Ah, the business card.
Crisp edges, clear font, perfect size and weight. A work of art in the palm of your hand.
The trend is to take a photo of a business card so it is on your phone and won’t get lost in a pile somewhere, but for those of us who are tactile-inclined, that is a “less-than” experience.
Occasionally an outlier appears: square (yes, it stands out…to the point that I find it so annoying I toss it). Very heavy card stock (umm not for me). Super-shiny finish (efforts to jot a note on it result in an inky mess).
Apparently, I am a traditionalist.
And with business cards there is the undeniable feeling of “having arrived” (quite literally, in fact, in the era of calling cards). Of being “someone”, not just one of the group.
I usually worked with many nurses; in the Emergency Dept where our name tags only bore our first name for safety reasons and later in the Infusion Dept at the cancer center where there was no budget for individual nurse cards. We hand-wrote our info in patients’ binders to help decrease the burden of having to remember one. more. thing.
I loved being part of the group of so many smart, resourceful nurses so it was a bit of a shock when I was issued my first business card as the melanoma clinic nurse. Woah. That’s officially me.
It’s been years but I still have that card. I poured heart and soul into the work and it embodies many memories of people in my care. We did some good stuff.
My other business cards are of my own business, created when I published my first book. I loved designing them and I am proud of all the effort they represent. People can take a photo of my card but I am happy to hand it out personally, an actual physical memento of shared conversation. Good stuff.
I might be just one in somebody’s deck of business cards, but when they go through the pile, I hope “good stuff” is what pops into mind.
Sometimes that’s the best card trick.
