30+ Business Card Design Ideas That Will Get Everyone Talking

March 17th, 2010 by Charlotte | Inspiration | 32 Comments

Business cards; don’t leave home without it. Business cards are a means of passing on your contact details to potential partners or customers. It is a traditional tool of the trade that cannot be overlooked despite how small and insignificant it might appear to be.

More than just pieces of paper with a person’s contact details, business cards have become mandatory if one would like to create a foothold in the corporate world. Business cards today are not used solely for the purpose of exchanging contact details. They are also used as a marketing tool. It is an advertisement for the company listed on the card, and is a reminder to the recipient of the card what the company can offer as well as who they can contact for whatever purpose.

30+ Business Card Design Ideas That Will Get Everyone Talking

Business cards have been an integral part of trading, but in more recent times, business cards have transcended its basic role and become a tool in sophisticated marketing as well.

Faceless Tool of First Impressions

Your business card is a faceless but very important tool that helps you form a crucial first impression on whoever you are trying to impress. It is this very reason that one must take great care when considering the design, layout, size and even shape of your business card.

Information given on the business card is fundamental and the importance of its clarity is a given. However, also consider the type of paper stock used, the design on the card, and the colors of the ink etcetera. ‘Boring’ is not a good first impression you want to make. Avoid being mundane. Think outside the box, or in this case, think outside the standard card template. Bear in mind that to stand out and give yourself an edge from the competition, you have to start with your business card.

The World Beneath the Feet of Networking

Networking is of the utmost importance to a freelancer. When you distribute your business cards, there is a chance that recipients of your card might pass it on to other potential clients. Consider your business card as an investment in mobile promotion and advertisement for who you are, what you do, as well as a glimpse of what your creativity can achieve. Turn your business card into a 3-in-1 networking tool; contact details factsheet, advertisement, and mini-portfolio.

30+ Innovative Cards

Here are some innovative business cards that might give you a creative boost and spur you to pay more attention to your own business card and the cards others give you.

Brigada

Easel

Koji Sueyoshi

1Scale1

Hairstylist

Blooming Card

Intersection

Mogioo

Brckt

Malota

Nate Ping

BKK Grill

Massage Therapist

Personal Trainer

Prisma

Helena

Environmentalist

Chest Physician

Headhunter

Radio Presenter

Urban Waves

Architecture

Heads Inc.

Base One Group

NGAP

Acupuncturist

Agrie Paint

Eduard Cehovin

Wunderberg

Visual Communicator

Kevin Mitnick

Taste of Ink Studios

PC Support

An Effective Conversation Starter

It is very possible that not all of these business cards are seen as an effective means of giving out your contact information, especially in the more formal corporate arena. Nonetheless, it is definitely a conversation starter that is both interesting and useful.

If you’ve come across other ingenious and original business cards, feel free to direct us to a sample and share its cleverness with us.

More Namecard Inspirations

Author

Charlotte

Charlotte’s interest is in web interface and design as well as motion graphics. Her absorption with her work is mostly due to her attention to detail and passion for the world of design. Winding down after work, which consumes much of her time; she enjoys traveling, exploring new places, gastronomy, and fashion.

http://maiconweb.com Maicon Sobczak

Without doubt great ideas. But I don't advice create cards too much innovative. Peoples still prefer the cards easy to read, when the information is recognizable in a quick look.
http://resourcehive.com JC

Some really cool cards here....definitely would get you noticed. THX!
http://www.linkedin.com/in/pearsestreet social networking design

Now a days many people have worst and bad looking business cards.I think we always need some good kind of business card designs.
http://devisefunction.com Matthew Heidenreich

I've seen most of these before, but there are some fresh ones in there as well. Great collection.
http://www.htmlemaildesigns.com/ HTML Email Designs

Nice samples. I wonder how much some of these cost to make and if it's actually worth it for the business.

I feel business cards fall in the same category as resumes, such that it shouldn't necessarily be too creative and unique. Instead, they should be clean, clear, and functional.
http://twitter.com/AndreIvanchuk Andre Ivanchuk

These are phenomenal !

The more interesting and engaging, the greater the brand recall.
http://www.vigsbo.com Drew

I love these card, they're creative as hell, but I can't imagine many of my clients folding, bending, and stretching them to get the message... the practicality of a business card seems to have been lost :-/
http://www.whitezine.com/ RaDe

Some of them are already well knon, but some are really goood
http://valwip.blogspot.com/ Val Woodhouse

These are all a lot of fun and would be a great little giveaway for a company. I think the ones that work best are those where you have the choice of keeping it as just a basic card or manipulating it but it still works either way, like the easel. The downside is it must add a fair bit to the price to get them specially printed, so would be out of the reach of a lot of small businesses. A badly designed gimmick will never work better than a creative little cardboard rectangle that has the details nice and clear.
http://www.onextrapixel.com Charlotte

Thanks!

