Cut out one for yourself. For my latest exercise in vanity I made these “business” cards. To me they’re an homage to the great artist Ed Kienholz. Kienlholz was part of the “Cool School” art scene in 1950s Los Angeles. Some “experts” say Kienholz was doing the more-famous Rauschenberg’s “combines” before Rauschenberg himself. Ed was a renaissance handy man who made a living early in his career doing all sorts jobs from plumbing to carpentry. He had a pickup truck with “Ed Kienholz – Expert” painted on the doors. If he never made a piece of “art” in his life I would still consider this a masterpiece. I’ve displayed similar verbiage in a similar way on these cards. With my steelworker roots I can’t help feeling a kinship with the man.

I had them made at Zazzle, and I’ve always been happy with their service. That said, I’ve found that it can be tough to get the color to match on their “indestructible” card stock. Despite my choice of material I wanted the cards to appear worn and roughed up, like an old work truck. I found some brushes for Photoshop that made this effect pretty easy to achieve at Ubersuper. For darker colored areas I inverted the effect to make the wear areas lighter. Seemed to make sense. I like how the crease turned out, but I think some of scuffs and dirt are maybe a too little subtle.

Take a look at the late great Ed Kienholz doing who knows what atop the “expert” pickup. Genius.

For more experiments in vanity there’s this self-portrait I made for an avatar to use on Flickr, etc.