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Tactile business cards come in many materials, as in the card designed and printed by Brittany Quinlan, who used the power of silkscreening to print on everything but sliced bread.

I wanted to do something tactile and unique for my business system. After a lot of sketching and brainstorming sessions I came up with the idea of screen printing my cards on plastic. I wanted them to be see through and give each card a unique touch.

I burnt the screen in my laundry room (as a makeshift darkroom) with a work light and pulled the prints on my kitchen table, with the help of my friends who were over for my birthday dinner. I introduced a lot of people to silkscreeining that day. Since I had all the materials and I had the acrylic donated (they were scrap pieces from a local plastic warehouse) I only spent about $17 on various ink colors. I would splat different colors on the screen—known as split fountain—and do a pull, so each sheet of cards, and each card itself, had a different look to it. I used the score-and-snap method to break them apart using a utility knife, then sanded the edges so they wouldn’t scratch anybody. Before breaking them apart though, I sprayed each sheet with a clear enamel, which sealed the ink and prevented fingernails or wallets from scratching the ink off the surface. All in all, the project took a couple of weeks at a leisurely pace and cost me almost nothing, and I gained a lot of experience from it.

Nothing like getting your hands dirty to figure things out, especially surrounded by eager friends who always pump up the fun. Although if Brittany invites you to her next birthday party you might want to think about it twice.

Wordcake Communications Business Card

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Ladmmi, L’ecole De Danse Contemporaine Materials

Brittany Quinlan Business Cards

Production Method

Design

Brittany Quinlan

Printing

Brittany Quinlan and her roommates