Most business cards are white.  They are more conservative, and are exactly what your clients expect to see a lot of the time. However, when it comes to logo design placing a design on a white background just doesn’t have the same appeal. In design, something is lost when you place the logo in a setting that would match the real world. A logo needs it’s own environment to really stand out.  It’s almost always a good ideas to stay away from the conventional “on white” designs, and to push the envelope a little bit.  That’s where a carefully selected background colour can really make or break the design. For example, here is a pretty sweet custom logo design for elafant – the learning project: Elafant looks really impressive when placed on a warm glowing background with a bit of texture. Now compare this design to a white background.  The same logo design doesn’t look nearly as good when placed on a simple white background: Colour and texture can really change the overall feel of a logo.  Some of the best logos are elegant in their simplicity, and just use colours that work really well together.  Check out the inspiration for this logo design. These are really nice designs.  And, it was these very same designs that also inspired the very first logo you saw on the page. Generally speaking, logo designs are a lot more attractive when placed on a complimentary shade or colour, than when they are placed on a white background.  But, in the real world, that’s exactly where logos are going to go.  They will be placed on letterheads, on white business cards, and unfortunately will lose some of their POW. Here’s another logo we’ve done and placed on a gradient, textured background with a glow.