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Wooden Business Cards: Green in One Sense, Not Green in Another?

By Rain Noe - April 6, 2011

in Object Culture

Making business cards out of wood isn't new, and you can see a massive roundup of them here, but we like Wisconsin design student Staci Paul's mahogany-stained plywood take on them, below:

While some producers charge as much as $3 per wooden card, Paul managed to spend just $30 to produce 80 cards. Then again, as a student she has access to something many of us don't: A school-provided Versa Laser 300 machine.

This got me wondering: In gross terms, is making business cards out of wood rather than paper less green? I know the obvious answer seems like "yes," but I'm wondering if someone familiar with the ins and outs of papermaking can sound off in the comments. Specifically, I'm wondering about the trade-off between the chemicals involved in papermaking versus the (presumably) greater amount of raw wood required per card in the latter method.

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Dents in Wood Furniture

12 years ago

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I must use the businesscards as it is trade-off between the chemicals involved in papermaking versus the (presumably) highly amount of raw wood required per card.Thanks

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Lisa

13 years ago

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I used pre-cut, re-purposed maple veneer cards and had a friend laser etch them http://www.mokobranding.com/ - I feel it's something people love to receive, smell (!) and keep for much longer than a paper card. A bit more expensive but I didn't make my cards to give to throw into door-prize draws!
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Wes Towers@Graphic Design Melbourne

13 years ago

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These business cards look cool and unique. They will indeed stand out if that is what you are looking for. However, when you look at the practicality of producing and keeping this kind of business card, you will be at the losing end of things. A business card made of paper with a great design still trumps one made of wood any time when it comes to usability, practicality and "keepability".
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TylerInCMYK

13 years ago

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This is not the forum to discuss the plusses and minuses of the paper industry (or really the wood products industries). However, I will say that when considering the paper vs wood bcard question, one should consider both ends of its life cycle. A business card is typically only held on to by its recipient for a short time. Thus the energy required to recycle it should also be considered. I don't care how cool your card is, once you've been added to my contacts, your card hits the round file. And this is coming from a print salesman.
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Jesper Bolo Petersen

13 years ago

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Paper production is very heavy on the enviroment. Not because of the tree's being cut down, which is plantet for paperproduction. Natural tree's doesnt get cut down, mostly because it's not very effective to drive around in a natural forest fighting undergrowth and cutting down tree's. Way more easy to harvest wood from a controlled plantation.

Why it's heavy on the enviroment, is because of the amount of energy and water needed for the process. When that is said, I'm not sure that small batches of laser cut buisness cards are better for the enviroment. Paper production is highly effective and It's quite possible you get more for the energy in paper production, vs. laser cutting.

Hard to calculate... Many factors to take into account, like the powerconsumption and enviromental impact of printing.

Sorry for the bad english, I'm danish
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John

13 years ago

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These look pretty cool but, I'm curious about their usefulness.

There are two issues I can see; the first being that they are a bit bulky. I tend to collect a few cards over the day, and one of these seems like it would be really bothersome to have in my pocket.

That brings me to my second point which is that some of these don't look very durable. In the first image especially, it looks like that card would split along the grain if I kept it in my pocket.

However, I do like @Ryan Spotowski's idea of using offcuts and other lumber waste.
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Alan

13 years ago

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I'm not an expert, but I do believe it depends on the process. For example, there are "green printers" who produce using recycled paper, soy based inks, wind powered plants, even recycled printing plates. Generally speaking though, the paper industry is a major polluter of land, sea, and air... and may not be as sound as typical wood printing. I'd love a real answer on this one :)
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Zoe Huertas

13 years ago

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I can't speak for business cards, but I've done letterpress wedding invitations from offcut veneer. Specifically I asked for a thicker veneer than is commonly used for furniture - making it a real offcut of offcuts' and therefor cheaper. It also helped that I went with a common wood - maple - and it was easy to find at a good price. To contrast it, I paired it with Crane's Lettra - a 100% cotton paper. The paper ended up being more expensive by $50 or so (125 invitations plus extra). The veneer did take more time and pieces to learn how it worked, how it was used best etc., but that's a given with any "new" material. I actually used less electricity on the wood pieces as well since they had to be pressed on a human powered platen press and not an electric bed press like the paper was.

The moral of my story is; sticking with a common species and a uncommonly used thickness made it cheaper. But as with any material, there are a plethora of options, and it was easy to see how you could spend two or three times as much as you would on paper if you're looking for something specific in terms of grain, thickness or touch (soft v. hard woods).
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Ryan Spotowski

13 years ago

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I've been making my business cards out of offcuts of veneer for a few years now. I think they're much more renewable in that they're printed by me with a water soluble ink. They're relatively cheap too, at $10 for 100 or so.
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