584 ways to design a business card?

Looking for inspiration for your next business card design? Check out Kariann’s collection of designer business cards on Flickr.

The set has 584 business cards ranging from traditional to wacky. Most belong to individual designers and small consultancies. So it’s not a surprise that many are overdesigned and outright gimmicky. They simply stand out more than they communicate.

For example, this business card forces you to scratch it to see any contact information:

Despite my aversion to novelty cards like the one above, I admit they’re still fun to look at, mostly as good examples of what not to do. It’s easy to make a design stand out. But it’s hard to do it without upstaging the content.

Here’s more from Kariann’s Flickr set, some are more gimmicky than others:

Check out the rest here.

To see ideas for what business cards might look like in the future, take a look at Ideo’s identity card explorations.