I’ve always had a complicated relationship with networking, and business cards have often been for me a manifestation of that fraught relationship. It was years before I decided to make some of my own, so when I was tasked with making new ones, I was less than enthused. Every design I came up with was more or less the same thing as what I had previously, since I had agonized over that original design:
The only thing I was sure I would want to change was my title, “Interaction Designer”. I still have no idea what to call myself, but I think that although I would consider “designing interactions” to be an umbrella term describing my work, I think other people’s connotations of the title make me seem like a UX/UI designer.
I still love the QR code though, which brings you here:
https://augustluhrs.art/death
So when thinking of what to do for this assignment, I had one main thing in mind: The Winter Show. It really got my gears turning in class when it was emphasized that everyone would want to have really good business cards to capitalize on the high-volume of traffic coming through for the winter show. I wanted my card to be something that was different, and since my work and myself as a human strives to focus on interactivity and creating experiences of awe, play, and connection for participants, I felt like my card should literally do that, not just represent it.
So what kind of card would not only stand out, represent me as a person, AND be interactive itself?
Enter my tried and true calling card: Diffraction Glasses.
I just love the idea of people at the winter show being able to use these glasses to add another layer to other people’s visual art pieces, especially if anyone has LED installations. I’ve just always found that giving people glasses like these instantly turns them into kids and makes them feel like they have a magic tool to unlock secret aspects of their immediate environment. The best part is, it’s a highly viral feedback loop, because if people start wearing them around or bringing them out for cool moments in the show, other people will want to know where they can get some, so people will be getting my business cards indirectly, realizing after the fact that this person has helped them have a more fun/engaging experience of the whole show, reflecting my whole shtick anyway.
So I kept the text on the glasses simple, just my email, phone number, and then square in the center (the first and last thing you see when using the glasses) is my name. The great thing about having a website that’s just your name is that you can very easily have text that does double duty, as people will just see my name, but then realize by adding “.art” to it, they can reach my website. My only concern is that it’s not super apparent that it’s a website, as it could just be a title or something, so I’m eager to hear feedback on that in class, since the website is the most important part of the info there. In fact, in future iterations, I might just have the name/website, since by going to the website, you could find my contact info.
As for the design of the text itself, since I can’t get these printed, it didn’t make sense to make a digital design. I also highly value the DIY/DIT aesthetic, so I felt like handwriting it was a nice touch. I used a sharpie, so I’m really hoping they don’t smudge after use, however, I wouldn’t mind marking my network with an Ash-Wednesday-esque holy smudge of my name on their forehead ;)
