5 fresh ingenious business cards to inspire you

Business cards that might blow your mind. You’ve been warned.

We’ve long written about the science of business cards, compared printing services, offered design guides and more, but what do we all really want? Creative inspiration. Most business cards still look like they were designed and printed in 1980, and are flat and boring, let’s face it. While you may not have the budget to pull off some of these more sophisticated concepts, you should be considering what you could do to spice up your card and make a memorable first impression without being obnoxious or outdated.

Concept one: cinematography

With some ingenuity, graphic designer Evgeny Katz in Severodvinsk, Russia has created a business card for a barber that actually animates itself, cleverly using an old-fashioned cinematography concept:

Concept two: heat sensitivity

“Thermo-sensitive black varnish that loses it’s color in response to heat creates a dynamic, ever-changing stationery set for Vienna photo rep and producer Natalie Daniels,” designed by Bureau Rabensteiner, printing for roughly $1 per card (excluding design costs).

Concept three: trifold with cutout

Turkish designer Huseyin Erdogan has designed a high quality tri-fold design for a hotel that features a lot of real estate for information but also visual elements, with a particularly appealing cutout in the front of the card.

Concept four: mini paperback books

German advertising agency Preuss Und Preuss has innovated business cards for The Bargain Bookshop in Berlin, offering unique designs for each card holder and printed to look just like a book.

Concept five: fuzzy dice

Minus the fuzzy, designer Matt Bogust in Auckland, New Zealand has created business cards that pop into a box, which he was inspired to fashion them into hanging them together like fuzzy dice. You’ve seen business cards that look like boxes, but Bogust adds a pretty cool twist! Bogust said, “Structural package design is awesome!”

The takeway

Business cards are not only capable of leaving a good impression of you or your company, they are often a cost-effective marketing tool. While not everyone wants to hold on to a pair of fuzzy dice, it is a fun gimmick, and representative of a packaging company, as mini books are for a bookstore. What can you create that is in line with the product or service you offer? At a minimum, look at the card you’re handing to people and ask if it matches your personality, the personality of your brand, and if it is in any way memorable.