Here's a fun and hilarious way to get some business card design inspiration. Check out these ten famous business cards from real and fictional characters.
When you are ready to print your business cards, depending on what kind of industry you are in, consider including a bit of whimsy, playfulness or humor!
Without further ado, here are the ten famous cards below:
1. Wile E. Coyote
It should say somewhere on his card that he "partners" with ACME co. I would like to see a creative type, like a marketing or advertising consultant put this tag line "Have Brain… Will Travel," on a business card!
2. Steve Martin
What a way to give an autograph! You have to admit, this sign-able card by comedian Steve Martin is pretty smarmy and funny!
3. Larry Page
It's the nineties and Google is about to get BIG! I like the exclamation point at the end of the company name. What can we learn from this card? Exclamation points and primary colors, basically any design that would also appeal to toddlers will be bold and memorable on a business card.
4. Jerry Yang
Eat your heart out Larry Page. The old Yahoo logo is stellar! You know these cards are old because there's an http:// in the URL and a fax number listed. Just a reminder to those readers thinking of designing their own business cards, no need to include auxiliary information. If you don't use the fax, don't put the number on the card. A little extra white space is a business card designer's friend.
5. Walt Disney
This is a great early example of how to use an illustration in a business card design. I also like the clearly hand-drawn font and the sweeping "y" at the end of the name. Is there a picture of Mickey Mouse or Goofy on one of those tiny sheets of paper?
6. John Wayne
Talk about keeping it masculine and simple. Nothing but an all caps serif font on ivory card stock. I think this style could truly work for some present day cards. I think it could work for people who have tell-tale credits that go along with their name, such as Esquire or CPA. What do you think?
7. Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs has always been a design-geek. You can tell by looking at the contrast between this card and the other early dot-com business card designs above. Jobs' card has sharp sans-serif font and a minimalist black and white design with heavy white space. This card design is a tell-tale sign of the sleek product, retail and packaging design to come.
8. Bill Gates
Wow. All I can say is mid-seventies bowling alley. Microsoft is definitely not as design-centric as Apple, but there's no excuse for this terrible business card design! Bill you've come a long, long way since Albuquerque.
9. Albert Einstein
Business card design may be the only thing that John Wayne and Albert Einstein have in common. You don't really need a jazzy business card design when you've transformed the world of physics and come up with the Theory of Relativity.
10. Jack Sparrow
Kudos to the clever designer that came up with this card design for the pirate Jack Sparrow. This is one of the only business card designs I've seen where a line-break works. Be careful about putting a skull and cross bones on your own card designs! You don't want to scare business away.