Business Cards Land

Things – Adam Mayer Digitally Designed Geared Business Cards from Bre Pettis on Vimeo.

You may very well need a laser cutter to create this business card! It’s so intricate and amazing! I love business cards such as this that really push the envelope on what’s possible to do with a mere paper product! If I were ever handed a business card that was this good (both to look at and to fiddle around with) I would keep it in my wallet as a benchmark for all other business cards to live up to!

This card was designed by Bre Pettis who, by the looks of things, is a genius engineer who makes a lot of really cool robots and other mad inventions. If you have the time, tools, and know how to create this brilliant card, here is the link to the template for this ingenious business card contraption.

This revolving “clockwork” card may be out-of-the-realms of the average consumer and business person but I don’t think it would pose too much of a challenge for a talented designer or engineer. I can imagine that there are a lot of engineering students who would benefit from handing out such a technically difficult card. I suppose the only downfall is that you wouldn’t be able to make too many of them! You’d have to save them for impressing a special customer or potential employer.

Popularity: 53% [?]

Possibly Related Posts:

• Hand made business cards
• Great Spot UV Card Examples
• 5 of the best things about Business Cards
• Glossy Business Cards versus Matte Business Cards
• Review of Google Goggles and Business Card Reader Apps

We’re halfway there!  The weekend is in sight and I’m sure given the Winter doldrums that is an extremely welcome thought.  That said, we have something that might just prove to be the medicine to your mid-week blues.  At least that’s what I’m guessing the samples of medicine themed business card look like they can do.  I’m not entirely sure what is in them though.

That’s right, look at these insanely creative business cards belonging to someone known as the Brain Doctor.  They have all of the pertinent information printed right on them and in the back is the all-too-familiar blister pack of little white pills.  While again, I can not be positive what’s In the blister packs, it does look medicinal.  I’m hoping for a sugar pill.  The fact that he’s a graphic designer makes me think it IS sugar, not some crazy brain medicine that you probably have no business taking.  That leads me to another idea, how cool would it be if you designed your blister packed medicine themed business cards with Smarties inside?!  Creative and fun!

Nevertheless, it just goes to show how far you can push the envelope and that no matter what your idea is, it’s most likely obtainable.  This guy had the idea to make his look like medicine samples and he found a way to make it happen.  What can you do?  What can you invent?  What can you decide to make great?  The sky is the limit, now start shooting for it!  Show us some of your best business cards, we can’t wait to see!

Popularity: 66% [?]

Possibly Related Posts:

• Hand made business cards
• Great Spot UV Card Examples
• 5 of the best things about Business Cards
• Glossy Business Cards versus Matte Business Cards
• Review of Google Goggles and Business Card Reader Apps

It’s very difficult to be objective about ANYTHING we design ourselves or is even about us in a positive way.  That’s true for business cards – you probably fell in love with yours the minute you saw it, but it doesn’t mean other people see it that way!

One way that you can get a feel for how well your business card stands out from the competitors is to grab a stack of random cards – maybe 50 to 100 – and spread them out on a table, right side up, facing toward you.  Make sure your card is included too.  (Better yet, have someone ELSE spread out the cards, so you don’t know where yours is.)

Position yourself in front of the table and shut your eyes for 30 seconds.  Now open them – which cards stand out the most, and why?

I got this idea from Scott Ginsberg, “that guy with the nametag” – and this is what he noticed when he did this exercise:

~ Red: every card that had red on it stood out

~ Picture: only a few cards had pictures of the cardholder. This not only made them stand out, but helped  him connect faces with names and companies.

~ Vertical: several cards were formatted vertically, which caught his eye.

~ Black Background: most cards have a white background, so the black ones REALLY stood out.

~ Image: cards with some sort of colorful image that took up at least one fourth of the total surface area captured his interest.

So how does YOUR card stack up – er, stand out?

Popularity: 37% [?]

Possibly Related Posts:

• Hand made business cards
• Great Spot UV Card Examples
• Glossy Business Cards versus Matte Business Cards
• Review of Google Goggles and Business Card Reader Apps
• Geared Business Card – Incredibly intricate business card

Raise your hand if you just started singing the lyrics to that Billy Joel song?  Yep, just about every single one of you, and if you’re at all like me you’re stuck on the part that beings with “Harry Truman, Doris Day…”  What can you do?  Nevertheless, today we DO have a hot business card to bring up and it actually could start a fire.  That’s right, a matchbook themed business card, and I have to say, it’s one of the most fun and unique business cards I’ve chronicled on this site!

