To be competitive in business, you’ve got to stand out – and there’s no better representation of your visual identity than your business card. While most are tucked into a wallet or desk drawer and quickly forgotten, others make people look twice, with designs that are funny, shocking or just incredibly unique. Here are 15 examples of amazing business cards that definitely leave a memorable impression.

Debt Recovery X-Ray Business Cards

(image via: Ads of the World)

“If you don’t give me the money, I’m gonna break your finger.” That’s the message that this effective business card by a debt recovery agent sends with its x-ray image of a broken thumb tip. Of course, that doesn’t mean that Mr. Rahesh Ranjan, who commissioned the card, is really going to break your finger – but it might make you a little more likely to pay up quickly.

Dept. of Energy Business ‘Cords’

(image via: Mike Industries)

You can’t slip it into your wallet, but this business ‘cord’ will probably make an impression on your mind anyway. Designed by and for design firm The Dept of Energy, these palm-size electrical cords are printed with the firm’s logo and business information.

Sprouting Garden Business Cards

(image via: bldgblog)

There are quite a few business card designs that have seeds embedded in them, but this one is unique: the seeds sprout in a pattern according to the layout printed on the card. Naturally, this business card is for Tur & Partner, a landscape architecture company.

Yuka Suzuki Hair Pins Business Cards

(image via: daily poetics)

There’s no question what services Yuka Suzuki offers when you see these brilliant business cards. Hair pins are attached to the card in a way that makes them look like the hair of a woman. Once you use up the pins, the card is easy to slip into your wallet. Since it’s providing a useful function, you’ll be more likely to keep it around for a bit longer than most.

Razor Blade Business Cards

(image via: BusinessCards24)

If you know what’s good for you, you won’t put this unusual business card in your wallet. It’s an actual razor blade, imprinted with the information of a graphic design firm called ‘Cutting Edge’. Memorable and clever.

Headhunter Business Cards

(image via: Ads of the World)

Headhunter Aert van Seggelen wants you to be discreet about being contacted by him. So, in addition to his contact information, he has thoughtfully provided instructions for disposing of the card – by eating it. Hope you have a good memory.

Lock Picking Kit Business Cards

(image via: ?? ???? ????????)

This business card has a set of fully functioning lock picking tools that you can immediately pop out and start using. Kevin Melvin, who describes himself as a “hacker, entrepreneur and all around mischief maker” reportedly wanted a card that would speak of his nature.

Stretch Rubber Personal Trainer Business Cards

(image via: deadmetrix)

Personal trainer Poul Nielson’s business card can only be read when you stretch the rubber it’s printed on. Too bad you need more than two hands to stretch it, read the phone number and then write it down.

Actual Size Pop-Up Business Cards

(image via: thisisactualsize.com)

Design firm ‘Actual Size’ created this card with a little pop-up of the person it belongs to, which isn’t technically ‘actual size’.  Not only is this card creative and memorable itself, but the photograph will help you remember who handed it to you when you pick it up again months later.

Structural Graphics Fax Machine Pop-Up Business Cards

(image via: dailypoetics)

Structural Graphics designs and produces marketing materials, and what better way to advertise their services than to create an impressive pop-up business card? When you open the card, a pop-up of a fax machine offers up a fax with a message that says in part, “Welcome! You are looking at a revolutionary concept from Structural Graphics.”

Fashion Stylist Transparent Business Cards

(image via: Ads of the World)

Fashion stylists could give clients an idea of their personal style with a look book, but that’s kind of boring. CK Koo decided he’d like to provide a graphical representation of his eclectic tastes with a business card that consists of transparencies that allow you to ‘dress’ a silhouette of a woman. Each transparency depicts fashion apparel from boots to hair accessories.

Building Block Architecture Business Cards

(image via: Ads of the World)

La Cambre Architecture School in Belgium has a business card that defines what the school does: it’s a Lego brick printed with the school’s information.

We Love You(r Money) Business Cards

(image via: BusinessCards24.com)

At first, when you see this business card and read the message ‘We love you’, you might think it’s a bit corny and sycophantic, but then you see that the gray bar beside it is a scratch-off. Take a quarter to it and you’ll soon see that it really says “We love your money”. Hey, at least they’re being up front about it.

USB Business Cards

(image via: New Launches)

This paper business card doesn’t look like anything special, until you turn it over. On the back is a laminated memory card, which actually works when you insert the card into a USB adapter. That allows the business owner to fit a whole lot more information onto that little card – entire portfolios or catalogs, even.

Brand Doctor Business Cards

(image via: dailypoetics)

Branding and marketing company Brand Doctor uses little boxes of ‘medicine’ as business cards, each one personalized using their names and adding a medical suffix which provides a specific solution according to that person’s role in the company (ex. Davor Rukovanjski is a designer, his “medicine” is Ruxiten, for improving visual identity). So, what’s really in the box? Mints.