Business letterhead is content that acts as the header of your business correspondence, similar to the header of a website. It represents your brand and gives valuable information to your clients. Examples of what to include on your letterhead are your logo, your company name, your address, contact information, and your website. However, there are a number of creative ways to place these elements on the page that can help you stand out.
As it represents your brand, business letterhead is a valuable marketing tool that you don’t want to mess up; easily create your own through a site like Vistaprint, which has professional letterhead templates you can customize and print.
Below we rounded up 15 business letterhead examples that you can take inspiration from:
1. Law Firm
(Source: Venngage)
In theory, business letterhead refers to content positioned at the top of a page used for business correspondence. In practice, letterhead content could be placed anywhere on the paper; it’s a general term to describe the branded template your company uses for official (and often printed) business communications.
Regardless of placement, its function remains the same—to promote your business’ branding and provide important company information. Take this creative letterhead example for a law firm. It may not have business information displayed prominently at the top, but the firm’s branding is still easily identifiable thanks to good use of spacing.
To set this firm’s correspondence apart from its competitors, it uses the company’s colors and displays a large logo at the top left corner. As a law firm, your marketing collateral needs to look professional. This example does a good job of doing just that, while also creating visual interest with color.
2. Medical Practice
(Source: 99designs)
A medical provider or practice doesn’t only have to look professional, but also reliable and modern as well. This letterhead example strikes the right balance between simplicity and modernity by keeping the layout extremely clean with all the company information up top, while adding a few pops of color that match the company’s logo and branding.
Pro tip: A clean and simple design like this doesn’t require a professional to execute. Create your own letterhead by using a company like Vistaprint, where you can choose from premade templates or upload your own design, and pay for printing.
3. Consultancy
(Source: Template.net)
Less is sometimes more, especially when it comes to giving off a professional vibe in your marketing materials—but less doesn’t mean limited. This is an example of how to make more visually interesting use of your business letterhead by placing your company’s information and business logo outside of the usual spot at the top of the page. By spreading things out, you still end up with a clean-looking and easy-to-read letterhead, despite the more unusual positioning.
4. Investment Firm
(Source: Aiga Eye on Design)
Alternatively, you can keep things clean yet still interesting through the use of monochromatic color that isn’t black. By placing all the crucial information at the top of the page, you also ensure that your audience won’t feel overwhelmed by the amount of color in your letters.
While this letterhead example shows a great use of eye-catching color, it’s also economical. The cheapest letterheads to print are in black and white, but using a single color is usually only slightly more expensive and still much cheaper than full-color business letterhead. As a bonus, a letterhead like this is easy to create on do-it-yourself (DIY) graphic design sites like Canva.
5. School or University
(Source: Canva)
A school’s letterhead shouldn’t be boring; set your institution apart and further your branding by using your school’s primary color as the basis for your letterhead. The letterhead above is also a good example of adding imagery without taking away from the overall simplicity—use just a sliver of an image in the same color as the rest of your letterhead to keep it elegant and professional.
6. Restaurant
(Source: IS Creative Studio)
A food business can have a little more fun and take creative freedom with their letterhead. Take inspiration from this business letterhead example, and create your letterhead in vivid, vibrant colors. To still keep it modern and fresh, isolate the graphic design and use it as a border at the edge of your letterhead.
Pro tip: Letterhead like this looks relatively simple, but actually takes some design skill to create. If you’re not adept at using graphic design software, we recommend hiring a professional on freelance sites like Fiverr. They can create business letterhead like this (or any custom letterhead for your business) for as little as $5.
7. Bookshop
(Source: Bench.li)
A black-and-white letterhead design can still be interesting, especially when you use evocative or whimsical graphic symbols, like in this example. Instead of a company logo, use a visual that fits with the industry your business is in. The quotation marks shown here are apt for a bookshop’s letterhead, but would also work for a literary agent, publishing company, or a writer.
8. Real Estate Agency
(Source: Fleek Templates)
Plain letterhead with a large initial logo and your business name up top looks extremely elegant and professional, especially in classic colors like black and gold. While it may not be the most colorful example of a real estate agent’s letterhead, going with a classic font and minimalist color scheme also gives the impression of exclusivity and luxury, which is perfect for a real estate agency.
