home-made vs. store-bought

i have in my wallet some home-made business cards. i had some made up ages ago when i toyed with the idea of becoming a freelance copy writer from home, but making the business cards and advertising postcards was about as far as i got.

the original plan back then was to tout myself as a writer who could edit anything, from restaurant menus to real estate copy, for a small fee. i found a website that made postcards and business cards for a relatively small fee also, and got to work. i designed an excellent postcard and a clever, bright yellow business card, but never really got round to the touting bit... mainly because i got a wee bit scared, and because i started thinking no one would want my services anyway. as a result i have a boxful of postcards upstairs in the bedroom cupboard - but all the business cards are gone. whether they were handed out in jest or otherwise, handed out they were. anyway, i was at my local discount store and saw an impressively packaged stack of A4 card that were niftily pre-perforated into bite-size business cards and thought it'd be a grand idea to print up a batch for myself on the printer at home.

i went with a 'back to basics' approach, and tried not to let the fact that these cards will have perforated-y edges distract me. after all, i told myself, it is not the glossiness of the card that matters; what matters is i remember that i am making up these cards so they may serve as an alternative to scribbling my name and contact details on the back of a expired metcard the next time i meet someone i want to pass them on to. so, as a result, my business card is devoid of gloss, devoid of slogan; instead all it is adorned with is, in right-justified text, my name, my web/email address, and my mobile number.

but i could not resist: in one last nod to old-school, in the top right-hand corner of my new 'business card' sits a lone character (to scale, and in chocolate-brown ink) :