Having a well-designed letterhead can really help sell your talents as an artist. Whether for your mail-outs or a covering letter for your design portfolio, the point is to grab the reader’s attention as soon as they open the envelope. And a beautiful, memorable design is a great way to achieve that (also check out our list of inspiring envelope designs).
So if you want to create your own but need a little inspiration, we’ve selected 16 beautiful examples of letterhead designs to help you stand out from the crowd.
01. Pixelflix
Australian agency A Friend of Mine created an identity package for Pixelflix, a digital production and editing company, including an eye-catching embossed letterhead. The idea of the branding is to reflect the nature of Pixelflix’s work: taking an assortment of confusing and out-of-context scenes, and rearranging them into a coherent whole.
02. Monolith Interior Design & Construction
Inventive design and superior execution are the hallmarks of Middle Eastern interior design and construction company, Monolith, and Eugen Mateico draws on this in his minimal but effective branding, relying on a restrained palette and a simple, angular design that works well in letterhead form.
03. Modhouse
Another letterhead from A Friend of Mine, this one’s for Modhouse, which builds modular homes for people who want a quality, contemporary, sustainable home in a short time frame. The grid-based identity system allows modules to be flexibly arranged in dynamic layouts to best suit the given content and context, and the bold typography and varied palette reflects the Scandinavian style of Modhouse homes.
04. Jeremy Gardner
There’s nothing quite like a bit of letterpress printing to get a prospective new client’s attention. Designer Jeremy Gardner makes the most of a simple letterhead design, choosing bright, bold colours and letterpress printing. An extremely effective and eye-catching design.
05. Bronx Zoo
Created by designer Caroline Madigan, the concept behind this design was to capture the interactive nature of a trip to the Bronx Zoo for both children and adults. The letterhead ‘speaks’ to the recipient with sounds of the zoo animals printed beautifully with a selection of different fonts.
06. Coos
Coos! is a PR and communication agency run by a team that like to hide behind their alter egos, who are all named Coos. They all have individual business cards for all their alter egos, which are placed behind the letterhead by two simple cuts, meaning the recipient is greeted by an inane Coos! grin when they open the mail. A simple but effective design from graphic design studio Trapped in Suburbia.
07. Bittersuite
The Bittersuite logo itself is a beautifully designed ambigram – a graphic that spells out a word not only in its original form but also in another direction or orientation. Featured prominently on the letterhead, the design also incorporates a playful concept where a simple fold in the top corner creates another illustration
08. SHE
SHE (Sustainable Health Enterprises) is a New York-based organization whose mission is to improve the quality of life for women and girls in developing countries. The team at Blok Design in Toronto came up with these gorgeous letterhead designs, where SHE stands tall at the top of the page, emphasized by a bold underscore and varied colour palette.
09. Wine Concepts
When multi-disciplinary creative agency Hunt&Co was asked to develop a new identity and branding for Melbourne-based wine consultants, Wine Concepts, it came up with this simple but effective design. The logo represents a stylised wine label and (our favourite bit) features overprinted wine drops to reinforce the brand and emphasise the product.
10. One Flew South
Graphic designer Alvin Diec is the man behind this cool letterhead and branding concept for restaurant and sushi bar One Flew South. Located in Atlanta’s Hartzfield-Jackson Airport, Diec worked with the brand’s original patrotic colours, resulting in this sophisticated design.
11. Musica
Okay, so technically this is a letter-bottom rather than a letterhead, we know but with such a gorgeous design we decided to ignore that technicality. Musica is the largest music retail group in South Africa. And the job of developing a rebrand fell at the feet of graphic design agency Studio Botes, who used detailed black and white illustrations, to depict the world of Musica.
12. Master of Disguise
We just love this brilliant corporate identity for Master of Disguise by graphic designer Cortney Cassidy. The letterhead cleverly features the company logo moustache made up of type spelling out its name. A really fun and stylish concept.
13. Bob Kane
This cool artwork starred at the top of Batman creator Bob Kane’s correspondence. Featuring the comic book’s most famous characters, Kane perfectly captured the vibe of the ’60s with this brilliant design.
14. Dylan’s Barbershop
We love this obvious but brilliant comb letterhead design for a start-up barbershop in Portland, Oregon. Graphic designer for Nike Sportwear Lizzy Green came up with the concept for this eye-catching identity.
15. Seec
Graphic design studio Artentiko was responsible for rebranding SEEC – a new brand providing products based on LED technology. After a brainstorming session, the team came up with this short, characteristic, and modern design.
16. Nikola Tesla
Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla was best known for his contribution to developing technology that harnessed the power of electricity for household use. And it would seem, from this awesome letterhead that his creative skills extended to illustration design too, with all kinds of electrical gizmos occupying the top fifth of the page.
17. Best Men’s Ties
This elegant, stylish design for high quality tie retailer Best Men’s Ties was created by Croatian design studio Cipmann. The brief was to create a ‘visual identity that will communicate elegance and style to men who enjoy fine neckwear’. And this classy design does just that.
18. Absurd Machine Production
This vibrant letterhead for music and video production company Absurd Machine leaves you in no doubt as to who you’re receiving a letter from. The clever concept by graphic designer Jessica Benz features vinyl records and film rolls in an eye-catching design, which surrounds the company name.
19. Monster
This innovative letterhead design for Monster comes from designer Douglas Orchard. The fun concept features a variety of cute monsters iluustration, cut through a hole in the top of the page that the reader must unfold in order to open properly.
