You can't tell a damn thing about the quality of a business or its representatives from a business card. However, it tells about their appreciation for design.
Usually by the time I've received one, I've already made up my mind about the business and/or the people who work there, but I try to be as shallow as possible and judge strictly on the integrity of their card. Almost nothing is worst than cute self-promotion.
This one was created by Struck.
What are the best and/or worst pieces of self-promotion you've seen?
5 comments:
This is pretty cool, and yes, I've seen some pretty crazy self promo ideas in the past. I think Space 150 is the most gratuitious though. They change their company's identity every 150 days. New biz cards, new signage, new website, and they have a huge kick-off party.
I think the best form of self-promotion is good ads. If you do that you shouldn't ever have to worry about cute cards and all that other bullshit. Anyway, this seed packet seems less like self-promotion and more like a direct mail piece of advertising.
That's funny, one of our AEs just sent this link to me yesterday...some good, some bad, but topical nonetheless:
http://creativebits.org/cool_business_card_designs
I once interviewed at Epoge Marketing in Neenah, WI. The Creative Director came from a Graphic Design background (which I think is evident if you look at their work posted online). He came up with an interesting self-promo piece that he ended up recycling over and over. He packaged his idea in a mailing tube. The self-promo had a cement trawler (is that the right word?) inside. It seems like he was a "one-idea kind of guy".
http://www.epoge.com/work.asp
space150 recently upgraded for the 19th time. While the concept definitely works in terms of promotion...I think it is less about the cards, signage, site, etc...and more about the idea behind those pieces.
"We do it because we’re overcommitted to our evolution and the future. We do it to show our clients that changing with the times and staying relevant is possible."
read more...http://blog.space150.com/2007/9/21/our-super-sweet-19-2
What makes self-promo work is having an original idea to support it. What's the point of good ads, sending stuff in mailing tubes, or even a really great design if there isn't a message behind it that an audience has not heard before?
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