Letterhead Design Guidelines: 8 Things You Should Avoid

Published on: 05/10/2022 | Updated on: October 24, 2024

Which important things you should avoid to design letterhead as letterhead design guidelines? Are you planning to design a letterhead soon? Or are you already working on one for yourself or your client? In either case, it is best to take note of the following things to ensure that you get the desired results from all of your hard work.

So what are the biggest things you need to stay away from when making your letterhead design? Here are some of them:

Letterhead design guidelines: Must avoid

1. Avoid Generic Designs on Your Company Letterhead.

Letterheads can be very expensive if they were to be printed in a commercial printing press because a lot of time and effort would have been used in order to create them.

Because of this, designs that are deemed generic by many should be avoided—especially if what was needed was something unique and special. There should be no room for being too lazy when making a letterhead because the recipient may not appreciate how boring it looks compared to other well-designed letterheads that he or she may have already received.

2. Make Your Business Letterhead Easy To Read.

The purpose of a letterhead is to introduce the reader to who you are and what your business is all about in just one quick glance—that is why it should be well-designed and easy to read. The key here is making sure that your message would be clearly communicated.

If you would want ample time for them to carefully scrutinize what you’ve written, make an invitation instead so they won’t feel too pressured to do so because it will show how busy you are as well as how important your client or prospect is if they are giving their valuable time just to read what you have written on your letterhead.

3. Be Consistent.

Once your letterhead design is complete and you are satisfied with it, make sure that you use it consistently to achieve a more professional look. Try not to add the company logo on one document then add an entirely different set of graphics in another.

This will be very confusing for readers because they would probably wonder why the images and text don’t match up—and this may cause them to immediately disregard everything that’s written on your letterhead design.

4. Make Your Company Letter Head Easy To Navigate.

A letterhead should also allow its readers to easily navigate through what it contains without having to flip every page just so they can get to read everything you’ve put together for them. This means making sure that the links or buttons work and that your website or blog is properly linked to your letterhead design.

5. Don’t Put Too Much Text In One Place.

If you’re going to put a lot of text on one page, do not just put them all right next to each other as if they were competing with one another for your readers’ attention—spread some space around so the elements would look as if they had some breathing room. This way, it would be easier for readers to read what’s written without getting frustrated because it may come off as too complicated.

6. Do Not Cover Up Stock Photos With Your Logo Or Company Name.

This is considered very tacky in the world of print designing—and this should really be common sense, you would not want to ruin your letterhead design by covering up an image of a beautiful landscape with the company name or logo so people would read only what you’ve written.

It also makes you look cheap and it shows how bothersome it is for you to make something original—which should never be the case if you are serious about your job, especially when creating a letterhead design.

7. Avoid Making Your Official Letterhead Look Too Bulky

A bulky or heavy-looking letterhead may cause readers to roll their eyes in exasperation because they might feel that they have wasted too much time just reading through all of what was written on it—and this would pretty insulting on your part. Not to mention, it may also make them feel like they can’t possibly print out the letterhead design because it would require too much ink or toner.

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8. Avoid Using Jargons Or Acronyms in any Professional Letterhead

You want your letterhead to be easy on the eyes of all of those who will read what you’ve written—and that means keeping jargon and acronyms simple enough for everyone to understand without having to look up their meaning first.

You do not need to impress others with how smart you are so even if your company is built upon e-commerce, avoid using terms like HTTPS, HTML5, CAC (Customer Account Control.)

Conclusion

The design of your letterhead may seem like a small detail, but it can make or break any impression you hope to achieve with your clientele. Make sure that the colors and images you choose are consistent with your company’s branding—and make sure that everything is easy to read.

Don’t forget to maintain the professional image you wish for people to perceive about your business by removing all unnecessary elements on your letterhead design by following these letterhead design guidelines.