DESCRIPTION Thomas Dudley Business Card CLIENT Self-promotion DATE August 30, 2009 DESIGN CREDITS Thomas Dudley PRINT CREDITS Thomas Dudley TYPE CREDITS Luxury Gold and Neutra Text Demi

QUANTITY PRODUCED 216 PRODUCTION COST $1.69 +6.5% Mass. sales tax PRODUCTION TIME 40 minutes DIMENSIONS: WIDTH × HEIGHT × DEPTH 3.5 in × 2 in PRINT METHOD Laser engraved and die cut PAPER STOCK Staples white poster board NUMBER OF COLORS 1 color created by scorching the paper

There is only one way to explain the cost associated with this project, and that is going directly to the source. The full story, as told by Thomas Dudley:

The full cost was for a package of poster board at Staples — which is what, for me, felt remarkable about the run, it was dirt cheap, and took no time at all. But how did this come to be? I worked for a few years at Simon’s Stamps, a custom rubber stamp shop in Massachusetts where they have a gorgeous 150-watt laser engraver, and 95% of the time they’re making interoffice memo stamps on it. While employed by them, I started sticking around after work so as to figure out what else I could burn with it — no one else really knew what to do with the machine outside of running rubber and sign plastic through, using the automated program, with the material presets that came with it. The boss was hoping to expand his product base, and I sort of shifted my job from sales and typesetting to ordering material samples, making stuff and showing everyone else how to do what I was doing. After I moved on to a traditional design job at a newspaper, I remained with the stamp company as a part time consultant, with the provision that I be allowed to come in whenever and use the machine.

And so happened that with an upcoming move to New York — which has now taken place — Thomas realized he had a little bit of time to create much needed new business cards before he and the machine parted ways for a long period of time. Dashing to the local Staples for paper, the one and only option, on a Sunday, he quickly developed a design and got the engraver going.

And what if more than 216 cards are needed, given that Thomas is actively job hunting? a second run might be in order, with some slight revisions:

The next run will probably see better paper, a lighter touch with the laser—the scorching would be more appropriate with a fiery motif, multiple fast passes with the laser turned down will make a cleaner line with less smoke — and some sort of color, thought the plain bone look is rather nice.