Hackaday: Business cards are stuck somewhere between antiquity and convenience. On one hand, we have very convenient paperless solutions for contact swapping including Bluetooth, NFC, and just saying, “Hey, put your number into my phone, please.” On the other hand, holding something from another person is a more personal and memorable exchange. I would liken this to the difference between an eBook and a paperback. One is supremely convenient while the other is tactile. There’s a reason business cards have survived longer than the Rolodex.
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I recall seeing another article about business cards a few weeks ago. In that article, the business card actually had a small lego figurine with a resume printed on the back. Like that person, the author of this article chose to differentiate himself from the sea of cardstock that is the world of business cards by making a blinking PCB chip (Not really sure what this means, tbh). One thing that is critical for success in any field, but especially in the arts industry, is the ability to market oneself. Without any self-advocacy and putting oneself out there, young designers and performers can not do the very thing they love the most. As such, I am always on the lookout to differentiate myself in this field so as to ensure that my face is a memorable one.
Just that fact that these cards are printed on PCB’s is what makes them unique in and of itself. Although it is cool to have a custom business card like this I am beginning to wonder if it is actually cost-effective. The obvious answer is no, but just the customization alone makes your name sick out in front of other candids. A business card is not something I have ever had to make but it is something to think about. You have to make someone what to keep your business card. Make them feel bad about throwing it away. Don’t think of it as being an expensive business card, think of it as being an investment that in the end probably work towards your favor. At the end of the day, a business card is what you make it. It is probably not the most important thing in the world but it could be the lasting impression that you give to somebody.
Business cards are often the first impression that you make on potential employers or new customers. Having a good business card makes you more interesting and memorable. This article shared a bit of information on how to make business cards cooler in a cheap and easy way. I particularly liked how McEvoy improved the profile of his new business cards by embedding the battery in the card itself, and how he used the properties of the card plastic to hold the battery in place. Business cards fulfill the purpose of giving someone something tangible to remember you by. Letters and cards have the same purpose, and because of that I think that we can use the same principles behind cool cards, like sounds and music when you open them, and apply them to business cards. I’m interested to see where cool business cards go in the future as electronics become smaller and more accessible.
To some degree, this article completely counters everything David Boevers says about business cards. The idea is cool, but not practical. I’d almost say to make the blinky card thicker – or at least a uniform thickness. If I have a stack of cards, I don’t want it to be thrown off balance by a battery. On one hand, I can see the value of having a fancier card to hand out to some people – the people you most want to impress. On the other hand, I wouldn’t want another potential employer saying something like “I didn’t get a fancy card. I just got a regular business card.” There is also the fact that the blinky cards aren’t a surface that you can write on. This may not be important to people who are deep in the trenches of technology, but for those of us living more in the real world, it matters. I think I’ll stick with a dead tree card for now.
As the author explains at the top of this piece, in the world of virtual contact sharing, business cards have almost entirely lost their practice edge. However, they are still a cornerstone of networking. So why do these tiny pieces of paper still matter so much when it comes to selling yourself to potential employers? As the author expresses in the very last paragraph of the article, "A business card can tell you a lot about a person." The information of a business card is no longer the most important aspect, although it should obviously be present and legible. Instead, a business card acts as an on-the-go token of your personal brand, capturing your aesthetic, your priorities, and hopefully your ability to be just a little bit creative. That being said, I think the flashing LEDs and battery take that a bit too far. It the first couple of seconds, I could see being impressed by these. But in the end, they are a little clunky and might not fit easily in a wallet or back pocket. These are certainly a risk but I think they take the creativity factor a little too far while forgetting about convenience.
This is an interesting way to go about creating business cards. I have created many cards in my past, with a father in the printing industry; I’ve been around a lot of paper and office workers. I think there is a time and a place to have a business card. Sometimes the speed at which we make connections in this industry it can be hard to make sure your contact information is remembered and a card can be a good way to help ensure that. With my own cards, I find myself not giving them out as much as I originally thought when I first made them. It always depends on the type of scenario you are in and if it calls for an exchange of information. It also depends on what information and how up to date your information is. Having an expensive card means that you will want to make sure the information is less likely to change.
