The letterhead that you use for your enterprise will cement the image that others form about you and your business. It is usually the first opportunity that you have to present your business to someone. It is important that the design created for your letterhead reflects the theme you want portrayed. Your letterhead will not only provide the potential customer with your contact details, it will also create an impression about the quality of your products or services.

The design you use for your letterhead should express your business's personality. For example, a letterhead designed for a business that sells plumbing accessories, should be different from one designed for a party cruise company.

Every letterhead needs to reflect the personality of the business to create the desired image. You can affect the image that is created through the use of different elements on your letterhead, such as your logo, colors, fonts and of course the paper it is printed on. Once you have determined what elements you will use, you are ready to start the design process.

Some Color Thoughts: Temperature, yes temperature can be recreated with color. Use piercing blue and think cool, cold or even icy. On the other hand, choose Aztec yellow and you'll warm up the reader every time. Now, which would suit an air-conditioning firm, and which would you use for promoting a tanning studio? Additionally, while sharp edges and bold colors denote precision and efficiency, soft watercolor brush strokes combined with a pastel palette lend your image a soft caring feel.

Content Elements: The content of your letterhead consists of any information about your business that you want included on your letterhead. The main purpose of your letterhead is to provide information about your business. The content can include the following elements that are applicable to your business. A logo; business name and address; contact name; phone & fax numbers; fax number; e-mail address and a slogan if you wish.

Do not include any peripheral information. The letterhead should not look crowded and should leave plenty of ?white space? for the letter itself.

Design Format: There are several processes that can be used to choose the format for the layout of your letterhead.

Custom designing provides many options when determining the format. You can create almost any format that you and your designer's imagination allow. Copy placement, fonts, ink colors and paper types are only restricted by what your printer and paper merchant has available. Custom designing allows you to use a design unique to your business. Keep in mind that opting to use a custom design will most generally cost you more than a template type format.