design inspiration

Top 70 Business cards according to this French website. Below, my personal favorites with my two cents. I'm trying to figure out what my patterns are.

Nice typography. I have a tendancy towards letterpress (that awesome paper, mmm-mmm how can you resist??). Like the single color and the overall composition and the use of the space in the back for some conscientious PSAs.


Again with the letterpress. Also, I'm a sucker for line art and chip boards. They're like the butcher paper (I heart butcher paper) of cardstock. Nice use of colors and restrained type.


More letterpress (I promise, they won't all be). I like the quirky quality of line art used for the press. Also nice since it is reflective of the business the card is representing. I like the colors and mix of hand lettering with type.


Ha! This one made me laugh. Yes, if your business is called Obsessive Behavior, it's a nice touch to exhibit this in your branding. This is a fine example of lots of design (lots of design element rather) used with one color so it's not so dizzying and loud. The restrained use of type and critical info at the bottom is a nice counterpoint to all the busy-ness of the illustration.


Very nice retro design. The use of different colored paper for the back is nice. This is very simple, but well executed.


Back to my love for letterpress.Very nice typography and composition. I get the feeling that this is designed to be ripped off at some sort of perforation on the right? Hard to tell from the way the photo has been cropped.


Nice use of embossing with the logo. Yummy color. Oh, how fitting. I just realized that this is for a restaurant. And I would have described the color as being tasty (and yummy) before I figured that out. Bravo. I also like seeing the branding system, to see how the business card fits with the rest of the identity.


Love that ampersand. Nice simple embossing.Very good typography. I'd be curious to see what the other side looks like and what information is included.


I do like this guy's letterpressed card and the simplicity of the information. I might have chosen a different font as his last name is a little unusual and so with the font he selected there could be readability issues.


I really liked the limited amount of info on this card. And the use of the curly brackets to indicate the website (not everyone reaches the conclusion that you can get the website address from the email address).


Chip board (I did mention my love for this printing substrate, right?) gussied up with a sticker. Nice. I bet they use that sticker for their letterhead and/or stationary envelopes. And of course, more lovely letterpress work for me to drool over.


I first rejected this one to include in my favorites list, but I keep coming back to it. The colors are nice. I like the retro design ideas. It's got a cartoony quality to it and I don't mean that in a negative way. There's a sense of movement that the image conveys with the way the flames get cut off on the front and you can see the rest of it on the back.


These last few are a bit too clever for my liking, but I still had to applaud the designs. Also, it's nice to see boutique type businesses shelling out the dough for extra bits like die-cuts and special folds and inserts as they are mega expensive. It adds some fun (and uniqueness) to the design, but it's not always feasable price-wise.

Clever, right? It's fitting. Though I am concerned about what happens to the thin strips of paper over time. I picture it crumpling or ripping off too easily (unless they use really thick cardstock - not recommended in my opinion or some sort of plastic substrate - expensive) stuffed into someone's wallet or back pocket or purse.


Probably my favorite of this bunch. I like how the scissors ground the business field (it's a hair salon, get it?) while providing a graphic for the location.


I like the idea of the bite marks to go with the name of the business. I wouldn't have repeated the motif in the logo (the bottom example). And I'm not 100% on board with the color choices, though the business card designer and the logo designer might not have been one and the same.