14 Ways to Create a Memorable Business Card [PICS]

Memorable business cards are either all about minimalism or maximum creativity. If you’ve decided to avoid the American Psycho-esque, off-white, watermarked business card and flex your artistic muscles, here are 14 ideas that will help to inspire you.

From scented and edible, to 3D and digital, we’ve gathered ideas and online resources to help you create the next big thing in business cards. Make sure the next time you pass out your card, it doesn’t end up buried in a desk drawer, or worse, tossed in the trash.

Please share your own business card innovations and tips in the comments below.

1. Plantable

Great for farmer's market stands or environmentally conscious companies, these cards will compost in soil and then sprout flowers, herbs or veggies. Botanical Paperworks sells a variety of designs.

2. Interactive

Add a pinwheel to a business card like this Alice Donadoni design which spins coffee scents for the perfect bean/customer match.

3. Texturized

Communicate a soft-and-fuzzy feeling by embossing business cards made from cotton, silk, metal or even velvet. The cotton card above was designed by Taste of Ink.

4. Edible

Although these designs can get expensive (not to mention perishable), they're a great addition to company gift packages or a clever substitute for after-dinner restaurant mints. Just don't expect people to remember your email address for very long! These were designed by Ashutosh Karkhanis of Dizzy Design.


Chocoholic businesspeople should keep an eye out for a rumored chocolate printing machine that's supposed to let you customize your sweets. In the mean time, create your own by using molds and some icing.

5. Playful

Inspired by the Caddyshack gopher, Taste of Ink designed a business card sleeve that doubles as an office putting target.

6. 3D

Designer Igor Perkusic turned his business cards into 3D figures with rad hairdos. It's a perfect option for salon owners or stylists. Also check out Recircle's section for more 3D card cuties.


You can also combine texture and dimension by pasting business-appropriate materials to your card like the wool from this Wisconsin farm featured on Web Designer Depot.

7. Useful

Instead of opting for another business card that recipients will shove into their wallets, choose something useful, like a coaster on which to rest their java.


Etsy seller ReadyGo also offers customizable, mini-notebooks as a way to spice up your card.

8. Share-worthy

Give a card that people will want to hang up on a wall or share with their friends. A simple, clever design on the back of your card might just inspire people to show it to others.


For example, we know that you'll hold this moustache business card up to your face during happy hour. Just like we know you'll squeal over these doll-sized stationary business cards (both by Moo).

9. Perforated

Perforating your card, like this from fitness trainer Zohra Mouhetta, can add a clever and interactive touch. Taste of Ink also designed a card with a tear-away strip à la FedEx package.


Image courtesy of Funny Commercials World.

10. DIY

If you're on a budget, consider two vital business card tools: a rubber stamp and a paper cutter. Graphic designer Skye Jeffery's blogs about how she created customized rubber stamp cards for her business. Also see the materials Flickr user Mr. Keason used for stamping his business tags.


You can even get scrappy, like these torn cardboard business cards designed by Fischer + BUS.


Office Depot offers ways to order customized rubber stamps as well.

11. Lying Around the House

If you're in a hurry (or happen to have a surplus of bananas), consider stamping or branding items you already have lying around the house, as Silverback demonstrates above.


Alternatively, hand out something cute and useful by stamping your website on sugar packets like Harrumph.com did.

12. Photos

Photos are an easy way to stand out with some lovely visuals. Take a tip from Bio Graffiti and transform your Instagram snapshots into cards or bookmarks that also promote your business.

13. QR Code

Consider adding a QR code to your business card and digitally directing recipients to a website containing your information.

Be sure to check out Mashable's tips on how to use QR codes.

14. Stickers

Even if these aren't technically business cards, stickers are a fun way to distribute your logo. You can use stickers to turn just about anything you encounter into a calling card for your business.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Jeff McNeill

D is for Design and Dots

Original: D is for Design and Dots



Established in 2010, Design Museum Boston (DMB) is a nonprofit organization that "envisions creative, engaging public art and design education for Boston and New England." Without its own physical space DMB is a nomadic museum — or what they call a "decentralized network of physical and virtual exhibits" — bringing different programming and experiences to galleries, retail environments, and public spaces. Back in January — sorry, sometimes we are out of the loop on things — DMB introduced a new identity designed by Continuum and, to many people's amusement, the design process was thoroughly documented on Core77: Here is a list of posts from nine weeks worth of work and, a highlight from week 5, here are the design concepts shown.

The resulting dynamic mark is a true metaphor for community coming together to understand design.
— Continuum Case Study

The concept here is very straightforward. Actually it's a bunch of decent, but easy, concepts together: dots spread out to signal the nomadic nature of DMB; dots to represent how design is everything, and everything is design; dots as community; dots to show how design influences everything. Nothing groundbreaking, but it gets the point across. Same goes for the identity: It's far from groundbreaking — here is another 'D' made out of dots that spread in and out — but it's decently executed. The typography — I'm a sucker for Benton Sans — and the color palette are very nice, the applications are simple and bold, and the "D" icon has enough energy to become distinctive and recognizable. I also like that they didn't go with an artsy grungy theme to portray the idea of "design" but rather as a more controlled, grid-based "thing" that can burst out when needed.


Thanks to Brian Collins for the tip.