Eco-friendly consultants are sure to turn green with envy when they see Andrea Romani’s brilliant Ecological Business Card design. The concept consists of a simple stamp that can be used to print contact information upon virtually any recycled material. The clever concept is economical and not only cuts down on manufacturing costs and energy waste, but also re-uses materials that are already on the road to being tossed away.
It is interesting how many companies that are considered eco-friendly still carry around paper business cards. It’s quite a shame too because the odds are low that most people end up saving that little piece of card stock — if not immediately thrown in the trash or recycled, it could sit in one’s pocket’s for days winding up as a wet pulp ball at the end of a wash cycle. Even if that little contact summary is considered valuable, most likely the recipient inserts the critical info into their Outlook contacts and tosses the card out nonetheless.
Romani’s Ecological Business Card design acknowledges the cost and waste involved in printed business cards and instead focuses on what the card is intended for – marketing. Romani uses a self-inking custom designed stamp that can be applied to any type of appealing scrap paper. Self-inking stamps are an easy and affordable option since they are available at just about any business supply store and range around 15 dollars each. Even the industrial graphic nature of the stamp itself is helpful in promoting a minimalist image.
The process involved in creating a business card not only requires hiring and paying for attention-grabbing graphic work, but also includes releasing the designs for manufacturing. Although the stamp as a product certainly has production costs of its own, the production process for printed card stock uses a tremendous amount of ink, paper and electricity. Sometimes even shipping costs are incorporated — depending on the location of the card manufacturer in respect to the purchaser. With a world full of small, necessary, yet generally useless tiny pieces of paper, it’s smart to just use what already exists.
These images are just a small group of many different scrap paper selections — we hope to see Romani continue to explore new and unique business card canvases in the future.
Via Madame Hervé: Behind the Curtains and Ads of the World
Love how a rubber stamp is a “Brilliant Eco-Business Card” : ) But why even waste paper at all? Just stamp that thing on people’s hands or better yet their pleated khaki pants….
Hi Kristi,
I think using a stamp is a very interesting idea to avoid waste.
I wanted to know your thoughts on digital business cards like OnePage. We just launched it a few days ago. see an example http://myonepage.com/oo
Looks trashy, eco-friendly or not. I think a business card says a lot about you but with this I see cheap, messy and not professional at all. Why can’t the edges be trimmed? Looks like you are giving a person a piece of trash, and you are.
Or, better yet use electronic business cards. We’ve all got these mobile devices with us that already supports this very basic feature.
Why waste your time and resources on something else.
Great idea
I used this idea to make my business cards! I created a soy-based ink stamp and used a template to cut out cereal boxes, beer boxes, etc for great detail on the back. Sturdy too! Thanks!
http://www.heidideal.com/2010/05/now-were-in-business-cards/
Or… you could dip your finger in mud and …. write your name and number on a piece of garbage …. lol
Far from brilliant… eco-centric maybe