Designing office sheets

16. What are the tips for designing office sheets?

It is the design of office papers and printed on documents such as letterheads and envelopes, notes and invoices. Having a design for each of them makes any document look professional and helps maintain your brand.

Header creation + design and branding tips
1. When in doubt, use a simple header design

If you feel like a flashy header design is too much for you, it’s okay to keep it simple. In that case, simply include your logo and contact information, like we did in the example:

This simple but professional header design takes it up a notch with more prominent text and footer:
When in doubt, start with simple corporate letterhead templates that are easier to customize. The goal is to make sure that anyone receiving your letter can clearly distinguish your brand name from business letterhead and other office paper in your industry.

2. Use directional signs in your business letterhead to guide readers.

Directional signs are visual markers such as arrows, lines, and finger-pointing images. They indicate the direction the reader is supposed to be looking.

While directional signs are not essential in a business letterhead, they can help your information flow. A simple way to add a visual cue to your header is to use an arrowhead shape that points to the beginning of your text.

For example, free letterhead templates for universities use a simple arrow to indicate design movement:

Directional icons and images can feel like a decorative element on a professional letterhead. But you can’t ignore their effectiveness in drawing eyes down the page to read your letter.

3. Add a creative footer to your official header.

Another way to mix up your business letterhead templates is to use a colorful and creative footer instead of a letterhead.
You can balance your design by using the same footer color for your organization/business name, your name, and any other information in the header.
Take a look at how to use a creative footer in this sample business letterhead. The first uses a bold red line to draw attention to contact information:

4. Use a visual element to frame your office sheets.

Instead of using a standard header or footer, you can use an image to frame your text and letters. It’s a great way to add personality to your business communications.

Typically, you want to use an image that has a transparent background. This way, your image will blend well with the rest of your design.

For example, this free business letterhead template for a design firm uses an image of flowers in opposite corners for a creative and balanced design:

A picture can capture imagination far better than text. That’s why some brands choose a corporate letterhead template with an image.

5. Choose two or three contrasting colors for your letterhead design.

Custom letterhead is an opportunity to add a little color to your business communications. You can add color to the border, header and even key parts of the text.
Do not be afraid to use strong colors. Bold colors and backgrounds are one of the biggest graphic design trends in 2023.
One way to approach color selection is to choose two complementary colors (colors opposite each other on the color wheel). Our brand color guide has more tips for choosing the right colors for your company branding.
You don’t need a graphic designer to decide what colors people associate with your brand. Take cues from your brand when choosing colors to customize your business letterhead templates.
Add colors from your brand palette for your official letterhead and even for internal memos. This ensures brand recognition both internally and externally.

Having the design of office papers allows you to coordinate and value the confidential and special documents of your organization with the organizational identity and visual identity of your brand.

6. Place your logo near the top of your header.

The purpose of the letterhead is to make your brand recognizable in all your business correspondence. This is why people usually put their logo at the top of their letter.
A simple way to seamlessly incorporate a logo into your design is to use color accents that match your brand logo. This company letterhead example uses orange in its branding elements for bold text

7. Use a consistent background color for your business cards.

If you want to make your brand’s lettering recognizable at a glance, try making slightly more risky design choices. One way to do this is to use a solid color background for your letters instead of the standard white background.

Once again, remember to use light text on a dark background and dark text on a light background. Also note that adding a background color affects the printing technique.

Check out the navy blue background and gold text in this template:
You don’t need design skills to choose business letterhead templates with bold backgrounds. But again, you need to consider your brand as well as its impact on printing letterhead designs.
The official letterhead above works because of the gold color of the brand. It would disappear on a white background. If your brand is dark, a contrasting light background color, other than white, can be a good choice for your header template.

8. Give your business letters a colorful edge

Don’t underestimate the power of a simple fringe. A border can tie your design together with a neat bow, which is something to keep in mind when choosing among stationery templates.

For a more subtle edge, use a shade like gray or charcoal. But if you want your communication to be special and impressive, you can choose a bold color.

For example, this business letterhead template goes the bold route with a hot pink border:

A border can make a personal letterhead stand out, especially for an individual. But design elements like borders also work for formal letterhead designs. This is a great way to draw attention because the edges of a letter are probably the first part anyone sees.

