Business cards made from concrete

A creative agency called Murmure is kitting out its employees with concrete business cards that come with their own miniature shipping palettes. There's a scene in a William Gibson novel (I could swear it was Idoru, but I can't find it) where a Hollywood studio exec passes out business-cards screened on wafer-thin slices of marble, each in its own velveteen slipcase. These (which come with their own little paper boxes) are a nice second, though not nearly so keen as those fictional bad boys.

Concrete Business Cards (via Neatorama)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: Business • design • happy mutants • materials

More at Boing Boing

Ants and Stars: Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic visit the Sardinia Radio Telescope in Italy

The Snowden Principle

Antinous / Moderator

business-cards screened on wafer-thin slices of marble

Well, now I want business cards made of genetically engineered carpaccio.
- retchdog
  
  http://boingboing.net/2009/04/23/business-cards-made.html ?
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Yeah, but I want the words to be made of fat.
http://profile.yahoo.com/NNVIWM3HUW264RC7LOCUS45PXY Rex Tyler

The character Wellington Ma used marble business cards in Gibson’s 1993 novel, “Virtual Light.”
- retchdog
  
  yup! pedantry follows, ignore: it was actually pink quartz, and the point of it was that it was so pretty, fragile and dangerous (basically a razor-thin shard of glass) that it forced the recipient to worry about it and thus think of his company. pretty clever.
  - Jonathan Roberts
    
    I’ve got a toddler in my house, so offering me that business card would mean I would either a) decline the card and write the information on a piece of paper that I would promptly lose or b) go with a competitor.
    - retchdog
      
      i really don’t think you’re supposed to take it that seriously. the bridge trilogy gibsonverse is too grimly cool for toddlers to exist at all. at two months of age, children instantly transition to either child prodigy über-hackers; socially elite fixers; cyber-criminals; or beaten-down thirty-something salarymen.
perkzlfaty

Rex and retchdog are correct – it is ‘Virtual Light’ – to wit “Wellington Ma’s business card was a rectangular slice of pink synthetic quartz, laser-engraved with his name, ‘The Ma-Mariano Agency,’ an address on Beverly Boulevard, and all kinds of numbers and e-mail addresses. It arrived by GlobEx in its own little gray suede envelope while Rydell was still in the hospital.”
Hollando

“‘Looks like you could cut yourself on it,’ Rydell said.

‘You could, many no doubt have,’ said Karen Mendelsohn, ‘and if you put it in your wallet and sit down, it shatters.’

‘Then what’s the point of it?’

‘You’re supposed to take very good care of it. You won’t get another.’ ”

That last bit was my favorite part.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=605790351 Ryan Holmes

Isn’t concrete incredibly bad for the environment?
Colm Buckley

+Ryan : yeah, it’s quite a high source of CO2; however I don’t think a few kg of business cards are going to have a huge impact compared with the millions of tonnes which are poured each day…
http://twitter.com/DokHolocaust Patrick Batemare

I’d like to see either the Nemesis Ti-Card or Iain Sinclair cardsharp used as a business card. http://www.bladehq.com/item–Nemesis-Knives-TiCard–5303 and http://iainsinclair.com/products.php for the cardsharp
semiotix

Look at that subtle off-gray coloring, the tasteful thickness of it. Oh my God, it even has a watermark!
http://twitter.com/kintoy Boardinggate101.com

the Gibson novel is Virtual Light…
Jake0748

Murmure is such a stupid name for a company. If I got one of those “cards”, I’d toss it into the lake (where it would promptly sink to the bottom).
- Beanolini
  
  I’d toss it into the lake
  
  actually, it would probably skim really well.
  
  I’d like to think it could be cracked open to reveal a conventional business card hidden inside.
ChickieD

It seems to me that it would be ridiculously heavy and clumsy to carry around. Imagine if you are going to a convention and you need to hand out a bunch of business cards; what – do you carry a backpack for your business cards?
- bbonyx
  
  Weakling.
  
  ;)
Wisconsin Platt

Perhaps they work here

http://partiallyclips.com/2006/02/19/office-building/
cymk

Obligatory: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoIvd3zzu4Y
http://www.facebook.com/heather.cristofaro Heather Cristofaro

It’s memorable and delicate and fun. Great for a creative industry. I don’t get the complaints about “not being able to carry in your pocket”. Because everyone carries stacks of business cards in their pockets? Silly. Everyone at conventions carry some type of bag anyway.

If I were a client, it would go right in the mouth of my t-rex toy in my office.