Yes, agree with you Val. Alot of them are marketing tools for their brands. Some have simple and nice concept, like the Acupuncturist.
They are definitely costly, and of course you need print in bulk.
http://aext.net Lam Nguyen

These are strange to me. It's first time I see such creative like these. Nice roundup, Charlotte!
http://www.bebop-ad.com BebopDesigner

Brilliant post! love it... my favourite is Nate Ping. What does Urban Waves do? does glow in the dark? does it have water inside?

Thanks for sharing
http://www.designserious.com Serious

Great collection of business cards.
http://freelinerentalmobile.org.uk/ john mark

We need to be creative, think something new that is more interesting to many people, and creates a unique design so that many people will patronize our product. As i see the pics it was so cool, amazing and have a fantastic design i love it. please continue inspires many people more power to your site! G-d bless ;-)
http://www.businesscards.com Mike

Your post is absolutely right--business cards are a now treated as a marketing tool, which is why all the creative business card examples that you posted are so cool. Some people may see them as unnecessary to convey contact info, but the way that this information is conveyed is almost more important than the information itself. I really like the business card example for the personal trainer.
http://logos.xpertd.com logo desgin

nice article i like it thanks for sharing it......:)
http://www.spotofcolour.co.uk web design

Some of these are really clever, i really like the Hairstylist one as its just nice and simple and tries to get the read involved, ones like theses are the one who are likely to be remembered the most. I also like the way that more people are looking towards different kinds of business cards i.e the lego blocks, the peg, balloon etc. Good stuff
http://365icon.com Jonathan

cool post and some clever ideas, however the conventional rectangle card with a subtle twist, such as a vertical card with rounded edges instead of horizontal with corners may be less distracting from the main point of giving the card in the first place: to network. Some of these cards, imo, have too much going on. Having a card that stands up may be cool if its your card, but if someone elses card was standing up on my desk, it would probably get thrown in the trash.
http://gatl.in Jonathan Gatlin

Great article. What do you think about these cards?
http://tomskit.com/my-new-business-cards/
- http://www.onextrapixel.com Charlotte
  
  Hey Jonathan, looks cool :) What made you create your cards this way?
http://cardview.net Cardview

Great collection ! You can find more business card inspiration here - http://cardview.net Also ,if you designed some cool cards yourself you can submit them to us!
http://www.onextrapixel.com Charlotte

Certainly will! Thanks for the gallery of inspiration!
spira

My favorite is the hairstylist one. That's such a creative concept! I agree that the ones that you have to manipulate to get the information from are pretty much useless except maybe as conversation starters, but the ones like the hairstylist and the acupuncture and the easel are great different ideas that aren't trying too hard to be unique.
http://10steps.sg Johnson Koh

Excellent stuffs. Hairstylist and Brigada really caught my eyes.
http://www.bigdawgspromo.com Blayne K

REALLY COOL IDEAS!

I think my business card should make it on this list.

IT'S TALKING BUSINESS CARDS, I can record or have them pre-recorded.
http://www.cpcards.co.uk Paul Wilburn

We have some pretty cool plastic cards designs here Plastic cards and plastic business cards printed
Also, for more examples please see Examples of plastic cards, plastic business cards, membership cards and loyalty cards
We print the popular frosted clear plastic cards and work with lots of graphic designers who create stunning designs for their clients and then send the artwork to us to print the cards and deliver them under plain cover to their client.
http://www.spotofcolour.co.uk Spotofcolour

Here's my new business card http://spotofcolour.co.uk/business-card.jpg
http://businesscarddesignideas.com Mario

Not bad. The Nate Ping one is definitely fresh as I haven't seen any business card design like it yet. If you want other great business card designs you can add to your round-up feel free to drop by my site :)
http://www.novaz.com.br Daniel Leal Freitas

First time that i see new card on those lists...congrats.
http://dennis-graves.info Dennis Graves

Great cards. All too often I see boring and uninteresting business cards that get lost in the stack of cards that I have sitting on my desk. Creative cards definitely make a difference in remembering who people are.
http://webserviceondemand.wordpress.com Atanu Das

Lovely images. I have bookmarked this page for future assistance. Specially I like the PC SUPPORT image the most. Keep it up. Thanks for sharing... :)
http://www.customerloyaltycards.co.uk Loyalty Card Printing

Some great ideas for printed cards!!! Looking at these examples has inspired me to ensure our printed loyalty cards are as good.