Many designers and clients view their envelope as a 'throwaway' - the envelope design process involves slapping on a logo, a return address, and we're done. At The Logo Factory, we look at ALL your stationery components - business card, letterhead and envelope - as important. After all, isn't your envelope the first thing many will see before viewing the enclosed letterhead and/or business card? Having said that, there are some caveats to envelope design and it's probably a good idea to understand what is, and what isn't possible when designing your envelope, and how some layouts, unless you're careful, may cost you a fortune to reproduce.

Envelope design & printing

Without going into too much technical detail, you should understand that the printing of an envelope is quite different than that for your letterhead or business card. More often than not, printers will use envelopes that are already constructed (with flaps and pockets) and this represents some unique challenges on the press. An envelope is not flat, so it tends to move around a little when being printed, something which has to be factored into the design. Air can get trapped inside the envelope, compounding the problem. Because of press slippage, it's also best to avoid extremely detailed four colour process printing to avoid registration problems. This would also apply to highly-complex illustrative logos which become very hard for a press operator to register at small sizes. If your logo is very complicated and detailed, it might be advisable to have a text logo developed (using the same font and styling as the original) that you can use for situations like these.

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Bleed artwork on envelopes

It's very difficult to use bleed printing or artwork on a pre-constructed envelope. A skilled printing press operator can get bleed artwork pretty close to the edge, but it's hit and miss, and will cause a lot of 'spoilage' - envelopes that aren't usable but that you'll still have to pay for. The only other alternative is to print your envelope BEFORE they're constructed - really nice for design purists, but it's going to cost a small fortune. It's more effective (and more economical) to utilize either a spot colour or one colour version of your logo and business information that doesn't bleed. Now, that's not to say you CAN'T feature full colour bleed artwork on your envelope design, or that you shouldn't - you can. It's just going to be more expensive to print your envelopes to do so.

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What goes on an envelope

In terms of what goes on your envelope - well, that's pretty standard. Company logo, name, return address. Generally speaking, we don't put phone numbers on envelopes (though you can if you want). Recently, the debate has become whether or not to feature your company's web address on the envelope design. Why not? After all, shouldn't your web address be on every single scrap of paper that leaves your desk?

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Screens and watermarks

Placing a screened logo (also known as a watermark) on your envelope can be a nice little graphic flourish if done incorrectly. Many designers design on monitors and they set up their envelope watermarks to look light enough on their monitors. Trouble is, most monitors tend to run high-key, and a watermark that looks acceptable on the monitor will be far too dark when printed. At the studio, we generally 'ghost' logos back to between 3% and 5% of their originals to be safe. We also tend to avoid using extremely complex illustrative logos as watermarks - the visual clutter detracts from what should only be a 'nice touch' without any real function.

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Postal regulations

Postal regulations shouldn't really be an issue if you're designing an envelope that will be used for the occasional letter to clients and prospective customers. There are rules, but they're based on common sense (keep the right top side of the envelope blank for stamps is one example) and any design that works shouldn't run afoul of the Post Office. If you plan to use your envelope as part of a Bulk Mail license or other automated postage system, there are some pretty strict rules that you'll need to follow in terms of where you put graphics, logos and return addresses. Too many to go into here - check with your local post office for the regulations that apply to you. If you find the postal regulations too strict for a decent envelope design, have a main version created that's designed to your tastes - regulations be damned - and then develop an ultra cheap, one-colour envelope that is designed to the Post Office's 'spec'.

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