Detail: The Business Card
The business card is the smallest artifact in a brand system and often the most revealing. Every decision is visible at this scale. There is nowhere to hide behind layout complexity or photographic content. It is typography, space, paper, and nothing else.
Format
The standard European business card is 85 x 55mm. Most designers accept this without question. The studio occasionally deviates, but only when the deviation serves a purpose. A square card (65 x 65mm) fits certain brand personalities. An oversized card (90 x 60mm) can be appropriate for architects or spatial designers. A smaller-than-standard card is almost always a mistake. It gets lost.
The proportions of the standard format are close to the golden ratio. This is fortunate. It means that simple divisions of the card into zones for information produce naturally balanced compositions.
Information Hierarchy
A business card needs to answer three questions: who, where, and how. Name, company, and contact method. Everything beyond this requires justification. Job titles are often included by default but rarely consulted by the recipient. Social media handles belong on a business card only if they are a primary point of contact.
The studio's default approach sets the name in a slightly heavier weight than the remaining information, which is set in a single size and weight. The distinction between name and details is made through weight, not scale. This produces a cleaner result than the common approach of setting the name at 10pt and the details at 7pt.
Production
Letterpress printing on an uncoated stock remains the most effective production method for a card that will be remembered. The deboss creates tactile variation that the recipient's fingers register before their eyes process the typography. Digital printing on coated stock is the least memorable. It produces a card that looks and feels like every other card in the recipient's collection.
The studio specifies Gmund Cotton 600gsm for letterpress cards. The weight is substantial without being ostentatious. The cotton fiber surface accepts the impression cleanly. Two Pantone spot colors maximum. Foil stamping is permitted only for the brand mark, never for body text.