"Why don't you give me a call when you wanna start taking things a little more seriously," says Joker, taking his leave from the most ruthless mobsters of the city of Gotham. With the gesture of an illusionist, he reaches for his pocket and shows a Joker playing card: "Here's my card."
In one way or another, the search for the perfect business cards is somehow linked to the quest for success—and the supervillain from Christopher Nolan's franchise The Dark Knight is not the only one using business cards as a manifesto of identity, aspirations and values.
In the movie The Social Network, for example, Mark Zuckerberg includes the remark "I'm CEO, b****" as job title in his card to let the world know that he made it. In American Psycho, Patrick Bateman and his yuppie colleagues constantly update the layout of their business cards as a way to challenge each other—and winning, of course. There's even a theater play by French playwright Daniel Pennac where characters introduce themselves by showing their business cards, which reveal aspects of their personality.
With business cards, the countless options for coloring, lettering and design come down to a pitiless window of 3.5 per two inches. In Boston, we decided to look for companies that found the most original ways to present themselves through original designs. Our informal research is based on suggestions from readers, friends, colleagues and stacks of business cards stockpiled during the writer's almost two years of reporting on the local tech scene.
Looking for trends, we learned that there has been an overall towards simplicity in typography for some time now, as Sarah Daley, head of design of MOO in North America, said. MOO is the print and design company behind the business cards of around 100 clients in the Massachusetts tech industry, including Fuze.
"Gradients have made a comeback in recent years," Daley said. "I also see brands using special print processes like gloss and metallic elements to [create a] sense of luxury or exclusivity to a brand."
Design aside, technology is an easy way to evade from a traditional business card's borders. Apps to create digital cards are ubiquitous. Paper aficionados who are also tech-savvy can opt for business cards that include QR codes or programmable chips; when tapped to a compatible mobile device, they can bring up a URL, a map location or a music playlist. True stage kings and queens can even buy a new business card wallet that allows you to hand out any business card in a burst of flames (Joker would like that).
Here are the cards of the Boston companies that made us say "That's cool." Give them a call.
Affectiva
As a company that uses facial recognition software to detect emotions, Affectiva had an almost obvious options to personalize its business cards: emoji. The company lets employees customize their card by selecting their own personal emoticon. The primary color is magenta, but employees could also select business cards in the company's secondary color lime green or white. The creative director that created the company's logo, website and business cards is a local designer, Gary Pikovsky. "Gary picked the emoticon on my business card," Gabi Zijderveld, CMO at Affectiva, wrote in an email. "He said it represented 'curious.' I asked him if it was curious the weird kind or curious the inquisitive kind... he assured me it's the latter."
Botkeeper
On the right, the company logo: an eye-wrinkling bot. On the back, contact info. Enrico Palmerino, CEO of Botkeeper, said he went through a few hundreds logo designs before making a final decision. "I knew what I wanted: We're going to be a bot brand, an automating thing... [I wanted it] immediately to look friendly and fun," Palmerino explained. Fun fact: in May this year, the company ordered a stack of business cards that ended up being larger than the usual dimensions, so they're now used as coasters.
Fab@CIC
CIC's fablab in Boston has some maker-savvy business cards. Using a laser cutter, the team engraves designs and prints onto business-sized super slim sheets of wood, thus creating techie, wooden business cards. Fab@CIC is a combination of fabrication laboratory, makerspace, community engagement space and cafe.
Franklin Robotics
Now here's a creative one: a business card that you can plant in a pot and see blooming. All business cards of Franklin Robotics employees are printed onto seed paper, a bio-degradable eco-paper made from post-consumer materials embedded with seeds. The back of the card says: "Plant and grow: Cover the seeded paper with 1/8" of soil. Place in a sunny spot and water often. Watch wild flowers bloom!" In an email, Franklin Robotics CEO Rory MacKean explained that he went in search of something that was both unique and relevant to what his company does: getting people excited about growing things. "I've also found that printing the lines on the back of a business card provides a really good spot for jotting down reminders," MacKean added. I followed instructions and planted Rory's card in a pot at home. If all goes according to plan, I may need one of Franklin's weed-cutting robots.
Lose It!
This is a simple idea, but I couldn't get my mind off it for some reason. Lose It!, a local freemium app that helps users lose weight, has business cards that look like... its app: a squared orange scale with rounded corners. Not creative like adding seeds, but still a clever way to convey what the company does. Beware, though: those business cards have non-standard sizing, which you can consider both unique and annoying.
Poppin
In this case, we see true customization efforts. Poppin, a provider of office furniture, adds a customized portrait of each employees on the back of each business card. The marketing department takes a picture of each employee in their first week, then the company's graphic designer does the illustration. "Just about everyone I give my card to gives me a compliment," Josh Meyer, account executive a Poppin, wrote in an email. Now you can't say you can't connect a name to a face!
Semafone
What if you asked new contacts for their cards, and they handed out what looks like their credit card? You'll know they're employees of Semafone, a provider of security payments solutions that has its North America headquarters in Boston. "Semafone specializes in securing payment card data, so their business cards are designed to look like credit/debit cards on both the front and back," Aaron Lumnah, digital marketing manager at Semafone, explained. "I think they’re a really creative approach to business cards that reinforces the company’s core competency [and] brand in an eye-catching way."
