Wild Cards --- Networkers Use Wood, Silk To Give Out Contact Info; `They Match My Outfits'

By Brooks Barnes

5 May 2006

The Wall Street Journal

COMING TO A WALLET near you: wacky business cards.

With wired executives storing contact information on BlackBerries and other PDAs, old-school business cards are routinely hitting the trash as soon as they're uploaded. To make their calling cards more of a statement, some professionals are commissioning ones that come as big as a license plate or are made out of everything from wood to corrugated steel. Beyond the requisite name and number, some "story cards" are printed with lengthy narratives to draw in new acquaintances.

As an interior designer with his own firm to promote, Matthew Lanphier handed out business cards everywhere he went -- until he realized nobody was paying attention to them. "People would just stuff one in a pocket and disappear," he says.

Now Mr. Lanphier, who lives in Los Angeles, carries 1-by-3-inch cards made out of a black high-tech paper that feels like rubber. The cards, which cost $1.75 each, have his name and phone number printed in silver in the center. "People think they look ungodly expensive and always want one," he says. An added bonus: "They match all my outfits."

Such cards are being given out by everyone from corporate executives to preteen babysitters, and the options are growing. Last week, custom-card maker D. Brooker &Associates in Derby, Iowa, rolled out a new "fabric card" of stiffened raw silk, for 85 cents each. A few months ago, Lemon Tree Paperie, an online stationer based in San Diego, started selling calling cards with 185 designs -- including images of a martini glass or flowers. Owner Julie Blanchard says sales are running 20% above expectations. Fashion company Juicy Couture just launched a set of hot-pink calling cards, at $35 for 20, simply printed with the saying, "Give me a ring sometime."

Creative Intelligence, a Los Angeles custom stationery and invitation firm, says orders for its Couture Communications Line of cards are up 50% over the past two years. They cost $1 to $2 each. "All of a sudden we've got customers asking for something that will break through the congestion," says Marc Friedland, the company's founder. One of its best sellers comes with a built-in envelope.

Unusual cards can get pricey in a hurry. While a standard set of 250 business cards can cost as little as $5.99 from a big printing company, a fancier set can run into the hundreds. Kate's Paperie, a New York chain of upscale stationers that stocks 40,000 varieties of paper, says its business cards can cost as much as $5 a piece, plus an extra $50 to $200 for development costs. Still, its custom-card sales are up 28% over the past two years.

The new cards can come with new worries. Kate's most unusual request lately came from a cabinet company that wanted a business card made of real wood, with antique letterpress printing. "You may or may not get a splinter if you pick up that one," says spokeswoman Melanie Nerenberg.

This isn't the first time business cards haven't really looked like cards. Jack Gurner, a photographer in Water Valley, Miss., has a collection of 30,000 business cards dating back to Victorian England, when pieces of paper printed with contact information first became popular. The formal cards, used by merchants, were printed on white card stock the size of a modern handbill. It wasn't until the invention of the Rolodex in 1958 that size become standardized. More recent models in Mr. Gurner's collection include cards heavy on colors and graphics (a fad in the 1960s), and a heat-sensitive version that changes colors (from the 1980s). As sizes grow again, he says he has had to drastically reduce the number of new cards that he keeps, because his wife is getting annoyed at all of the room they're taking up.

Kinko's, the 1,400-store printing company, is staying out of the fray. "We like to stick to the basics," says a Kinko's spokeswoman. Similarly, Missouri-based GreatFX Business Cards, a large online supplier, usually declines orders for nonstandard sizes because they require special printing and cutting equipment.

Even some enthusiasts admit there are limits. Deborah Blackwell, an executive vice president at Walt Disney Co., ordered bright orange cards printed with a short narrative when she recently took over Disney's Soapnet cable channel. It reads, in part: "For years, Deborah has led a double life. Soapnet GM by day, slinky, sophisticated cat burglar by night. We're not saying she's a crazy kleptomaniac or anything, but that crystal on her finger isn't cubic zirconia, all right?"

Ms. Blackwell says her card "instantly conveys" the personality of her cable channel. "When we pull out our business cards is the moment people truly understand," she says. Yet the executive is careful to keep traditional, corporate-issued cards handy as well. Her orange-hued story card doesn't always work, she says, for "more serious business negotiations."