In this postmodern age where all design ideas from the past and present are plundered for their artistic merits, vintage style is king! This is particularly true of business cards that often suit a retro look that harks back to a time before full-color printing and gaudy graphics. In this post, we have gathered together 20 vintage business cards for your design inspiration.
Here are some truly amazing retro business cards for all you discerning ladies and gentlemen with superior breeding and taste:
This business card promotes Citizen Pictures (a Denver production company) and looks like it’s straight out of 1930’s golden age of pictures. Love the retro cool picture stub re-invention.
Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dailypoetics/126896586/
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These “old timey” boxing business cards are a knockout! Felix Auer’s graphic design work packs a heck of a punch!
Original source: http://www.felixauer.at/
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This business card that represents Linneas Lights Soy Candle Shop is so elegant – reflecting their retro Edwardian graphical brand.
Original source: http://www.felixauer.at/
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Love this provocative business card from designer Joakim Meihack – a graphical wallop that’s reminiscent of a 50’s boxing program.
Original source: http://www.behance.net/gallery/PERSONAL-IRONIC-GO-CARDBUSINESS-CARD/8736557
Genuine vintage business card from the sheaff-ephemera.com site (specialists in vintage ephemera and design sourcing). This is a design style that still holds up today as modern and sophisticated.
Original source: http://sheaff-ephemera.com./list/printing-inks-rollers/
This typographic masterpiece is another genuine vintage card from sheaff-ephemera.com. It’s what was known as a cabinet card and advertised photographic portraiture in the 1800’s.
Original source: http://sheaff-ephemera.com./list/backmarks_album/p_vuccino_company.html
The last of our examples from the sheaff-ephemera.com site shows another piece of typographic genius. This level of hand-crafted typography and print work is a lost art!
Original source: http://sheaff-ephemera.com./list/printing-inks-rollers/
These retro illustrated business cards for the Confiance Garantie Winery are printed on cork from recycled wine bottles! What a simply “hic”…brilliant… “hic”…idea!!! (More wine please, bartender!)
Original source: http://cardobserver.com/gallery/cork-business-cards
This business card from Urban Decay in the UK is a great example of true retro style. It looks like it came straight out of a music hall in the roaring twenties!
Original source: http://theurbandecay.deviantart.com/art/S-F-Eighty-Vintage-Style-Business-Cards-272798473
Although not strictly “vintage”, I couldn’t resist this super 80’s retro card! This is a down, down-right, right, fist punch, “hadouken” of a business card holder and card combo!
Original source: http://moresay.com/2009/07/banpresto-japan-nes-controller-business-card-holder/
These elegant vintage cards from designer, Paul Johns are a lesson to us all in how to create color contrast – a black and white treatment with a massive “pop” of red to make the cards eye-catching.
Original source: http://cardobserver.com/gallery/unique-business-card-6
These “foxy” business cards from Anomali Jewelry Designers are the height of retro and contemporary design all rolled into one! Seriously cool branding!
8 thoughts on “20 Vintage Business Cards for Your Inspiration”
What a great collection of designs!
And might I say an elegantly-written piece!
Great, low-cost way for a small business to stand out. Very nice designs.
As a retired designer and magazine art director turned fine art painter with western subject matter, much of which has an Old West flare, this has stirred fresh ideas for my next business card. (Wanted posters? Saloon signs? Vintage newspaper ads?) Thanks for a great article, and congrats to the designers who created these.
Very creative collection of ideas! Love it!
Glad you like the post, Wendy. They certainly are a creative collection.
Thanks Michael. These designers are brilliant at what they do and so inspirational.
I can really appreciate the creative talent that went into this terrific collection of business cards having spent almost 50 years as a pinstriping artist creating designs in paint and gold/silver leaf on vintage, custom and late model autos, motorcycles, trucks and hotrods. These are examples of why it is so important to create a card that people want to keep.
Very nice design and might be a customer attracting idea.
What a great collection of designs!
And might I say an elegantly-written piece!
Great, low-cost way for a small business to stand out. Very nice designs.
As a retired designer and magazine art director turned fine art painter with western subject matter, much of which has an Old West flare, this has stirred fresh ideas for my next business card. (Wanted posters? Saloon signs? Vintage newspaper ads?) Thanks for a great article, and congrats to the designers who created these.
Very creative collection of ideas! Love it!
Glad you like the post, Wendy. They certainly are a creative collection.
Thanks Michael. These designers are brilliant at what they do and so inspirational.
I can really appreciate the creative talent that went into this terrific collection of business cards having spent almost 50 years as a pinstriping artist creating designs in paint and gold/silver leaf on vintage, custom and late model autos, motorcycles, trucks and hotrods. These are examples of why it is so important to create a card that people want to keep.
Very nice design and might be a customer attracting idea.