Tara Mann

Whenever we need a business card to introduce ‘the improvised life’ or ourselves (with address and phone), we peel off a printed-at-our-local-copy-shop sticker and stick it onto…something. Pamela Hovland dreamed up the idea one day when we were trying to figure out an alt-business card that would say what ‘the improvised life’ is in a flash, and get people curious enough to go to the site. We began to imagine things that would be cool made into cards, like the oddly-printed discards and tests that printers routinely put in the recycling bin, or cereal boxes…or leather, bits of fabric, thin sheets of metal, used subway cards. Our favorite so far is the ribbon we bought at Hyman Hendler in the garment district, that we originally bought to make the ribbon on the Surprise Box. We just cut a piece of ribbon, attach a sticker and then…fray the end slightly…

Tara Mann

…those ribbon cards make us bold enough to give the card to complete strangers…(and give us an excuse to browse through that wondrous store)…

Ellen Silverman

We tried making cards out of one of  the “out-take” transparencies from a photo shoot with Maria Robledo for The Improvisational Cook*, but then felt terrible after we’d cut one up, even if it was a discard; it sure is beautiful. We’ll use anonymous ones from now on or our ancient polaroids…

…or perhaps an x-ray?

*The Improvisational Cook will be published again in paperback in Spring of 2011. Meanwhile, you can find the hardcover through Amazon’s resellers.

Related post: Rethinking Business Cards

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2 replies on “our handmade business card

  1. O.k. this is WAY cool. Thanks for sharing your ideas. Simple, fun, memorable, not wasteful – and actually nice to use as a business card. Can’t get better than that.

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