Check it out above.  Look at the genius design.  Look at the attention to detail.  I know we JUST got done saying that simple is amazingly key, but sometimes, sometimes you hit the nail squarely on the head with a business card like this.  These are quite literally, matchbooks.  While inside there are not matches, but little cartoon versions of matches, the whole entire rest of the card is exactly a matchbook, down to the tiny staple in the bottom holding it all together.  On top of that, the entire card is themed to look like it just literally fell out of a 1950’s diner or bowling alley, and the results are pretty spectacular.

Bottom line, these might be some of my favorite cards that I’ve found while researching this site.  Everything comes together perfectly and I can guarantee that if someone handed you this card, you wouldn’t be tossing it away, giving it away or forgetting about it…this is a card you’d show everyone else, and show off For them.  Perfectly done and a perfect business card.

Popularity: 47% [?]

Possibly Related Posts:

• Hand made business cards
• Great Spot UV Card Examples
• 5 of the best things about Business Cards
• Glossy Business Cards versus Matte Business Cards
• Review of Google Goggles and Business Card Reader Apps

Happy New Year, everyone!  Hope it’s off to a great start for you – as usual, Tyler and I will keep delivering some great business card ideas that are sure to help you in the coming year!

Got another idea for you – another way to use business cards.  I was invited to several charity events and even church Christmas events in the past month.  Several of those event tickets/invitations were actually printed on business card paper.   Here’s one of them – the gentleman runs a charitable foundation and had his contact info on the other side of the card:

Business Card Event Ticket

Don’t think this idea needs a lot of explanation – it’s just another illustration of the fact that a “business card” doesn’t have to be used in a traditional way.  The size, portability and affordability makes it ideal for many other uses.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Possibly Related Posts:

• Hand made business cards
• Great Spot UV Card Examples
• Glossy Business Cards versus Matte Business Cards
• Review of Google Goggles and Business Card Reader Apps
• Mommy Cards – Business Cards for Kids!

Honest.

Now I didn’t get it from Jolly Old St. Nick in person – rather, from one of his assistants – but I’m SURE it was the real deal.  I mean, it had a North Pole address – why would anyone use that address if they didn’t really live there?

Seriously – it got me to thinking about seasonal cards, clever cards, celebrity-related cards.  There’s a lot to learn from a business card like that – most notably the concept that if somebody as well known as Santa needs a business card, you probably do too.

So are there ways YOU can play around with a card like that and create something memorable?  Maybe you play Santa at the Hospital or in a local theater production – create business cards, have some fun and generate a little publicity.

There are all sorts of celebrity and even storybook fictional figures you could use as a starting point for a clever take on a business card – not only Santa and the elves, but the Grinch.  Think Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Mother Earth, Father Time.  (Just check any copyright restrictions.)  How could any of those figures, or the stories associated with them, tie in to your business?

You could capitalize on some sort of seasonal card as well.

Say you own a lawn care business and during the winter months, you do snow removal.  Why not make a business card like this one?

You can whip up something like that in 5 minutes with the Express Design tool at OvernightPrints.com.

Remember – you don’t have to use a single business card, or some generic company card – business cards are such affordable and versatile like tools that you can be a bit fun and innovative without overwhelming your budget.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Possibly Related Posts:

• Hand made business cards
• Great Spot UV Card Examples
• 5 of the best things about Business Cards
• Glossy Business Cards versus Matte Business Cards
• Review of Google Goggles and Business Card Reader Apps

Who says that the best business cars are the ones that cost the most, involve the most insane or unique design or take the longest to make?  Certainly not us.  I think my colleague Diana and I have more than expressed our belief that nine times out of ten, a business card that is exactly suited to fit your business is a lot better than a fancy business card that has nothing to do with it.  That said, another thing to keep in mind is that sometimes, yes sometimes, the most simple and old-school design you can think of will be sure to turn heads, a lot of them.

That’s exactly what the designer of this business card did, and I have to say, they pulled it off perfectly.  I can’t quite tell if this is literally just a piece of notebook paper, or if it’s actual business card stock paper that’s perfectly designed to look like it.  Whatever the case may be, both would have been exceptional and completely innovative.  Either way, we love the old-school design that literally looks like someone slid a piece of wide-ruled paper into a typewriter and created a new, quick and easy business card.  They even included the hole punch in the upper left hand corner.  How genius, how completely original.

So, as you head down the design road to your next business cards, why not think old-school, vintage and throw-back.  There are a million things you could do to bring the old-school back in and switch it up on all those people that opt to go super-modern and high-tech. Old-school is in, and old-school is now new-school.  Remember that!

