Business Cards

Today my business cards arrived! Which is very exciting for me.

I just tried to look up 'business card' in my hefty Oxford dictionary. It isn't in there. But I found this funny:
Business. ORIGIN: Old English 'anxiety'

TRUE.

My first set of business cards.

It is so difficult to try to decide on the design! I chose to try to keep it simple for the first batch. I will probably do a different design every time I order...

The 'front' I guess (I don't quite understand business cards having a front or back really, it's just a picture side and an information side, right?)

The 'back' or 'picture' side. This is the gilded fly pendant, sterling silver with 18ct gold plated wings little black diamond eyes.

 But of course, within hours of the cards arriving, I flicked through some blogs and saw these:

 I can't seem to make the images into a hyperlink but I found them on the blog of Garance Doré here .

So now I feel like my cards are really boring! For a while I did consider calling the Beetle Collection 'Bug-ary' (like 'Aviary' but an enclosure for bugs... get it!?) But you never know who you are going to offend and I can't decide if I was being a chicken or sensible? Also it is a bit of a silly play on words.

So because I am a massive geek, when I started to design my business card (and logo generally as you will see) I did not just think "Hmm, what image represents me?" I started to look into the history of business cards.

I started with Victorian calling cards but really I should have started with 17th century France and 'visite biletes' where they apparently started out as playing cards! So I imagine the scene somewhat like this:

Marie Antoinette (2006)

Then there were trade cards:

1881

1885

There are loads of gorgeous trade cards on www.waddesdon.org.uk but they seem to have quite strict copyright rules so you can look for yourself. They are so detailed and have so much more writing on them I assume they must have been bigger than today's cards. I wonder whether people took more time to read trade cards or if it was all a waste of money? People would definitely not bother reading that much information these days!

Now 19th Century business cards:

"As an adoption from French court etiquette, visiting cards came to America and Europe. They included refined engraved ornaments and fantastic coat of arms. Visiting cards, or calling cards, were an essential accessory to any 19th century middle class lady or gentleman."
From this site.

I want to be able to put a coat of arms on my business cards! I think there is an Everley coat of arms so I will have to look into it.

I based my card largely on Victorian calling cards like this:

1840 Calligraphy Card

I spent hours scrolling through www.daysofelegance.com (where the above image is from). I LOVE all of this sort of thing. The amount of time and effort that went into making these cards is incredible. And in those days calling cards were appreciated, there was a complicated series of rules and rituals that surrounded them. I know that, realistically, a lot of the cards I hand out will be thrown away, dropped, screwed up and lost... but I still wanted to pay the extra for 100% recycled card.

Anyway, here are some more Victorian calling cards (all from www.daysofelegance.com)

So cheesey. So cute.

Shaped according to the hobby of the person (origami business cards are doing a modern twist on this)

Too Cool! It looks like a plain dull card... but if you hold it to the light...WOW!

This is hilarious. "May I see you home my dear?" For young gentlemen to give to potential young lady friends.

The etiquette is fantastic, here is a comparatively brief version from this site again:

• On making a first call you must have a card for each lady of the household.
• On making a call leave your card to the servant. You will be allowed to see the hostess only after she examines your card.
• On the hall table in every house, there should be a small silver, or other card tray, a pad and a pencil.
• When the door-bell rings, the servant on duty should have the card tray ready to present, on the palm of the left hand.
• A gentleman should carry them loose in a convenient pocket; but a lady may use a card case.
• If your card receives no acknowledgment, you must conclude that for some reasons they do not wish to extend their acquaintance.
• Do not examine the cards in the card-basket. You have no right to investigate as to who calls on a lady.
• A young lady can have a card of her own after having been in society a year.
• American gentleman should never fold the corner of his card, despite of the temporary fashion. Some European gentlemen, on the contrary, fold the upper right corner to indicate that they've delivered it themselves (the servant should never hand his master's card folded).
• Fold the card in the middle if you wish to indicate that the call is on several, or all of the members of the family.

I hope you enjoyed this little history lesson!

xxx