The fine crew over at PSFK liked the business card I gave them last Thursday so much that they decided to feature it on their homepage on Friday.   All of the new content from Friday was sent out this morning at 2 a.m. in their newsletter, New Ideas & Trends Inspiration.  My work is published together in the same newsletter and on the same page with Shepard Fairy, Maurice Sendak and Alex Bogusky.  I’m having a pretty good day so far. Thank you very much PSFK!

On Thursday I attended the Good Ideas Salon with Jan Chipcase of Nokia hosted by PSFK at JWT.  Jan is a user experience researcher who works for Nokia Design. The goal of his research is to understand the ways technology works in different cultures, with a focus on understanding technology 3 to 15 years from now. He takes teams of designers, psychologists, usability experts, and ethnographers all over the world to conduct this research.  In his own words he considers himself an anthropologist. He gave a presentation on Pattern Recognition in different cultures.  The presentation was great and you can find it on SlideShare.  There are also many other presentations of Jan’s on SlideShare worth reading.

PSFK Oct. 2nd

I met some great people that night and my business card, rather my “mini resume card” was well received.  Only a few days before the event I realized that I wanted something more than just a standard business card to distribute at functions like this.  I thought that a standard business card, though tried and true it may be, does not offer enough real-estate to convey a message as a letter or resume would.   It would be awkward to hand out a resume and cover letter to everyone at a corporate mixer.  “Hi my name is Alexander, pleasure to meet you.  Please take my bulky No.10 envelope that I expect you to carry around all night.”  All of the envelopes would all end up left at the bar.  What’s left is a business card.  The classic 3 1/2″ x 2″ original social-networking profile.  Two sides.  Name and contact.  Simple.  To expand on this classic I decided to design one card that when folded would resemble the dimensions of the classic card but open to reveal more content.  Now add a little copy about the location or event that you plan to distribute the cards and viola, you have created a location based, time stamped, mini resume card.  With a simple opening line on the inside, “It was a pleasure to meet you at the Good Ideas Salon on Thursday, October 1st.” You might be thinking out cost, time and resources but really, anyone can do this.

Stand tall all you DIY folks out there because it is about to get all production nerdy.  If you would like to just know some more about me and be done with reading about this card then go ahead.

Blast Oct. 3rd

It would be difficult (and not to mention expensive) to get cards custom for an event printed by offset or digital.  Don’t get me wrong.  I use printers whenever possible but right now I am still working out designs and experimenting with a new brand identity.  And yes the paper choices aren’t cheap sometimes when you go DIY.  Luckily in NYC we have many great printers and paper suppliers. At least five shops I know of within a couple blocks of each other than all sell great paper, folders and some also print on site.  Letterpress too.  All around 5th Avenue in the between 23rd and 14th streets.

My favorite paper for business cards right now is Strathmore Bristol 88# Ultimate White. For this job I went true DIY and went to Staples and picked up a box of 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ invitations from Gartner.  White 80# card stock.  Maybe too thick to go through all of the rollers of a laser but I was planning on using my inkjet because there are no rollers other than the feeders.  Also I’ve found that the registration when printing double-sided is better with inkjets that most standard office laser printers.  Next steps were straight forward.  Design in Illustrator, print with trim marks, lightly score the fold, trim and fold.  Tip: When you are looking for company logos consider checking out Brands of the World.  I’ve been using them for years.  They are free and you can get vector for most logos. Nothing looks worse than a low-res JPEG of the company’s logo on the cover of your presentation to them.  Remember what Charles Eames said,“The details are not details. They make the design.”