Creativity at the expense of functionality

I think it depends on the industry… If your business is related to marketing or brand image, these creative cards will at least get you remembered. It almost depends on the scenario that you are presenting the business card too though. I don’t know that passing out clothes pins at a lunch meeting would be practical.

hi aaron,

your point is good. and is valid not only regarding creativity for a creative professional. it regards all creative projects.

and the real question isn’t how creative should this project be.
the real question is: what do i want to achieve with this?
if i want a simple “wow! you’re so original!” than yes, those business cards are excelent!
if instead i want some emails and phone numbers.. well than i should consider a more functional design.

webee
[is a design blog]

I don’t see the problem with the one you scratch off the feather, but I agree with the rest of them. I would probably keep and remember the one with the feather, but the Smith’s one would probably have to go because of the format. If your goal is for the card to be kept, you need to consider conventional formats. If you only want your name remembered, some more unorthodox designs could be tried out for the sake of making an impact on the receiver.

The one made out of cardboard could probably also work, if it’s more or less the size of a regular business card and fits in a wallet like any other card. The clothes peg is indeed functional, but probably not the way the designer intended.

I guess a major point is that it needs to reflect whatever you want to convey. If you want to attract clients that need clever, unorthodox and incredibly creative solutions, you might go a lot further than if you’re looking to design e.g plain business websites.

I’d love to see sketches and roughs as you begin to get something down.

I think it depends in what situation you were intending using these cards. If you had a meeting with a really corporate formal client it would no necessarily be good to hand them a clothes peg. However if you were at a large event trying to get noticed amongst hundreds of other people handing out business cards, something unusual (maybe a bit more practical) would perhaps be the way to go.

I think cards like the feather would work ok, but some of the other stuff I’ve seen (like the clothes pin) is silly– all of course depending on context.

Like someone above said, if you’re in a HUGE group handing out cards it may work. But, if you’re at a Chamber of Commerce or some other function it doesn’t make a lot of sense and people would probably look down on you for your “creativity”.

– Scot

Nice post Aaron,

I thought I’d seen more of the cards before I posted my own examples.

You focus on the bad ones (and I agree with you) whereas I took a look for the ones that worked.

The cards that you have displayed makes you remembered for a while as it has a fancy fantasy touch but being into some serious money and business a highly professional one works great but even that too depends on whom you are focusing on and what exactly your business is.