full-color brochure to look professional.