DESCRIPTION Dailey Crafton Business Card CLIENT Self-promotion DATE September 2009 DESIGN CREDITS Dailey Crafton TYPE CREDITS Liberation font family

QUANTITY PRODUCED 20 (more shall be printed as needed) PRODUCTION COST Minimal PRODUCTION TIME 10 minutes DIMENSIONS: WIDTH × HEIGHT × DEPTH 3.5 in × 2 in PRINT METHOD Epson stylus pro 3800 inkjet printer PAPER STOCK Recycled chipboard from cereal boxes NUMBER OF COLORS 1 ink, black

In a moment of clarity, Dailey Crafton opted to challenge his trusty Epson to a new printing material: recycled cereal boxes. Surely unconventional, decidedly sustainable and purposely colorful these business cards are quick to put together and very cheap to produce. And smell like breakfast.

love the idea :D

While there is certainly an "oooh" factor with many hi-end business cards that end up costing like a buck a card that have all the bells a whistles. Trust me, I dream of having that beautifully letterpressed card on paper so thick you could use it a throwing star just as much as anybody else but this card is just plain smart! It has an equally familiar "oooh" factor and it basically costs nothing... have a few days worth of fruity pebbles (my personal fav) and run the box through the printer on demand. Brilliant!

Dailey, If we ever crosspaths on the streets of Billyburg, BKLN, I want one of these cards...

It's not my intent to cast aspersions on Dailey's creativity or originality as I'm sure this is just another example of how great ideas are frequently stumbled upon by more than one person, but recycled cereal box business cards have been around for several years. In fact, I'm looking at one right now that I got from an acquaintance, coincidentally from Brooklyn, in 2005. He picked up a handful at some swap meet or flea market where somebody was letterpressing them to order. And this company:

http://www.usbcards.net/cards.html

has been offering them since at least 2007. Just Google "recycled cereal box business cards" (which, you'll note, is common enough to be offered as an auto completed search term in Safari) and you'll find a boatload of examples.

hey, thanks all. nick, maybe i'll make a fruity pebbles version in anticipation of our street meeting.

You can also submit your business cards to elementary schools for 5 cents towards Box Tops For Education campaign.

Double bonus.

This is truly one of the most 'design-forward' posts I have seen on FPO. Many posts feature attractive design, but rarely anything groundbreaking.

As @spencer noted, recycled cereal box printing is certainly not a novel concept, but it is precisely this type of ingenuity that represents the 'future of print'.

What is even more impressive is that Dailey actually managed to get an Epson to print something.

I have also seen this idea before, can't remember when. Does it really matter though? It's a great idea, especially for anyone in a creative field who's a little short on cash and needs some impact. Or just got The Call and needs cards within an hour or so.

Now for some nitpicking: typo on the card. 'live from bkyn' in bold > should that not be 'live from bklyn' per the web/email address below?

The beautiful part is that if the above is correct, cards can be re-run and cut in wickedly short time. And tossing the first batch will be far less painful. Nothing worse than throwing out freshly minted print work.

I find DIY projects like this incredibly inspiring! You don't need a huge budget to make something amazing. Great stuff.

holy crap rachel, you're right! i totally unintentionally misspelled the intentional misspelling of brooklyn. but you're also right in that i'm just gonna toss 'em and print some properly (mis)spelled ones.

I think this post should be tagged with 'sustainability' as well.

Nice work, Mr. Dailey.

Yes, recycling was my first thought too. As well as 'sustainability', please tag with "recycling", "re-use" and "green" too.
Excellent.

In a world full of dull business cards. This idea has a fun factor with a hint of I am different about it. The green aspect is also good!

what other trash can the epson handle?? i would like to know exactly what printer this is because my in-house machine doesn't even handle regular piddly cardstock very well.

Fantastic idea and a great way to recycle material... And Amy J, he owns the Epson 3800, but I recently bought the Epson R1900 and it prints on all kinds of paper, including cardboard boxes.