Let’s say you’re a guy that is going to be laid off from his job in, let’s say, five days. You probably have a lot of business cards sitting around. What are you going to do with these after the job is over? They have your work number on it, which won’t connect to you soon, so it’s not like you can give them to anyone. Technically they might be considered company property, but it’s not like the company will want them back (what are they going to do, hire another person with the same name and assign him your exact job title, phone number, and e-mail address?). I suppose the Al-Gore-approved answer would be to recycle them, but that’s not fun enough for me.
The idea that I came up with? Playing cards! After a few hours of tedious craft work, I managed to create a complete deck of cards, complete with stick-figure face cards (including the suicidal King of Hearts). Much to my surprise, they can be shuffled and used pretty well, although they are not water-resistant so they may not be that useful long-term.
Anyway, check out some hot photos of the result:
March 23, 11:52 am
Did you tend to give out business cards much? I’m not sure if you interfaced with external customers at all, but here at IBM, I essentially have no need for them, since all our customers are internal.
March 23, 1:26 pm
I visited a customer site only once, and I don’t think I even needed to give out a business card then since I wasn’t acting as a company rep or anything. I once won free lunch for myself and up to 14 coworkers (provided we were willing to sit through a 15-20 minute financial services pitch) by putting my business card in a box at a restaurant.
I’ve got two boxes of business cards— they got me cards when I started, and after my first promotion (but not after my second one). So none of my five hundred or so business cards reflect my current job title (although it is the same as my old one except with the word “advisory” in front of it).
April 2, 12:40 pm
I must say you are better at drawing than I am! :) I remember getting new 3dplm visting cards printed before I came to DS Enovia. I hoped that I will share my card with you all.. but then we were all so informal and always ‘available’ on Sametime. Never really used any of those cards. I guess, DIY and re-cycling takes a whole new dimension here. I will paint a pack of cards too now! :)