15 Beautifully Minimal Business Cards
Following yesterday’s business card giveaway kick-off, I thought it would be appropriate to show some more beautiful cards from Card Observer. This time we’re going to look at those cards that are both minimal in color scheme and design elements. This minimalism in design is what makes these business cards so beautiful and effective. But since there’s not a lot going on with the design of these cards, the elements that are printed have to spot-on. That’s why it’s so important to find the right business cards printing services.
If you want to see more details about the cards, just click on the images.
Bryon Darby
Job Design
February
Aaron Kapor
Portsmouth Tea Co
Frederick Van
IQ Videography
Fuse
Agency ND
Bellucci Stores
Justine Ungaro
Elemental Architecture
Playful
Precision Networking
Another Limited Rebellion, Inc.
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83 comments
Freelancer Crowd
April 16, 2009Fuse is lovable.
Bump/relief cards look good when you give them, but are not very practical in a long run as they age pretty bad.
Brandon Cox
April 16, 2009Awesome post – I’ve been needing to design business cards for myself for quite some time – maybe I’ll get started today… and I’ll keep it minimal. Thanks!
PeterS
April 16, 2009These are little works of art. Amazing!
Seb Haigh
April 16, 2009Lovely.
Biz card fetish can be taken too far (viz. American Psycho).
These err on the side of great taste.
Good list…
STH
Nigel Dean
April 16, 2009They are all great, but the best has to be Frederick Van. Simply fantastic!
Great post, thanks
joão
April 16, 2009wow, beautiful designs!
deliciousing this *
joyoge designers' bookmark
April 16, 2009nice clean business cards, thanks for share..
@todayinart
April 16, 2009I am a huge fan of texture, so Bryon Darby’s is my favorite. Thanks for the post Henry!
oak
April 16, 2009All of these cards are stunning. This post also reinforces for me the importance of good presentation and great photography to really make the designs sing.
I love the use of camera angles and depth of field and contrast in so many of these pictures. It’s the difference between the perception of a merely good card and a truly great design.
Saylor
April 16, 2009A L R f t w
laura
April 16, 2009I am looking at my cards right now and feeling sorry for them… Poor things never had a chance! LOL. Maybe we should do a HandBookLive video manual on business cards. Doesn’t quite fit our format though
Anyway, I feel inspired, so thanks!
Kathleen
April 16, 2009These are beautiful. I just love minimal.
It’s not simple and it allow you to just feel everything else instead of what is through the eyes. The texture, the quality of the wording…
Suresh
April 16, 2009nice business cards…
Dan O
April 16, 2009Thanks for compiling this list, good work. I really need to make some new business cards. I like to go to http://cardobserver.com/ for inspiration.
krisis
April 16, 2009Fully a third of these are awful. Pretty fonts, reverse type, and embossing do not make something beautiful – and certainly not useful! Pretty things get looked at and then tossed. If your business card has ceased to be a card to both brand and contact your business with, then you have failed.
Condo Blues
April 16, 2009I’m going to a conference soon and I could use some business cards.
Mike
April 16, 2009Ugh. Hint to designers: Business cards are white. White, white, white. Or maybe some light pastel shade. Business cards are not black. Why are business cards not black? So that we can make notes on the back about who this person is. A black business card is useless, and I toss them in the trash.
Same for non-standard sizes and shapes. Design is above all about working within the requirements.
jax
April 16, 2009muito maneiro vou providenciar rs
Mel
April 16, 2009Minimal ? What is your definition of minimal I am wondering. Embossed cards are anything but minimal in my regard. Minimal is what I can print out of my inkjet printer, not $3 per piece business card wanna-be.
Get your facts straight dude(ette)
Bec Thomas
April 16, 2009I really like the IQ Vid, but most of those are outstanding. I’m really a fan of clean and simple, I think it makes a strong statement.
Allie
April 16, 2009Awesome business cards, I’ll have to keep these designs in mind for the next time I need new cards.
Duncan Lamb
April 16, 2009Guy Kawasaki’s cards should be on this list :
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2008/05/the-art-of-the.html
aneeskA
April 16, 2009Agency ND is my favorite. although as Mike says, its black on the back which makes it difficult to put it for good use.
take a look at our business card. we like to think of it as simple and elegant.
here : http://tinyurl.com/dzcr34
Dolce Press :: Letterpress Studio
April 17, 2009Thanks for posting some of our letterpress work, great list!
