What to write on contact cards

[gement]

[FL x-post]

Apparently some people find contact cards relatively simple. You put your name (or your scene name if you're into that), an email address or phone number, and maybe a photo or a handle on the social network you'd most like to be contacted at. Maybe a logo that represents your primary interest.

I am about to go to a Doctor Who con where I'll go by my legal name and want people to contact me via email or LJ. The weekend after that, Seattle Boot Weekend, where I'll be introducing myself as Robin and only want to direct people to FL, unless I like them enough to give them my phone number. I go to events as boy, girl, and other. I don't want 50 different variations of contact card, and I'm easily swamped by contact requests, so I like controlling exactly how people reach me.

I have two full names that are just as validly me, and one handle (gement) which I use everywhere. I'm thinking of making a card that just says:

gement

And adding whatever contact info seems appropriate. @FL, @LJ, @hotmail, phone number, "Robin," "call me about your oxblood boots," whatever. Crisp white cards and my snobby fountain pen ink are a better signifier of my core identity than any other pile of data I could put on the card.

For super bonus more-visually memorable cards, I was thinking of putting 3-6 pictures of my different presentations on the back. My work suit-and-tie look, my super-glam rainbow Space Monkey Mafia femme drag, my srs bizness buzz-cut boy look, and one more femme one that I don't know how I'd distinguish without going into drag territory again. Still thinking about that.

I feel pretentious about this. Like I'm such a special snowflake that I can't have a simple fucking contact card. But I don't feel like I can put down more without separating my life into little boxes with checkmarks, and that itches.

Ponder ponder ponder.

Comments

[tcepsa.livejournal.com]

For practical purposes, I like the plain-card-plus-handwritten-details.

For super-geek-out-overload: I wonder whether it'd be possible to get one of those receipt printers and use it to print out card-sized receipts on demand. Have an array of buttons, and when you press one it spits out the corresponding pre-designed card. Of course, that probably negates the card-with-images option. And it would require a power source of some kind ("Here, let me give you a card--hang on... just gotta find an outlet...") Maybe for even more dynamic on-demand goodness you could somehow interface it with a smartphone and fill out whatever you wanted to be on the card through the phone, then have it print. Also, I suppose you'd probably need to use one that didn't take thermal paper, or by the time someone found it buried in their con-satchel it may very well have lost its record. Bonus round: get one that can do carbon copies, and you'll get an automatic record of all the cards you handed out! ^_^

Faster than just jotting some information down on a card? