The underlying concept of feng shui is managing cosmic energy to live in harmony with the environment.
It’s mostly, and somewhat exclusively, practiced on real estate like a house or office.
But if we engage an open mind and transcend the concepts of feng shui, it would be easy to see how the ideas of feng shui can be applied on the design of things such as business cards.
Should we then build our television sets and note books with feng shui design?
Well… you could if you want to. But those are not something you identify with as much as your business card.
Your name card is something that advertises your and your business to anyone who receives it. A lot of times, this is your first contact with a prospect that could eventually lead to a big sale.
So if anything is worth designing with feng shui in mind, there are not many items that are as deserving as your business cards.
If you have line of thought, which I suspect you are since you are reading this, then here are some feng shui tips you can incorporate into the design of your business card.
Feng shui business card design
First things first.
There is no way we can associate any side of the card with any directions as it is not a house that is stuck to the ground. This indicates that anything with flying star feng shui or 8 mansions are out of the question.
But what we call all agree with is that the orientation is always in a layout with the text upright and facing you.
This means that the layout of the card is the same as the configuration of the 4 celestial creatures and how we often see them depicted.
4 celestial creatures (top and bottom)
With the image above depicting the 4 positions of the 4 celestial animals, it can be determined that your name card’s top area is the territory of the black tortoise.
Since this area is usually where we have the company name, it makes perfect sense that the top area uses large fonts.
This is because the top area of the card, which represents the back of the subject (card) is where you find support.
In feng shui, this is where it’s most ideal to have a mountain to support a house.
As it’s not possible to erect an actual mountain on a card, using strong bold fonts, logos or main artwork here can add a significant design presence to act as that mountain.
From a design perspective, the company logo is not the same as the name printed. They can very well be in different spots of the card.
The logo is preferably at the center of the card as this is where the “house” would be. But the card center is most often where you find the name of a person printed. That is also appropriate. So logos are most common in the top section either on the top left, top center, or top right.
The top left would be good for female business owners, the center would be good for company recognition, and the top right would be good for success luck.
Because the top area is where the black tortoise is, the bottom area would automatically become the realm of the red phoenix.
It implies that this area would be best as a huge open space to serve as the bright hall.
A bright hall in feng shui refers to an open space for auspicious chi to accumulate, so that they can be tapped on.
As the bottom area is seldom left empty due to it being prime real estate for something as tiny as a business card, if any text or design is inserted into this area, they are best when small fonts are used so that open space is maximized.
If artwork would be present in this area, it should not be big or attention-seeking so that it doesn’t overwhelm the top area as that is supposed to have a strong presence than the bottom.
4 celestial creatures (left and right)
In the past, it used to be that the left and right side of business cards are left empty. Then the trend started to emerge as designers create abstract art on either side areas to “break” that square look that an old-fashioned business card comes with.
If you are giving your designer the green light to do this, take note that the left side of the card when facing you is the realm of the dragon and the right is the home of the tiger.
When we talk about finances, the dragon is about reaching out for opportunities and going on the offense. While the tiger is about keeping what you have protected and getting on the defense.
Both are desirable traits for any company. But most businesses would be strong at one and weak at the other.
For example, below is a name card with the tiger embrace.
And this is one with a strong presence of dragon.
The positioning of different elements of the business card design is mostly down to up, down, left, right, in relation to the 4 celestial animals.
There’s really not much we have to work with in terms of layout.
Sha chi
Another key feng shui design criteria to have in mind is to not have the business name, company logo, or your personal name be exposed to any form of design sha chi.
It is next to impossible to list down all types of potential negative energy directed at the company name, business logo, or the individual’s name.
But if there’s a sharp design object pointing at you name, a heavy-looking beam above the company logo, or a “slash” directing at the business name, or the logo is on something that looks like a T-junction, etc, it’s not going to be good feng shui.
These sources of sha chi are like hostile blades in the home interiors cutting away at you.
Here are some examples.

Company logo at the dead end of cul-de-sc
This one shows the business brand logo being trapped in a cul-de-sac road. It has no where to go and would have to bear the brunt of sha chi for eternity.
This does not bode well at all symbolically.

Company predicting it’s own downward spiral and demise
This one above might look like an innocent effort to ad a little abstract artwork to liven up the business card design. But it shows a graph on a downward trend.
Not really something you want a business to be associated with.

Business name and logo under attack
This one actually look rather attractive. But the sharp corners exposes the logo and company name to sha chi attacks.
What? You want more? Alright one more exampe.

Company name under beam and sliding downwards with no support
As I’ve mentioned earlier, there are too many types of sha chi to list them all down here.
But to help you identify them, maybe one of my philosophies in practicing feng shui can help you judge what is and what is not good feng shui for your business card.
And that is “If there is any doubt as to whether something is alright, then take it that its not alright”.
Harmony and clashes
If you have come to the stage of business card design, then the odds are that you should have already decided on your logo for marketing and the color schemes to brand your business with.
For a feng shui business card, it is paramount to avoid all types of conflicts between the elements.
Each of the 5 fundamental elements of feng shui would have direct conflicts with two other elements
For example, earth is in conflict with water and wood. This means that if your business card has a strong presence of yellow (earth) it shouldn’t be paired with a dominant presence of black (water) or green (wood). The same can be said of square (earth) shouldn’t be paired with rectangles (wood).
This applies if there are only two main colors present in the card.
If there are 3 colors, then earth and wood can exist together when there is a presence of fire element as the latter harmonizes the 3 elements.
The cycle of harmony between the elements is as below.
Wood > Fire > Earth > Metal > Water > back to wood.
The colors of elements and it’s shapes that conflict with each other are described in the table below for your reference.
Element | Color | Shape | Conflict |
Wood | Green | Rectangle | Metal, Earth |
Fire | Red | Triangle | Water, Metal |
Earth | Yellow | Square | Wood, Water |
Metal | White | Circle | Fire, Wood |
Water | Black | Irregular | Earth, Fire |
A more comprehensive guide different colors and their elemental nature can be found on the feng shui color chart.