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It is not too hard to create elegant looking business cards with Adobe Photoshop.
All you really need to do is to combine the right elements (typically free online) to get the right elegant look that you want. In this quick 10-step tutorial, you will discover how easy it is for any amateur to combine creative elements from the Internet into an impressive and elegant feminine business card design. So let us begin.
STEP 1
THE SETUP: Once Adobe Photoshop is open, create a new document by pressing CTRL+N. You will want to set the width and height of your business card design precisely. These are the typical settings that you should follow:
- Width: 3.5 inches
- Height: 2 inches
- Resolution: 300ppi
- Color Mode: Choose CMYK for professional 4 color printing.
STEP 2
THE BACKGROUND COLOR: With the document open, we will now have to setup the background color. This can be any color theme you like. However, we recommend that you use the gradient color tool to make the colors more dynamic. So for our example, using the gradient color tool we inscribe a linear gradient across our background. We drag the tool vertically for the colors to change in the same orientation as well.
STEP 3
THE BACKGROUND NOISE: The standard gradient colors won’t be the only thing you need to add. It is also better to add some light texture to the business card design. In this example, we will just add some background noise. Go to Filter -> Noise -> Add Noise. Set a small percentage amount at 3%-5% for this effect. Also choose Gaussian for distribution and tick on the option for “monochromatic”.
STEP 4
INSTALL BRUSHES: In most cases, you will probably DO NOT HAVE the elegant swirl brushes that are needed to create our design goal. You will need to install them. You can find lots of amazingly free Photoshop brushes at (Just choose any decorative brush that you want, we chose this). Copy it into an easy recognizable folder. Now go back to Photoshop. Active the brush tool and right click over the Canvass. Click on the right arrow icon in the brush choices and select the option “Load Brushes”. Navigate to the brush that you just downloaded and select it for loading.
STEP 5
ADDING THE SWIRLS: With the brushes installed, load up the lightest theme color that you have as the foreground. Create a new layer by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+N and name this SWIRL. Afterwards, simply right click on the canvass, CHOOSE the swirl brush that you want to apply and then just brush in the pattern that you like.
STEP 6
SATURATING THE SWIRLS: Now, just keep on adding swirls until you saturate one side of the business card. Of course, make sure you place the different swirls creatively for a more creative and elegant effect. It is best to use different theme colors for the swirls of course to get a more interesting look.
STEP 7
ADDING STREAKS PART1: Next we will add some streaks. Create another new layer by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+N. Place this layer just above the background layer. Then set your foreground and background color to a light and dark theme color. Then go to Filter -> Render -> Clouds to render some clouds onto the layer.
STEP 8
ADDING STREAKS PART2: With the clouds render, we shall add noise again. Just like before go to Filter -> Render -> Noise and then use around an 80% amount of noise, with the rest remaining on the default settings. Afterwards, go to Filter -> Blur -> Motion Blur. In the Motion Blur Window, use these options.
STEP 9
ADDING STREAKS PART3: Then, just change the blend mode of this layer to OVERLAY and then change the opacity to 50%.
STEP 10
Finally, just type in the important text for the business card using the text tool. Here we used different fonts from dafont.com. We carried the sizes so that they fit appropriately for the business card.
FINAL IMAGE
Congratulations! That finishes our 10 simple steps for creating a nice and elegant business card design. Now you can easily customize the process for your own particular designs.
