18 Smokin’ Hot Business Card Designs
Collis Ta'eedA good business card is an essential tool in any freelancer’s arsenal. When you’re at a function networking, meeting new clients, or your work comes up in a conversation, your card is the anchor to make sure the discussion doesn’t come to nothing.
It’s important to think about what your business card says about you, as well as what to put on your business card, and whether it passes the business card trash test. But of course as any designer knows, the most important thing is to make sure your business card looks smokin’ hot!
So courtesy of our inspiration gallery FaveUp, which has just passed 1000 items of inspiration, here are 18 smokin’ hot business card designs:
More Design & Inspiration Awesomeness
You can find over a thousand inspirational logos, cards and website designs over at FaveUp.com.
If that’s not enough, check out CreativeBits for more cool business card designs.
Also at PSDTUTS we have two card tutorials - Making a Print-Ready Business Card Using Only Photoshop and Using the Vanishing Point Filter to Mock up a Business Card.
A Neat Card Presentation Trick
And finally here’s a neat business card presentation trick. It only works if you have a one-sided card, but hey it’s so cool it’s worth watching!
How To Give Your Business Card - Free videos are just a click away
nicole
February 7th, 2008
I’m just not that sophisticated to get away with that trick but very cool for the cool.
Raya
February 7th, 2008
All these cards look very stylish indeed!
Andrew
February 7th, 2008
Wow those are some great business cards
One thing where kind I get my business cards printed like dreamten and logik - thats just sexy lol
Antilogic
February 7th, 2008
I love the one with the messages on the back, very very cool idea!
Great post! Keep it up web god…
Silas
February 7th, 2008
I am also wondering where to get business cards printed.
Dan Peterson
February 7th, 2008
I’m with Andrew, I’d really like to know about good printers for specialty cards like these. Semi-transparent, plastic, metal, special cuts, etc. I always see these cool ideas or get inspired from something else but I have no clue where to go for getting something like that done.
Jason
February 7th, 2008
I like ours. I have yet to print them, but they will be rounded:
http://www.clevertools.com/temp/clevertools_BCfrontsmall.gif
http://www.clevertools.com/temp/clevertools_BCbacksmall.gif
What do you guys think?
Antonio
February 7th, 2008
Nice! Its an honor to see my business card up there (Artifice Studios)
Thanks!
Aaron Cruikshank
February 7th, 2008
Ahahahaaha.
I love the business card trick. I usually just aim for people’s perms but this is even better.
Lil
February 7th, 2008
This post reminded me of the business card section in ‘DIY Design’ by Ellen Lupton. All it takes is a smidgen of creativity to leave a lasting impression. I’m loving the fortune cookie, probably because I’m a shameless glutton.
Sam MacDonald
February 7th, 2008
These are some awesome designs and gave me some great ideas to work on for making my business cards look a lot sharper.
Brett Evans
February 7th, 2008
Yeah I’m in the same boat on wondering where to get some of these cards
max
February 7th, 2008
whow, great looking cards!
Will
February 7th, 2008
Ive never understood that business card trick video. Is it just me or does it seem rubbish/pointless? lol
Anyway, great business card designs though! I could have done with looking at these a few days earlier.
Kalle
February 7th, 2008
http://creativebits.org/cool_business_card_designs
Jason Milburn
February 7th, 2008
Same here with the printing of these specialty cards. I tend to just use Overnight Prints, but I’d love to know some reasonably priced printers for these types of cards…
Dinu
February 7th, 2008
Some very nice stuff there. I’m in the process of a biz card redesign myself, so thanks for the inspiration.
Michael
February 7th, 2008
Cool designs! However, while the fun cutouts and irregular shapes are fun and cool (mostly to us designers) to the average business person they will just get thrown out because they don’t fit with the rest of the cards they collect.
When I get a card and it doesn’t fit in the card folder I have or the stack of cards I use regularly, I look at it, appreciate the design for a few seconds then throw it out so it won’t clutter up my desk. Then it is almost always forgotten about (Crass? yea probably… But that’s reality). So I would caution against over/undersized cards and irregular shapes. Sometimes it’s good to conform!
fire-pixel.com
February 7th, 2008
Those are pretty good.
Check out the prototype we did with ours.
http://fire-pixel.com/temp/fpm_card.jpg
Old School style!!!
We didn’t go with it, b/c a lot of our clients didn’t get it.
If you need great marketing, web design or hosting check out http://fire-pixel.com
Nicolai Lønne
February 7th, 2008
How can you make a post about cool business cards and not mention Kevin Mitnick - http://www.kevinmitnick.com
I know his not a designer, but he has the coolest card
Clayton Bellmor
February 7th, 2008
Thanks for putting my card up there, much appreciated. I’m working with an illustrator to add some additional centerpiece images to my website, which I’ll also add to the back of my card. I’m exited.
