What it takes to design a professional letterhead

Your letterhead is one of the first things that potential clients will see. Your letterhead says a lot about your brand and your business, the design needs to be appropriate and relevant. Not only does your letterhead represent your business but there are legal requirements for your letterhead that you may not be aware of.

These legalities depend on your business structure, if you are a sole trader you must include your VAT number, business address and full name (if that is different from the business name). If you are operating as a limited company then your letterhead must include the fully registered company name, registration number, place of registration, registered address and VAT number must all be included. Partnerships should include the same information as a sole trader, alongside the names of every partner and the main offices address. If there are too many partners to list then include a place where all the names can be found.

On top of these legal requirements there are some key bits of information that you should include to give your client all of the information that they require. This includes contact numbers, email addresses, web addresses, a company logo and any social media platforms that you are on. This gives your client the best chance of remembering your business and interacting with you online.

So, now you have understood your legal requirements, what about the aesthetic of the letterhead? The letterhead is not a promotional tool but that doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t stand out. Your letterhead needs to represent your brand.

You should keep it simple, a busy letterhead will only clash with the information that it is carrying. Where possible, tailor your letterhead to the business you are sending the information to, if they don’t have a fax machine then you may choose to eliminate this number from your letterhead.

Ensure that your logo is in a prominent position; this will be one of the first things that the client sees when they open an email or letter from you. Use colours sparingly, letterheads commonly contain formal information so bright colours are inappropriate. Balance the layout of the letterhead to make it appealing to the eye, the size of images and text is important. Too big and it will look busy and unprofessional, too small and the client won’t be able to read it easily and so they won’t bother trying.

At Metro Repro we understand how important it is to make the right impression. We can take care of your business printing requirements and can offer a range of paper and finishes to provide you a solution that you are happy with, we can adhere to tight deadlines. If you want to discuss your printing requirements, contact our team on 0191 261 1320, use our online contact form or email print@metrorepro.co.uk.