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Interactivity and the rituals in business cards exchange

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There was and always will be a long argument about the use, the format, the content and reason behind a business card. Mainly the business card is a way for other people to have a way to contact you, but the truth is that not so many people nowadays do actually keep them or give them for that reason.

In any business interaction all it takes is one email to be exchanged and the signature of this email will be carrying all the information that someone needs in order to contact you additionally to just replying to the email. If that’s not enough our information are so easily accessible via your personal website, the website of the company you are working in, your LinkedIn, Facebook or twitter account. So, I don’t really believe that we give our cards for people to have our contact details.

Business cards transcended into a way to initiate conversation and create a memorable experience, in order words the action of handing your card became an, almost ritualistic process. The goal of this process is to impress and seal a face-to-face interaction with a physical component.

From each experience we have what we remember the most is the sensory components of it. Sound, vision, taste, smell touch. A business card adds a visual and a touch component to this process. Creating interaction between the business card and the receiver enhances and strengthens the experience.

Finally, although a huge percentage of the business cards we receive end up hidden in a box or another storage device if and when they are rediscovered they carry these memory and become a memory vessel.

Check out below some very nice examples of interactive business cards that do this very well.

Pilates instructor card
Web developer business card
Painter’s business card
Transport company
Photographer’s card that looks like a camera’s viewfinder
Card of a company called paper plane – could it get more literal?
That just makes you want to get your camera can take hilarious photos
Gym trainer’s card
Paperweight card – an excellent reason to keep it around
Filmaker’s business card
Fortuneteller toy card – that is just so cute and it also has so many connections with childhood memories
Remember what we where talking about sensory additions and taste not being a part of this experience? Well not in this case. This is an edible business card with chocolate – definitely not one to keep in your wallet.
After the tasty cookie card this doesn’t look so impressive but it IS still a nice idea.
And a bit more advanced version, build a chair cut-out b.card for a furniture company.
Look! I can reach my head with my feet!
Would you use a business card as a comb?

 

Well that’s all! What do you think? How does your business card look like? Do you believe that the material and the presentation plays any role on a business card?

 
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