9. Create a striking letterhead design for office paper using geometric shapes.

In preschool, we were given an activity in art class where we had to create an abstract design by drawing geometric shapes and filling them with different colors.

Simple geometric designs are eye-catching.

You can create your own geometric pattern design by drawing lines and filling sections with different colors in Microsoft Word. However, it’s easier if you’re using ready-made business letterhead templates because they already include the shapes you want to add.

For a slightly more advanced design, you can even add graphic design textures to your shapes.

Here are some design tips for using geometric shapes: Don’t add too much text to shapes. This is not the place to enter your postal address. Geometric shapes are for aesthetic purposes, but they can overwhelm any text you put on top of them, which is why the above header templates don’t have a lot of text on the designs.

Additionally, when shapes include text over an image, such as the second header template, the background fades so that the text is readable.

d color affects the printing technique.

Check out the navy blue background and gold text in this template:
You don’t need design skills to choose business letterhead templates with bold backgrounds. But again, you need to consider your brand as well as its impact on printing letterhead designs.
The official letterhead above works because of the gold color of the brand. It would disappear on a white background. If your brand is dark, a contrasting light background color, other than white, can be a good choice for the template

10. Create a slanted or asymmetrical letterhead for your company letterhead design.

Use asymmetric business letterhead to give your communications a fresh look and make a good impression on your recipients. You can do this simply by diagonalizing your official letterhead.
The result is an interesting visual design with movement. Movement is a fundamental principle of attractive design. When your design has movement, people are more inclined to look at it.
Take a look at how this business letterhead template uses a slanted letterhead that runs behind the logo:
The right letterhead for your business should be impressive and easy to print. When you use asymmetry to your advantage, you create more white space in the header format. This improves the reading experience, prevents asynchronous communications, and makes your business or personal letterhead look more professional.

11. Use a dark background for an impressive design.

If you want to defy your readers’ expectations, reverse the standard font color scheme by giving your text a dark background.
As a general rule, only use light text on dark backgrounds. Otherwise…no one can read it! A header template already has the right color contrast.
Check out this business letterhead template with a white letterhead and a dark gray background. The combination also highlights the company’s contact information.

12. Create a custom-shaped border for your stationery.

You don’t have to stick to the standard rectangle border. A custom-shaped border can add an attractive feature to your office paper and complement your formal letterhead.

Try variations like rounded corners, dashes instead of solid lines, or a framed image.

For example, the custom border in this business header template gives the impression that the page is rotating:

You can also add a rounded border to your custom header template to make your content stand out. A formal letterhead can use hyphens to give correspondence a unique look.

13. Add images to your header layout using icons.

Icons are a great way to add creativity to your company letterhead. Considering the audience and the purpose of your letter, you can change the symbols according to the situation.
Remember to use consistent style icons on the official header. Decide what style of symbols fits your brand guidelines and use them whenever you decorate a letter.
Symbols have universal appeal and are easily understood by all. This is what makes them a unique design tool to implement on company letterhead.
Remember to be consistent with icon styles, but also avoid overusing them.

14. Use a color gradient in your header or spine.

Color gradients create a subtle and sophisticated feel. If this fits your company’s brand and is what you want your audience to get from your business communications, you may want to include them in your letterhead design.

That doesn’t mean you have to go for the ultra-chic slope. A more subtle gradient of shades of the same color can be strange, but make for a professional letterhead.

For example, this business letterhead template uses a subtle pink gradient in the spine column. Icons also help show the content of the template:

Remember that you may have to print your own company letterhead, so the colors you choose can affect the price of the final product.

15. Divide your business letterhead template into columns.

If you’re not sure how to approach your design, a good place to start is to divide your page into columns. Then, you can figure out where to put your header or spine to fit the rest of your page.

Take a look at this business letterhead template that separates the spine from the body of the letter using a thin line:

16. Use your header and footer designs to create a visual hierarchy.

Visual hierarchy is a fundamental principle in design. Simply put, visual hierarchy is the arrangement of elements in a design to show importance.
Visual hierarchy indicates which information on the page is most important or which information should be read first.
Your header and footer can contribute to the visual hierarchy of your page. For example, you can make a heavier header and a lighter footer. You can make this distinction by changing the font size and the size of the icons.
Take a look at how the footer in this business letterhead template mirrors the header without detracting from the emphasis of the header.