Here’s a whoppingly huge inspirational resource for more cards: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dailypoetics/
My favorite card, which I can’t find an image of, was for Max Pie’s Furniture Store. The card had one rounded corner and a note next to it: “25 percent safer than other business cards”. Clever.
Stefano
February 7th, 2008
Those are really great designs, could anyone please suggest a website where I could get trasparent business cards?
Thanks
Kevin Calero
February 7th, 2008
I am astonished by the mitnick biz card; that is amazing!!! I too am interested in the dream ten business and where to get something like that printed. Any printers out there would be wise to advertise w/ FSW
Barfly
February 7th, 2008
Yeah you know what… using magic to present your business card is a sure fire way for people to think you’re an unprofessional, obnoxious, asshole…
Unless you’re a magician, in which case; then they will already know you are.
sean steezy
February 7th, 2008
sweet. i’m addicted to everything that psdtuts, freelanceswitch, & faveUp are doing. totally frickin sweet. much props.
Chad Mueller
February 7th, 2008
Great posts…. I posted some of the best business cards I have found a few days ago at inspiredology.com. This is a great showcase of some great cards, congratulations to FaveUp on 1000 items of inspiration.
Adam Snider
February 7th, 2008
Those are all really great business cards: except for the fortune cookie one. It’s too gimmicky in my opinion. I mean, I guess people will probably remember you, but it seems a bit cheesy. Plus, how do you carry a bunch of them around without crushing them?
I really like the beer mat card…mostly because I love seeing different beer mats.
rmmediums
February 7th, 2008
I see stick people
Shycon Design
February 7th, 2008
Where are folks getting the opaque and frosted business cards printed? I can’t seem to find any one company that does it, but haven’t looked too hard. Any direction would be appreciated. We’d love to go that route for our next batch.
Tom Ross
February 7th, 2008
Wow, really nice collection of business cards. I especially liked the AvantGrape one, very bold.
Jason Leister
February 7th, 2008
You might also consider this…
Regardless of the design, so many business cards get trashed because they say absolutely nothing about the only thing your potential client cares about: himself.
If you’re only at the “handing out the business card” stage in the client relationship, well, then your potential client probably has little reason to care about you at this point.
What about taking one of these neat designs and alter the content of the card to actually deliver some value to your potential client?
Philip
February 7th, 2008
It’s an honor to have my card posted as well (Dreamten Studios)
Thanks.
Jon
February 7th, 2008
That’s a cool business card trick. You just better pull it off right or you’ll end up looking dumb!
Jeremy
February 7th, 2008
So who prints the semi-translucent cards?
Amy
February 7th, 2008
Re: the 6th card… shouldn’t the id be a class?
Richard
February 7th, 2008
Thanks kindly for including our circular Hypno card. We are honored too!
To answer a few questions as to where to get these done, most commercial offset printers can handle these types of cards (custom Die stuff). The Circular Die alone will cost between $75 - $150 to make, and they’ll usually outsource the creation of that to a die specialist if it’s anything more detailed than a circle (but even good circles may be hard to get just right - believe it or not).
In our area (South Jersey, Philly, USA) we’ve used Burlington Press (Owner Rich Lewis is a great guy), and CRW Graphics in Pennsauken. Generally printing with a local printer you get a lot more hands-on input into the process. But you pay for that. The Printingforless.coms and the VistaPrint.coms of the world offer considerable value for what you pay, but the quality (in my opinion) never matches up to what you can do when working one-on-one with a good local printer (and you cannot specify custom paper / plastics / etc. which makes all the difference too!). I’d start looking in the old fashioned Yellow Pages as not all printers are up-to-date with having a web presence. Other designers will also be able to refer printers to you. Have fun!
Aloke Pillai
February 7th, 2008
Wow, Great stuff!
keep Rocking!
Aloke Pillai
Dan
February 7th, 2008
It’s interesting how the web design card is not XHTML 1.0 Strict.
Loooooooowercase!
Greg R.
February 7th, 2008
Makes you think about how many business cards just plain ol’ suck. Love some of the designs and the rounded corners. My wallet makes rounded corners of their own after a few days in there.
zackery moore
February 7th, 2008
I have business card envy………
Michael
February 7th, 2008
Wow, excellent. Guess I am going back to the drawing board.
And Jason, I like your designs. Will be really cool with the rounded corners.
