How to DIY Your Own Business Card Design Using Canva

A great business card can open doors, help you build your personal network and set your company apart from its peers. A poor business card, on the other hand, could do the exact opposite, locking you out of potential sales and partnerships.

Many entrepreneurs and salespeople spend hundreds of dollars designing their business cards. They hire the best designers, give them free reign to be as creative as possible and end up with a card that may not accomplish the goal of calling attention to your contact information.

Designing a business card is surprisingly simple. The reason for this is that the most effective business cards tend to be simple. They follow the classic rules of design and ignore trends, focusing entirely on function over form and style.

In this guide, we’ll teach you how to design your own business card using an online design app called Canva. By the end of this post, you’ll have a great looking business card template that you can print and use for networking, sales and more.

Creating your business card’s canvas

Log into Canva (if you don’t already have an account, it’s easy to sign up) and click on “Use custom dimensions” to choose your canvas size. Canva has a business card template, but it’s a little too small – in this case, it’s best to use custom sizing.

Make your canvas 3.625 inches wide and 2.125 inches in height. Canva uses metric sizing by default – you’ll need to change your unit to inches before entering the size of your card to avoid creating a canvas that’s too small.

Designing your own business card

Here’s where the fun begins. Start by selecting a background for your business card from Canva’s sidebar. The best business cards use simple backgrounds, so choose a solid color that reflects your brand’s values and identity.

In our example, we’ve kept things really simple. Our background is pure white – no color whatsoever. Remember that it’s often better to keep your card minimalist and simple, as cluttered cards can be difficult to read due to information overload.

Now, let’s add your name and company. In our example, we’ve designed a business card for an independent banker with an international presence named John Doe.

Choose “Add text” from the sidebar menu and add your name. Select “Add subtitle text” and add your title below it. From here, select “Add a little bit of body text” to add your contact details; in this case, we’ve added a phone number and email.

Select your body text element and click “Copy.” Bring this new text element over to the right side of your card and add your social media contact information. The more options people have to contact you – even via Facebook or Twitter – the better.

If you’d like to give the personal side of your business card some branding, select “Uploads” and upload your logo. In our example, we’ve put the Doe Investments logo right in the corner of the card to avoid taking attention away from the content.

Remember that the card design you’ve prepared is slightly larger than the finished product will be. Keep all of your text and branding at least 0.1875” from the edge of the card; if they’re too close, they could end up being lost in printing.

If you’d like to design a two-sided business card, click the “Copy this page” icon to the right of your canvas. This will copy your card and retain all of the fonts you’ve chosen, making styling the reverse of your business card easier.

In our example, we’ve kept the branding side of our business card nice and simple: just the business logo, with plenty of white space to write notes or details of an important investment opportunity for prospects.

Exporting your business card design

Once you’ve finished designing your business card, you’ll need to download it and send it to the printer. Canva offers two download options: image or PDF. Since the card you’ve designed is for printing, select PDF and download your file.

Simple, right? Whether you’re bootstrapping your business and want to save money or simply enjoy the creative process, designing your own business cards with Canva is fun, quick and easy. And, whenever you're ready to print your custom-designed business cards, QuantumPostcards offers simple business card design upload options to make the printing process seamless and fuss-free -- so you can get your cards quickly and start building your business!

If you find you enjoyed using Canva to design your business card, check out our other guide on Using Canva to Create Your Own Postcard Design.