The purpose of business cards The most important purpose of the business card is to inform. Your business card has to give them all your essential professional information as well as your contact information.The business card is not and was never meant to be an alternative for those that lack the ability to network or those who just don't — dropping business cards somewhere is rarely effective. There are some business cards that have way too much information on them — business cards are not resumes, portfolios or product catalogs. There are some business cards that don't have enough information on them in an attempt to bait people into trying to find out more about them — but if I have no clue who or what you are, I probably have no interest in you.You want to have a business card that references who you are. Don't try to fit all your recent work on your card, maybe just a couple. Yes, there are a bunch of them that look alike and it's hard knowing you're handing your business card to a person that receives tons weekly or even daily. But it's no longer uncommon for folks to want to make their business card useful or use some other sort of material or just make it super decorative. Should we really be doing this?The super-creative business card is fun to see. Sometimes we use different materials and different shapes and do all round different (yet creative) things to our business cards, but if it's too creative and not even useful, will people hold on to, or even remember it? Some examples It's tough as a designer to want to say something that may be way too creative. Maybe it's just me, but I don't keep a ton of my receipts...or spare cardboard. This is an example of making your business card usable without having to sacrifice anything, as just half the card can be used as a filter. This is another creative business card that doesn't have to sacrifice a lot in order to get its point across. Ninja BTL The unusual shape makes this an extremely creative and standout business card, and it also makes a bunch of sense. This is probably one of the most genuinely useful business cards I've ever seen. It's not stellar that you have to turn the card around to use the useful part, but this is extremely clever nonetheless. On top of that, you don't want to go around sacrificing your contact information just to have a super creative business card.Business cards are tough because everyone has one and of course you want yours to stand out. Business cards are nice, but focus on the essentials, on creating relationships and giving out useful information, not just making the most super-creative business card you've seen.Then again, it could all be a trick just to get your business card, and by extension your name, on as many websites as possible.