Anne
February 7th, 2008
Wow, people are really digging the rounded edges these days. I guess it’s one way to bring a 2.0-ey look to print design.
I don’t know about transparency and metallics, but you can get all this two-sided, full color, rounded edges stuff done here: http://www.hotcards.com/business-cards for, like, $60.00 per 1000 cards or something hella cheap.
Jason
February 7th, 2008
Thanks Michael! Ive learned from previous experiences to not get them glossy so you can write on them. I under estimated the need to write on a business card before.
Michael Martine
February 7th, 2008
Brilliant designs. I just go nuts over the translucent ones. Mitnick’s card rules. I just got mine in yesterday. Not smokin’ hot, but serious, real business cards. Thick card stock. Clean and crisp, unpretentiously-sized logo. It gave me a little thrill to open them and hold them… and then to start giving them away to people.
Katherine
February 7th, 2008
It is so important to have a good business card. My first design was a disaster and before I could hand out too many, I changed my email address and fax number. Now, I’ve decided to keep it simple. I stopped writing “Freelance Writer” on it because what if I want to do some editing or something else? So I found a picture of a typewriter and just have my name, website, and email.
Anthony Kuhn
February 7th, 2008
Collis:
Thanks for this of wonderfully creative business cards. I would imagine these types of colorful and extraordinary examples are for people in the creative world and not the staid work-a-day white collar one. Fascinating that there are so many people who step outside the borders and black-and-white print model to express a bit more about themselves. I linked to your post in my blog entry today at the Innovators-Network in hopes that some of my readers will visit FreelanceSwitch to read your piece in its entirety. Keep up the good work!
Anthony Kuhn
Jack McDaniel
February 8th, 2008
There some great designs here! And a lot of questions about printing. Any good local printer can do these things. Over the years I’ve found two in my market (Colorado) that do great work and love it when I send them something unique.
Also, printing on translucent paper isn’t that difficult. The trick is to design the art properly. The printing is different based on the company making the paper. The toughest thing is drying time and workability. My favorite paper is Gilbert Clearfold. A good printer can educate you tons about the possibilities and limitations. Bottom line, for high-end printing like this you really want someone to work with locally.
Ethan Gardner
February 8th, 2008
I hope Clayton Bellmor doesn’t use an xhtml doctype on his business card. It wouldn’t validate. Seriously though…these cards are great.
sascha/hdrs
February 8th, 2008
and then there are these business cards … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoIvd3zzu4Y
daniel
February 8th, 2008
IT’s Cool Dude you have got a good collection , For Some More Business Card Design Collection
http://yugushare.blogspot.com/2008/01/27-creative-business-cards-you-shouldve.html
Alex
February 8th, 2008
Nice cards, although some of them aren’t practical, just a thought with the old fashioned “rollacard holders” (you know what I mean) Being only 15, I can’t really comment on things of yesteryear, but I’m sure there will be a large percentage of businessmen/contacts that use these and are so stuck in their ways they’ll just drop the card if it doesn’t fit in there.. Thoughts?
Timothy Diokno
February 8th, 2008
And how much did these business cards cost? They must be worth a lot! Might as well pretend to be a client and collect these awesome business cards, have it in a picture frame and then have it locked in a vault. They really look expensive. Priceless? Wow!
But the fortune cookie… now that’s just awesome!
Clayton Bellmor
February 8th, 2008
To Ethan:
Next time I’ll have to include a validated tag on the card. That would be hilarious.
Clayton Bellmor
February 8th, 2008
“Oh my God… It even has a watermark.”
John
February 8th, 2008
Wow, some great cards, indeed. Inspired me!
More?
Justin
February 8th, 2008
Very Nice!
Gave me some inspiration on designs for my business cards. Great Article.
Brett Adams
February 8th, 2008
Great cards, but where does someone go to get such designs printed? Doesn’t seem like the kind of thing that can be taken care of at Vista Print or the like. Any suggestions?
blue2x
February 8th, 2008
nice business cards, ive seen a transparent business card before in deviantart , it was so cool !
Beth
February 8th, 2008
Anne - DAMN, thank you!! HotCards’ prices are excellent and quality looks excellent; I’ve requested samples. I’ll be buying postcards in bulk for art openings in the coming year, so this is very timely.
I’m almost certain that the 8th/9th samples are Moo.com products - they’re half the height of a standard business card, very versatile and cute. I’ve bought from them and been absolutely delighted - the only downside is that they’re in the UK and so shipping is a little pricier (and takes longer) than I might like.
Inspiration Up
February 8th, 2008
Wow! great business cards collections. Thanks for sharing.
AB
February 9th, 2008
From the feed: “Here’s some of the good ones!”
