So, I’ve decided that handing out quarter inch thick collage boards isn’t a practical idea. I can hardly even fit them in my bags, notebooks or pockets. Plus, I can’t make these every day!
The idea of handing out pieces of collage art with handwritten information on the back has turned into using an online custom business card printer to zap out a batch of cards for me.
Making and handing out a ton of collages is, realistically, impractical and unsustainable.
By picking one or two designs, which I continue ordering to my heart’s content, I can curate the most suitable collages for the purposes of a business card.
Then, I don’t have to worry about how people will react to them, what they will do with them once they’ve gotten them or if they will confuse me for a visual artist rather than a poet/writer.
The first batch came in yesterday and I’m pleased with them. The collage I chose for this first, half test run of cards is this guy:
I chose it because there are a few keywords visible: poetry, books, will share, creators, as well as a few phrases I liked for business card purposes including “to be well worth knowing” and “contact with the printed page.”
Also, I think the trumpeter in the bottom left corner appropriately describes my feeling that I am “tooting my own horn” as I look to hand out my cards.
Okay, to get a little Patrick Bateman-y. I went with the uncoated cards instead of glossy or whathaveyou. I figured that a shiny card in this case would make the collage look like a photo while the uncoated would give it texture and some sense of being an actual, handmade collage.
I was also happy with having used a high-resolution scan of the card. It was somewhere between 500 and 600 dpi. I think that was enough—could have been higher, I suspect. Still, it shows details of the overlapped paper, its shadows and frayed cuts, which add to that sense of handling exposed collage.
I only ordered 100 cards, which is looking like not very many as I’m placing them in various places for ready access. I’m looking forward to trying out different collages and maybe even mixing a few different cards together, you know, to keep things spicy.
Figuring out a creative, unique and self-satisfying business card has taken some time and there have been a few iterations of what I wanted it to be. I’m happy that I’ve tried those different ideas because the first were definitely not the best, and what I’ve got as a result is better than I could have hoped for.
Now I have fancy looking cards with my important information on the back and I can be confident that I won’t miss another possibly interaction with interesting people.
Dan Dorman 