Many people these days are asking themselves this very question: do you design your business cards yourself or should you hire someone else to take care of it? The reason is because of the rise in access to some very effective graphic design programs that only the professionals had access to a few years ago.

Now you can go out and buy all of them yourself, many of which are designed so that people who don't have much experience in graphic design can easily figure out how to work the program. I've used plenty of them where within a few hours I felt as if I knew how to design some very interesting things, so why wouldn't I design my own color business cards?

The reason is because just creating something that you think looks good isn't really the full length of what it takes to design business cards. The more complicated your card gets the more likely it is that you'll end up with something that you think looks good, but that doesn't really do its job.

Business card printing is one of the easier forms of advertising to design, and some business cards are so basic there really isn't much of any reason to hire someone else to handle it. The problem is that the people who are more likely to want to design their cards themselves are also the ones who are going to want to go for the more custom business cards. They're looking for something unique and personal from their card.

This is where things can get tricky, and yes, you really can get a personal color business card designed by someone else. The people who make a living off of this kind of graphic design are going to be experienced in creating something perfect for other people, so it isn't as if you can't get what you want from someone else.

Here's a suggestion for you to act as a sort of test. Pick up a good twenty color business cards you've gotten from other people. Now ask yourself what exactly it is about these cards that you like so much. What specifically appeals to you? Is it the colors, the placement of the words, or something else entirely?

If you know the answer you might be on the right path towards designing your own card, but if you just like them and don't know why, I would suggest you go to someone else.

This isn't supposed to be a definitive test or anything, but it should hopefully be a first step towards the right decision. If nothing else you can always design a single card and show it to people you trust. That might be the best way to decide if you're really up to the task of designing your own business card.