I think these are super nerdy and also pretty cool at the same time, but like many above have said, they don’t seem too cost effective or worthwhile to actually produce. Like yeah, you have a completely different business card than everybody else, but also I’m pretty sure you can’t write on the backs of these, except maybe with a felt tip marker or sharpie, which I’m sure not every one at a career fair or convention has on hand. Which means that when they’re sifting through business cards they have received that day, you’re not “Brain McEvoy, brilliant dude from this specific place with this cool talent who wants a position doing this at my company” you’re “Brian McEvoy, weirdly intricate business card man and what did you want from me again?” That’s one of the bigger takeaways I got from Boevers’ lecture about business cards because I always wanted a solid color back, but I would want that back to be forest green and not a lot of pens would be friendly to that background.
These business cards are a really interesting creation. They are definitely memorable and are certainly a creative design. My worry would be about being a little overly obnoxious with my presentation, however. For just the few minutes that I was on the webpage to read the article I became annoyed with that little repetitive blinking light. And although they do grab attention quite well, after a while I would imagine a potential employer, even one impressed with the cards might find it a bit much. Another concern I have with plastic business cards is that they aren't biodegradable like their paper counterparts. Considering how ubiquitous they are as they are items made to be shared, a single job seeker might have added dozens of pieces of static, non-degradable plastic onto a landfill in the pursuit of a single job. I think your business card should represent you well as both a person and a potential employee therefore I would be wary of blinky cards.
I am not exactly sure what having some of these would do for you. If I was an employer I am pretty sure this would sway me more in the wrong direction than in the right one. There is a lot of discussion about making yourself more unique in a job interview and when applying and I'm all for turning the font blue or purple on your resume or wearing hot pink to and interview to express yourself but even in an artistic field I really think that too far is just too far. Standing out is great and it will bring you success if you can learn how to measure it correctly, the problem with the business card is that then who ever is interviewing you or talking to you is only thinking about them. You want to be unique but YOU also want to be the thing that people see as unique not business cards. I think accessories like that are like make-up, they are not meant to change you or the way that you look but just meant to accentuate your feature and strengths so you look beautiful. All that being said I am pretty sure business cards are on their way out a s a form of communication or even remembering someone, so all of this might be a little ridiculous to talk about anyway.
The fact that this article opens by stating that business cards are "stuck between antiquity and convenience" kind of undercuts much of the article itself. This opening line almost frames the modern business card as something reimagined by a newer generation in order to converse with an older generation. In my mind at least, it seems very hard to justify the extra effort and expense "blinky" cards confer upon the distributor. With two parents in the government, I have been the recipient of many flashlights and multitool cards that were meant to be "unique" reminders of a company or particular person. Gathered at large conferences, these items seldom generated more than a "huh" from my parents, as the culture is so saturated with "out of the box" thinkers these days. Rather than investing relatively substantial sums in fancy business cards, I believe the return on investment is higher when business cards are matched to standout resumes. Reinforcing a holistic and complete image seems much more productive than the instantaneous and forgettable "wow" moment everyone seems to be gunning for these days.
This is definitely on the extreme, expensive, and time-consuming side of personalizing your interactions, but I have to say that I don't have an issue with this business card design. Though it certainly could be seen as "too much," impractical, or even pretentious, I would argue that everyone has a right to their own personal brand and this is just taking it to the next level. If our goal, when we make connections and interact with new people, is to leave an impression and make them remember us, this is definitely a good strategy. There is almost no way I would forget "that guy with the blinking business card." Often, when I'm shopping (though that isn't so often), I'll see something and say "Oh that's really cute, but it's way too cool for me." Not to be self-deprecating, but I know when something I'm wearing is going to clash with my personality, or even overpower it and send a different message. If I were this man, I would make sure that my business card is not too cool for me, and that it won't overpower my value as a candidate.
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