diecut business cards

Business cards are often used to make a first impression. You meet someone, you exchange cards, and you may slip the card straight into your jacket pocket for later. If the design is striking and catches your eye, you may spend a few extra seconds with the card – and at that moment, your mind is forming an opinion about that person, their business.

Clients often want to fill that very small rectangle with as much information as possible but I recently finished a card design where we actually took away content and space, literally cutting out roughly a quarter of the card.

And the result is striking!

This card is for a new cooperative gallery and because each participating artist has his or her own visual style, we kept the design very simple: black ink on white paper with a splash of chartreuse.

In addition, we created a visual tool that artists often use in their work: a cropping mechanism, a way to see what a painting might look like framed in "artist black."

By diecutting this frame, we allow the recipient to actually change their perspective on the world around them, to look at things in a new way through this card. And how often does a humble little business card get to do that?

new look for defteling

As you may have noticed, I've updated my logo and website for defteling design. It was just in time, too, since I was down to just 12 business cards!

Last week, I picked up my new cards from Brown Printing and I'm thrilled with the way they turned out!


My double-sided business card is slightly narrower than usual and has rounded corners at the bottom (ties in with my website). I decided to gang up a flat note card at the same time.

I love the versatility of this card: I can stick a stamp in the upper left and pop it in the mail as a postcard. I can add some formality by enclosing it inside a chartreuse A2 envelope. I can even punch a hole or cut a couple slits and use it as a gift tag!

Next up I might design some note books, which were always a great hit in the past. Stay tuned!