Design team imagines business cards for superheroes
It must be tough being a superhero. You have to save the world while concealing your identity and, in many cases, trying to project the image that you hold a typical 8-5 job. The folks at Pop Chart Lab, a design collective based in Brooklyn, are doing what they can to help out these poor superheroes. They’ve come up with: “The Vocations of Heroes & Villains: Brave & Bold Business Cards from Comic Book Alter Egos.”
From Pop Chart Lab
These faux business cards are cheeky in concept but positively gorgeous in execution. The designers’ goal: “Evoke these alter egos’ superhero identities without giving away the farm.’” The designers describe the challenge as “exceedingly complicated.” Ultimately, they “landed on a holistic approach that combines small visual cues, color that references the character’s ‘super’ costume, and a textual style redolent of their comic book world.”
There’s a card for Clark Kent, who is advertised as a reporter for the Daily Planet. (You might also know him as Superman.) The designers noted that Clark Kent is such a household name that the card didn’t require too many design cues in order to evoke the character and his alter ego. The red font in his name is about as direct as it gets.
Peter Parker advertises himself as a photographer for the Daily Bugle. (Night job: Spiderman.)
Bruce Wayne (a.k.a. Batman) has a slightly more ambiguous card. His simply advertises that he is the CEO of Wayne Enterprises. Don’t expect to see the iconic Batman logo on Bruce Wayne’s card. That would give too much away. Instead, the designers said that they “designed the card after the fashion of Batman’s reputation: dark, Gothic, and tight-lipped.”
There are also cards for comic book villains, such as Norman Osborn, CEO of Oscorp and Spiderman’s nemesis.
Pop Chart Lab created 34 different business cards in total, each unique and designed with subtle — or not-so-subtle — references to their heroic or villainous alter egos.
Rachel Mansfield of Pop Chart Lab told Slate Magazine in an email that the business cards are “more the characters in business card form rather than the cards the character would actually use. If Barry Allen/The Flash were a real person, for instance, it probably wouldn’t be very good for his secret identity to hand out red business cards covered in yellow lightning.”
Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like you can actually order the business cards for yourself. (Now, wouldn’t that spice up a networking event? “Hi, I’m Clark Kent. Here’s my card.”)
Instead, the cards are all assembled together on one 24” by 18” print. A surefire conversation piece indeed.