For anyone interested, you can see more of our letterpress business cards here: Letterpress Business Cards by Dolce Press
Creamy CSS
April 17, 2009Amazing examples of really beautiful business cards,..
Mr Web Design
April 17, 2009Good inspiration for people who get caught up in adding too much to their business card. Thanks.
Erich Quist
April 17, 2009Hi,
Does anyone know where some of these cards were printed? I’m looking for an online printer that will print on a wide selection matte black paper and maybe even offer spot glossing.
Maybe I need to go to a local print shop…
Thanks.
John
April 17, 2009These are really great designs. I always prefer business cards that are not too fancy but have a strong character and aesthetics to them. This is delicious-worthy.
kevin
April 17, 2009Very nice cards, love the Elemental architecture.
bob
April 17, 2009These cards sure do look pretty, but my engineer’s eye just sees a lot of wasted space. Where’s the person’s email, phone, website, pager, and other contact info?
What is a business card, if not a way to pass contact info in a standardized form?
Sorry to say but as beautiful/artistic as these cards are, they’re useless beyond that
Shannon
April 17, 2009I do did the minimalism. However, the cost of not having the contact information on some of these cards (like Frederick Van) negates the advantage of a neat design.
Do we expect people to google the name? Why make it harder for potential customers to find you?
divinefusion
April 17, 2009truly beautiful. Thanks for the post.//
alex
April 17, 2009real classy design here. really helps on my latest project
Yana
April 17, 2009@Mel Minimal refers to the design not the price. I the only thing on the card is a name, I don’t care if it’s embossed, foil stamped, diamond encrusted, it’s still minimal.
Smithwood
April 18, 2009I have to laugh at some of these negative comments. A business card should represent you and your brand. And that’s not always “white, white, white”. In fact, if you’re an agency, that will likely get you “ignored, ignored, ignored”.
Business cards have a rich history, and for practicality’s sake, they’ve been replaced by smart phones and computers and such. Now they are small introductions and say volumes about the person presenting them and who they represent.
So I for one find many of these sublime, beautiful, and very very purposeful. I personally don’t want to give a card to someone who needs to write notes on the back. Obviously I’ve not made the right impression.
Rock on!
Fred de ConseilsMarketing.fr
April 19, 2009Hi,
Nice cards
I made also a list of 100 + nice looking or highly creatives business cards
http://www.conseilsmarketing.fr/communication/comment-reussir-ses-cartes-de-visite-en-8-points
Have fun !
rick
April 19, 2009RED ALERT! You will regret your black/dark business card the moment you try to write down a note on it. And you can be assured your prospective client will be frustrated as well!
At least make the back solid white or close to it.
Best Graphic Design
April 20, 2009This is a nice collection of great designs of business cards…loved few of them. Anyways, will look forward for some further posts on this.
JLibbey
April 20, 2009Most of these are clearly not designed with the recipient in mind. Reverse type and embossing are not friendly to middle-aged eyes!
Isaac
April 20, 2009These are all classy, but why are they all shades of charcoal and gray? Are they all made BY designers FOR designers?
Benny2ts
April 20, 2009That’s ‘bone’.
Manoballs
April 20, 2009Fuse is fantastic, very nice design.
Pradeep CD
April 22, 2009Really minimalistic…
Zayne S Halsall
April 23, 2009Hi,
Excellent collection of cards, so thanks for that.
Perhaps it might be worthwhile having a standard method of photographing these cards? The way they’re done now it’s hard to easily compare or judge how the card would look in “normal” lighting and angles…
-zsh
Sell Art Online
April 25, 2009Great cards i love the logo for Precision Networking and the card design as well.
Nate Johnson
April 27, 2009Yeah, but what do these business cards GUARANTEE? They’re not dye-cut, foil stamped, OR embossed. They are crap. They probably didn’t even take 25 years to develop.
Thiet Ke Web
April 28, 2009What a nice design! I’d love the name card of Precision Networking as well!
Jan
April 29, 2009Great collection! Thanks!
Emilio Bello
April 29, 2009Very nice and classy. I love it!
Matt Fouty
April 29, 2009Very cool, my kind of style! My cards probably fit in this category. http://mattfouty.com/blog/?p=71
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