Pocket Pal

If you want to write a best seller in the graphic design market, write 100,000 Business Cards. My books sell well, but they are pussies next to the business card books. Why? I don’t know. At most, I give out 10 business cards a year. And the ones I like end up in a box marked “favorite business cards”. The one in the front is not by anyone famous or avant-garde or even a designer. It’s a business card from Hi-Speed Advertising Typography. Hi-Speed went away along with all the other type houses, but their card lives on.

I’m a sucker for type cases. I worked in the metal type shop at school, and learned the California case like the back of my hand. As you can imagine, that’s come in real handy over the years. I’d like to have a type case that I could use to hang on the wall, and organize little objects. Perhaps these would be pieces of wood type, rocks, or shells. The Hi-Speed card is a tiny representation of a type case. I know it’s not accurate, but so what? It has a cool big hand and row of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Abraham Lincoln. That is why it is currently the favorite of favorites in the business card box.