Finding the right balance of playful and informative on a business card is important to leaving everyone who looks at it with the right impression. The key is to set up the graphic and textual elements in the right proportion to each other, with the most fitting combination of colors, to draw attention to the right things.
Business Insider recently profiled the business card of the CEO of Boston Market, George Michel, which works as an example of coordinating elements together on one card for a memorable effect.
At a glance, the card is relatively nondescript, although it does feature the red and black logo of the chain logo against a standard white background, which makes the typeface stand out. However, under the name of the CEO, where the title should be, it instead says "The Big Chicken." The joke is especially effective because the rest of the card seems so traditional and plain, and requires people to look closer to "get it."
Michel told the source why he settled on this moniker, and says that introducing himself this way gets him "a big laugh."
"I wanted to be able to break the ice with our employees when I walked in and introduced myself," he said. "'The Big Chicken.' I ran it by some people, it seemed like it resonated, and now I use it as my title."
Contrasting a logo against a blank background is a classic tactic that will work for many different types of business imagery. As this particular example shows, structuring a card this way can also highlight other aspects of it and inject a particular tone, such as a humorous one. The same graphic design principles could then also work with signage created through techniques like custom screen printing for related signage.