mind•haven

This Game Developers Conference I did small experiment in card design….

It was meant to be a “Google card” as one German attendee had coined it. I was working for an online game company, so I thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a card that took advantage of the web?” It was glossy, and had only two words. I owned mindhaven.com and mindhaven.net. My site had my resume, a link to my LinkedIn profile, my portfolio, and my vCard. I made sure that if you typed “mindhaven” or “mind haven” in Google, you would find it too.

However, I had to explain the card more than I would have liked. A few people “got it” immediately. Many put it up to a light to check for a watermark. Others thought you needed lemon juice or a black light. One guy even tried to taste it! I thought it was hilarious.

Did it work? Well, kinda…

There was a spike after GDC, but nothing extraordinary. It could have been due to my presence on LinkedIn. In the end, the card was too simple, or too clever, depending on how you see it. Mystery can be fun, but people in general don’t want to think, especially when it comes to business cards. =)