From Hustle’s Mickey Bricks and the A-Team’s Faceman through to 007 and Chevy Chase’s Fletch, TV and film is replete with leading men needing to establish their bonafide’s quickly.
And more often that not, even in this digital age, their tool of choice is the humble business card.
There’s something reassuringly tangible about that little rectangle of card that bestows instant credibility on the carrier.
We automatically assume that the name on the card is the name of the person we’re meeting – after all, why would it not be?
This instant trust has long been exploited by the conmen, heroes and investigators whose adventures we all love to follow.
Our screen heroes seem to enjoy a never-ending supply of cards carrying aliases, the A-Team van even has a printing press capable of churning out almost anything needed for the scam of the week.
Off screen there was a time, thanks to inkjet printers driving down the costs of home printing and making it possible to include colour logos, when it was fashionable to print your own cards.
But while we welcomed the fact that it was no longer necessary to get hundreds of expensive cards printed on the high street, the perforated, tear apart cards used for home printing never really created the right impression – less J.R. Ewing, more J.R Hartley.
Luckily in these connected, on-line days it’s possible to print cards in small, affordable batches without compromising on quality and without even leaving the house.
(Though if you’re not planning on ever leaving home, you might not need the business cards to start with…).
Firms such as instantprint.co.uk business cards allow customers to order personalised cards in small batches that are wallet friendly in more than one way.
And while they’re not going to help you do a Fletch and pass yourself off as an aeroplane engineer or a member of the mattress police, they will ensure you create a lasting impression that’ll leave your new acquaintances and clients keen to stay in touch.
