It's surprising...
Even in today's digital age, the traditional 85mm x 55mm paper based business card is still widely used around the world by businessfolk who want to network, connect and get more business.
We all remember the iconic scene in 'American Psycho' where the main character and his work colleagues eagerly compare business cards, little paper extensions of their egos and status.
I've always been intrigued about the social interaction of swapping of business cards, and in the past, I've tried to differentiate myself - and thus my brand - with creative alternatives to the traditional business card.
Because your business card is often judged when you hand it over, it can be used as a powerful platform to showcase your personality, brand and talents.
I previously launched my ‘1 EGO’ banknote business card, a realistic looking banknote that displays imagery from my life, and has a serial number that doubles as my phone number. My EGO banknote regularly sells on eBay (and my personal site) and thus has a real-world exchange rate.
Because people responded well to my banknote business card, I followed it up with my own ‘Two Cents Coin’, a large copper coin displaying my face on the front (heads), my bare behind on the back (tails) and the slogan ‘The bottom may fall out of this market’.
I then released the ‘Honest Business Card™’, which features a range of reasons why the card has been given to the recipient, with check boxes next to these options. The last reason reads ‘I want to sleep with you'.
I wanted to up the ante and take things one step further by creating the world’s first business scratchcard. It took a long time to get right, both artistically and practically (the finish, the overprint, the latex - which is the scratch panel section, all these had to be carefully produced) and I hope you think the finished article is worth it.
My business scratchcard is an authentic looking glossy scratchcard, complete with scratch-off silver panel and various ‘Easter Eggs’ embedded in the card, like a working bar code, that when scanned, returns my phone number.
When the card is scratched off, the person holding it ‘wins’ my contact details and if three ‘lips’ symbols are revealed too (the fine print on the back of the card says the odds of this happening are 1:1), they also receive a kiss (type of kiss, and location, up to me, of course!).
You can see a video of the scratchcard below.
Credit: Samuel Ridge
Image credits: www.instagram.com
