Business Stamps are the New Black

Better Farm stamp on School of Visual Arts postcard, photograph by Chana Lesser

You know the drill: Americans use too many resources. More specifically, we've got less than 5 percent of the world's population but use 30 percent of the world's paper. More than 40 percent of wood pulp is used for paper production. Printing and writing paper adds up to about half of all United States paper production.

So, you do your part. You recycle wherever possible. You consider the environment before printing e-mails, driving directions, recipes, or what-have-yous.

But one papery surface seems unshakeable: that of the business card.

It's convenient, it's good networking, it's practical. Carrying a stash of business cards is classier than programming your work phone into people's cells, makes you seem more put-together than that guy scribbling his contact info onto cocktail napkins, and gives an aura of respectability to any professional person.

Patrick Bateman gets hot and bothered by Bryce's classy business card in American Psycho.

So how to achieve all this without doing something destructive to Mother Dearest? You could look into soy-based inks and recycled paper for your business cards, or take it another step further by creating business stamps. These can be printed on anything—from thick paper stock to mimic real business cards (recycled, of course); or cool gift wrap salvaged from your last birthday party, brown paper bags you'd otherwise throw in the recycling bin, or colorful pages from discarded magazines or postcards. Don't forget skin, walls, envelopes, fabric... The proverbial sky is the limit.

We did our fair share of Internet research on the subject, and found a nice self-inking Modico brand stamp at overnightprintscom. Wanting to keep the design universal for all needs, the Better Farm and betterArts stamps simply bear their respective logos, websites, and phone numbers. Check out the many faces a single stamp can have: