Announcement Card Design Ideas You Can Ignore

Announcement card design varies depending on project scope, client, purpose and designer. Like nearly all design projects, the evolution of announcement card design has led to certain conventions it seems many graphic designers follow, whether the efforts are conscious or not. Sometimes design conventions are good - such as using a print template to ensure proper layout alignment - but other times, design conventions can stifle creativity. Since all announcement card designs share essentially the same purpose, following conventions can make all announcements essentially look the same. That's why you can safely ignore the following announcement card design conventions - and create an original, compelling piece by doing so.

Ignorable design convention No. 1: Place all pertinent information on the front

If your announcement cards are designed in the fold-over greeting card format, you do not have to place all necessary information on the front. Instead you can opt to build suspense and motivate recipients to turn the card to the inside panels with a front-panel teaser such as "This Is Big" or "It's Coming." While there is nothing inherently wrong with placing important information on the front of your announcement card designs, in many cases there is so much information to include that it would hinder the design by becoming too jumbled. This is especially true if you're sending announcement cards for a new product or service launch with detailed specs and a discount coupon on the inside panels. In this scenario, you would use teaser text to get customers to the inside, where your time-limited deal will be revealed.

Ignorable design convention No. 2: Announcement cards can't make direct sales

Why invest money that can't yield a return? If you're designing an announcement card for a business, you can up the ante by including a value-added, time-limited coupon good for a discount off services. This is useful no matter the announcement: a new product or service, a promotion or new hire, a commitment to going green with business operations or anything else notable. Any communication with potential customers is an opportunity to land direct sales. Design your announcement cards with this in mind.

Ignorable design convention No. 3: Announcements have to be folded

Most people think of announcement cards in the traditional fold-over greeting card format, but you don't have to go this route with your announcement card designs. A postcard announcement card can be just as effective and more budget-friendly since it involves less material, no envelope and less postage. If you incorporate the back of the postcard you'll still have plenty of room to include specs and coupons. Each of these ignorable conventions was written with the business announcement card in mind, but they hold true for any kind of announcement card: weddings, showers, graduations, confirmations, retirements and anniversaries. The entire point is that you're free to turn your announcement cards into whatever you want them to be. Go crazy with creative graphics, amazing images, eye-catching fonts and a compelling message that motivates action - whether you want RSVPs for a wedding or sales for a new product.