9. Architectural Firm
(Source: Bleed Design Studio)
Create a more modern letterhead design by not using graphics or colors, as seen in this letterhead example. Because there aren’t very many points of visual interest in the design, play around with spacing and font hierarchy to separate the content area of your letter from the rest of the letterhead to make everything easier to digest. This type of design is also very structural by nature, which is fitting for an architectural firm, art gallery, builder, or even an interior designer.
10. Nonprofit Organizations
(Source: Brave Factor)
A nonprofit’s letterhead may be the only thing existing and potential donors see, so it has to do a good job of disseminating information while still being modern, appealing, and on-brand. A letterhead like the example shown here is beautifully designed yet still very simple. Aside from the pops of color in the logo and company information, the rest of the letterhead is further delineated by a visually interesting use of spacing.
11. Graphic Designer or Artist
(Source: Tim Jarvis)
Being in a creative field of work allows more leeway in terms of letterhead design. Keep in mind, however, that modern-looking letterheads are often simpler when it comes to graphics and colors. Still, don’t let that stifle your creativity. If you have the budget for it, print letterheads on different paper colors. This enables you to stay on-brand while also keeping it more interesting for your clients and audience.
12. Hotel
(Source: Parallax Design)
An ultra-modern and elegant take on business letterhead, like this hotel letterhead example, is sure to set your company apart. Keep everything extremely simple on the correspondence side of your letterhead and add visual interest with a bold pattern on the back of your paper. Custom letterhead like this may cost extra, but it’s worth it to impress your guests.
Pro tip: A double-sided letterhead like this may look hard to create, but you can easily do it yourself through a site like Moo.
13. Gardening & Landscaping
(Source: Template.net)
Don’t shy away from adding on-brand graphics to your letterhead. Take this landscaping business letterhead, for example, where patches of grass frame the content of the letterhead. To still keep it modern instead of kitschy or busy, the graphics are limited to the corners of the paper. You can do something similar for your business on Canva. In addition to editable letterhead templates, they also have a library filled with vectors and images.
14. IT Services
(Source: Template.net)
This letterhead’s contemporary design stays on-brand, while still being modern enough for an IT company. Since the business logo is already extremely colorful, instead of overwhelming the design with more colors, it repeats the logo at the bottom corner as a larger but muted watermark. This adds a more subtle burst of color to the template, and ensures that your clients recognize your logo instantly.
15. Accountant
(Source: Zazzle)
An accounting firm’s letterhead should inspire trust and look professional. This is a great example of business letterhead that uses color to convey an air of seriousness. Its fonts fit the bill too, as they’re not too stylistic to detract from the overall tone of the letterhead. Reinforce your letterhead’s sense of elegance by printing it on heavier stock. Lighter-weight papers may be cheaper, but often look cheaper as well.
While this look is great for accountancy and financial firms, it can also work for other corporate businesses, like investment firms, banks, and insurance agencies. Since it’s a relatively simple design to reproduce, you can make it yourself through Canva instead of hiring a professional graphic designer.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I create my own business letterhead?
Creating your own business letterhead can be done by creating or modifying a simple template on Microsoft Word. But for a higher-quality design, use graphic design software such as Canva instead, or premade templates from sites like Vistaprint and Moo. Alternatively, you can hire a professional through Fiverr for as little as $5 and get the custom letterhead design your business deserves.
What should I include in my letterhead?
Aside from your branding, remember to place any pertinent information your clients need to know on your letterhead. This includes your address, phone number, fax number, office hours, email address, and website URL. Finally, ensure that you leave enough space in the center of your paper for your letter’s content to be printed out.
Bottom Line
Business letterhead is an important marketing tool. It’s an effective way to introduce and then strengthen your branding. Because it represents your business, it has to look professional and yet creative enough to stick out from the crowd. Play around with color, fonts, graphics, and spacing, and create an impressive letterhead yourself through sites like Canva, Vistaprint, or Moo, or by hiring a designer on Fiverr.
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