The origins of the first business card are a tad opaque, but I like to think it goes all the way back to the Stone Age, when a caveman handed another a rock with his name carved into it. Whenever the first business card appeared, it has since sparked a revolution in the ways in which we network and do business. With all of the business I know of still using business cards today, it’s clear that they are still very much an important part of the world’s professional interaction.

Then what makes them so timeless?

Perhaps because business cards, unlike shoulder pads and leg warmers, have managed to move on from the 1980s, and the rather staid white card with lettering isn’t good enough anymore. 

Check out some of these fascinating designs, showing how businesses can promote themselves with interesting and unique visuals, shapes and formats. If you are a computer coder, why not present your business card in the form of HTML code? If you are a Charlotte marketing agency, why not put a name with a face (as the ad agency Reactor did in example #1). Or if you are a gardner, wouldn’t it make sense to create business cards with seeds (see below)?

There are some things that haven’t changed so much. Business cards still say the same things, names and contact details. They are also still around the same shape – easy enough to fit in a wallet. But other than that, the way in which you give your information and the ways in which you present it to the public, is completely open to interpretation and reinvention. In fact, the more creative you are, the more customers will take notice of you over anyone else in your industry.