Popularity: 25% [?]

Possibly Related Posts:

• Hand made business cards
• Great Spot UV Card Examples
• 5 of the best things about Business Cards
• Glossy Business Cards versus Matte Business Cards
• Review of Google Goggles and Business Card Reader Apps

Every so often we find a business card that really impresses us, shakes things up and makes us step back and say, MAN, why didn’t WE think of that.  Today, we just so happened to kick off the week with one that did exactly that, and more.  Basically they took the genius behind scratch-and-win Lotto cards and brought it to their business card and the effects, to be quite honest, are simple and stunning.  I would LOVE to be handing out these cards just as much as I’d love to be receiving them. 

The brilliant scratch-n-reveal cards belong to a graphic designer named Megan Cummins.  It seems that if we were to tally the all-time great business cards we have featured on this blog, graphic designers are most likely in the lead for most creative and most innovative so far.  Nevertheless, on a simple, smaller than average business card, she managed to incorporate the widely known scratch-off material that allows you to answer the question that she really wants to you to know:  “Scratch here for the answer of life. Please note, resulting joy may prove overwhelming.”

A bit of scratching later and the simple “Hi” that starts the business card reveals the true answer to the question:  “Hire Me.”  Genius.  Be honest, if someone that was seeking a job with you handed you that card, wouldn’t you be thinking that when it comes to creativity, they are a step ahead of the game?  In the world of graphic design, that’s exactly what you need to be.

Think about that as you design your business cards…are you showing off the kind of skills you should be to get the jobs you want to get?  Think of your business card as a way to make a great first impression over, and over, and over again.  Don’t let it be a bad one.

Popularity: 24% [?]

Possibly Related Posts:

• Hand made business cards
• Great Spot UV Card Examples
• 5 of the best things about Business Cards
• Glossy Business Cards versus Matte Business Cards
• Review of Google Goggles and Business Card Reader Apps

If your business has a lofty goal, a high-minded or optimistic plan to do something better than, faster than or more impressively than any other business, don’t you think that is something that each and every person that receives your business card should hear about?  Don’t you think you should very simply and very honestly explain how good you are right up front?  Yes, so do we. 

Apparently, so does Sarah Sami and her business card design.  She is quite obviously involved in the design field, either as a graphic designer, an artist or some other similar industry and as such she wants to know that she’s going to do her best to completely rid this world of “bad designs.”  Looking at her rusted background, the brilliant red block letters for her information and the “BAD DESIGNS” logo done with thermography.  In short…beautiful, effective, potent and perfect.  Can you tell we’re definite fans of people that explain very plainly and very confidently what they do best?

That’s something to think about as you dive into your next design, what do you do best and how can you, in one or two very short brilliantly designed sentences let each and every person know about that.  You’re obviously in business to be the best at what you do, why not make sure that every hand that touches your business card knows exactly that, no compromises and pure confidence.  You’d be shocked how many people are drawn to that, even in a business card.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Possibly Related Posts:

• Hand made business cards
• Great Spot UV Card Examples
• 5 of the best things about Business Cards
• Glossy Business Cards versus Matte Business Cards
• Review of Google Goggles and Business Card Reader Apps

Want to stand out with your business card?  I mean REALLY stand out and have people look at it, and then you and realize that you did something pretty darn clever with your business, and the card you choose to represent yourself?  There are many ways to do it and we’ve covered a lot of them on this site, from adding color to the right font to simplicity.  Another way, is to find something that works with your name or your business name and use a play-on-words to work to your advantage. 

That’s exactly what Mr. Jack Hooker did, and he just so happens to be a graphic designer.  Obviously his name is Jack and so playing that to his advantage, he designed his business card all around that theme.  He took a very common sight, a Jack card from a deck of playing cards and expanded on it.  On the back of the card is the very familiar Jack design, but instead of the traditional Jack figure from Old English lore, it’s a modern man in a suit holding his portfolio.  On the front of the card is all the information you could hope to find on Mr. Jack Hooker, all inside a playing-card designed background.  In a word:  Genius.

Simply taking a common theme that matched his name, he was able to come up with a memorable business card that I’m sure no one he gives them to will forget.  Remember that when designing your next business cards:  sometimes you don’t have to come up with crazy themes, sometimes all it takes is a little creative ingenuity and a play on words.  Genius.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Possibly Related Posts:

• Hand made business cards
• Great Spot UV Card Examples
• 5 of the best things about Business Cards
• Glossy Business Cards versus Matte Business Cards
• Review of Google Goggles and Business Card Reader Apps