Letterhead is a business’s custom pre-printed stationery. Before personal computers were common, when a company wanted to communicate with the outside world, someone would grab a sheet of the company’s letterhead.
And your pre-printed paper is a component of your brand image. A well-designed letterhead, printed professionally on premium paper, is a way of saying, “I care about quality in every aspect of my business.”
Designing Effective Letterhead
Here are some things to consider when designing your letterhead:
The basics: Who you are, where you are, and how to get in touch with you–that is, the same stuff you’d put on a business card: company name, logo, physical address, email, phone, fax, and web address, and perhaps a tagline.
Beyond the basics: Other ways to keep in touches, such as Facebook, Twitter, or Skype.
Standard industry practices: You could stop with the necessary information about your communication channels, but in specific industries, it’s common to include additional design elements.
Don’t go crazy: It’s easy to get carried away when designing a letterhead. Just remember that the purpose is a meaningful platform for sending written communication. This means you need to leave room for the content, and the visual design of the letterhead should not distract the recipient from the content. Keep it simple and keep it usable.
Fancy add-ons: There was a time when raised lettering, cutouts, expensive linen paper, and custom watermarks were essential, but considering the limited applications for which you will use letterhead, these are probably no longer worth the extra money.