Here ARE some of the good ones!
Samuel
February 9th, 2008
Can someone recomend a good online company for ordering bussines cards? (not vistaprint please).
Delivery to europe is a must.
Pablo Matamoros
February 10th, 2008
I agree with Michael. Cards that are oversized are easily chucked away.
Another point that many designers forget when designing a business card is one of the main purposes of a business card: to hand write on it!
Very often you have a discussion in cafe with a client and you want to draft quote or tentative value for a project or write the number of somebody else that might be able to help your customer. There are many other pieces of information that you might need to hand out.
In many trades is very common to write quotes in their cards, builders, mechanics, electricians, etc.
Designing is cool, but don’t forget of the business side! That’s why they are called “business cards”.
Mali
February 10th, 2008
Wow!
Just what i was looking for. Give me some ideas for a couple of clients im currently working for! Bloody brilliant. Thanks
Great Post Great work
Eating Design
Mohammad
February 11th, 2008
All Of Design Very Extraordinary
Raul
February 11th, 2008
Modelling after this post:
http://www.secretweaponlabs.com/words/2006/10/04/wozs-business-card/
it’s probably a good idea to blur out personal info on the cards.
Raul
February 11th, 2008
Apologies
Scratch the previous comment.
And Thanks for putting up the pictures. It is a cool site!
aQuib
February 12th, 2008
cool. I wonder how much the clear ones cost to print?
Braintrove.com
February 13th, 2008
Some great creativity going on! Thanks for pulling these together.
Tommy Day
February 13th, 2008
I don’t think designers should reference things that only designers would understand when they’re marketing to potential clients. None of my clients have ever known what a DIV is, why put it on a business card? Just to impress other designers?
Mark
February 13th, 2008
Hehe excellent thanks for showing mine
Some great cards up there and on the other links posted 
Albert
February 14th, 2008
I really like the plastic ones, but the cheapest I’ve found them is $1 a pop. I think those clear plastic ones are the same price.
Tuan Nguyen
February 14th, 2008
They are all great designs, and concept. My favorite is the last one.
Alex
February 15th, 2008
Great collection! Thanks this cool ideas!
chris mckinnon
February 17th, 2008
Hi, I was just reading all the post and my company prints all these types of business cards. Feel free to check us out and email us if you would like some additional information.
rick
April 24th, 2008
I love MOO specifically because they produce unique types of business cards and a bunch of other unique printed products. I think they can get a bit on the expensive side, though.. but I guess it’s OK because they do seem to have better quality business cards.
On another note, if you’re just looking for regular, low-cost, professional business cards.. I’d highly recommend a printing company in Los Angeles called 4FocusFX Printing .. http://www.4focusfx.com … They have the best prices and IMO they have above average turnaround times. Beware of all the other places the promise too much and hardly deliver.
rick
Recommended website:
http://www.4focusfx.com , 4FocusFX Printing
mnc
May 23rd, 2008
Very cool ideas!
I also recommend the unique designs at http://www.ooprint.com
I particularly like the blogger business cards (featuring a customizable tag cloud for all you techies) and the 2008 campaign cards . . . they also have a special offer so you can order 100 cards free (do you need a better reason to try their services?)
http://www.ooprint.com/us/dynamic/public/content/campaign-free-business-cards.php
&
http://www.ooprint.com/us/dynamic/public/chooser.shtml?cat_label=EN_INTERNET-BLOGS-BUSINESS-CARDS_0
On-anong
June 15th, 2008
Great business cards! The last one is also my favorite.
Ian Roberts
July 6th, 2008
Really great ideas here, especially the
Matt Lilly
July 22nd, 2008
One of the greatest collection of business cards I have seen. It definitely shows off how creative some designers can be even when given a very tiny surface to work with.
DANIELA
July 31st, 2008
A collection of transparent, frosted, metallic businesscards!
Very nice product! And high quality. Printed offset-UV.
http://flickr.com/photos/biglietti_da_visita/
Harish
July 31st, 2008
Wow, I wish I could have cards like those. I live in India, most printer guys are using old systems. The once having the best things, charge a hell lot.
And ye, am surely heading write back on drawing board to get new designs for my cards.
Jason
July 31st, 2008
Impressive collection. I added it to my resource page. I found this link yesterday.
It has some
http://blog.uprinting.com/smart-design/20-sample-business-card-designs/#comment-531
Nilson Saavedra
August 2nd, 2008
there are amazing examples of business cards here, very inspirational
Muhammad Ali
August 11th, 2008
WOW, How Beautiful,
I have selected meny card, and i will print my business card like that one.
Thanks fo sharing these card for all.