Has Squid Game Revived Business Cards & Made Them Cool Again?

Released on 17 September 2021, ‘Squid Game’ is Netflix’s runaway hit that has taken the internet by storm. Using the hashtag ‘#SquidGame,’ the show has exploded on social media and viewed more than 22.8 billion times on TikTok alone. But for the print industry, the nine-episode Korean thriller is reviving business card production that has taken a severe knock since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Introducing The Squid Game Card

The Korean series created by Hwang Dong-hyuk follows the story of gambling addict Seong Gi-Hun, played by Lee Jung-jae. Along with other deeply indebted contestants, compete in a horrifically violent game with the opportunity to win around USD 38 million. On a calculated encounter, which seems random to Gi-Hun, he is approached by a mystery man (The Salesman played by Gong Yoo) at a train station who offers to pay him if he plays and wins a simple childhood game. After multiple tries and fails, he finally succeeds. Along with the reward money, The Salesman gives him a simple 18pt brown kraft business card.

To the general public, the introduction of such a simple element may seem like nothing. But to design crits, printers, graphic designers, and other business card lovers, it is a big deal. The significant of using a business card to share information in today’s world is highly uncommon since we all have smartphones. So to use one in such massive production on a vast streaming platform like Netflix could revive business card production.

The business card itself has a simple black design printed both back and front. Even though simple, the card gives nothing away about the game or where The Salesman is from — keeping the mystery of what is to happen next alive. It is, however, branded with the outline of the Korean childhood squid game that we are introduced to in the first few minutes of the series.

Like ‘American Psycho’ did in 2000, Squid Game is reintroducing business cards to a new, younger audience. With one foot in the grave, could this be business cards’ lifeline to make a comeback?

The 2000s Business Cards Boom

Thanks to a massive feature in the 2000 hit film ‘American Psycho,’ directed by Mary Harron, business cards had an upswing in production. In a famous three-minute scene from the movie, Patrick Bateman, played by a young Christian Bale, sits around a boardroom table and boasts about their business cards. All in various shades of white - namely bone, eggshell, and pale nimbus - stock with a variety of printing methods, the men show off their newly printed business card - all to the frustration of Bateman.

Once ‘American Psycho’ was release, an influx of business cards on bone stock with the fictional typeface called “Silian Rail” was requested at print shops worldwide. It created a business card frenzy with people having a newfound interest in having them, giving them to people, and designing them in chic and elegant ways. For years business card production was thriving until the introduction of the smartphone that had it one foot in the grave. The Covid-19 pandemic added additional strain to the already dying business card, and many industry experts thought this was the end for this marketing tool. 

But with ‘Squid Game’ reintroducing business cards to a new, younger audience, our hope is that it revives this creative way of self-promotion. 

Get Your Own Squid Game Business Card

Like with all trends, we expect to see an influx of the request for a ‘Squid Game’ type business cards. If you’re looking to create a similar type of business card, here are a few things we picked up from the series that you should know:

• Stock: Unlike the rich, premium stock used by Patrick Bateman in ‘American Psycho’ and many other movies, The Salesman that lures people into the game in ‘Squid Game’ goes with something a little simpler. The stock used for this business card is 18pt brown kraft.
  
  

• Ink & Design: The best option for brown kraft business cards is using classic black ink with a simple design. As seen in the series, a black design with clean lines beautifully compliment the texture of the kraft stock. Printed both back and front, the card has a stamp-like design with a circle, square, and triangle on the front and phone number on the back. (Fun fact: the number is real and belongs to an average joe who was bombarded with calls).
  
  Create your very own Squid Game card

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lara Moses

Lara Moses is the founder of Copy In The Cloud, a social media and blog management agency for wedding professionals. For almost 10 years, she worked in corporate business as an editor, copywriter, and writer for brands including Seventeen Magazine and Traveller24. In 2014, after leaving her 9-5 job, she co-founded Freemadic while freelancing as a writer and social media manager.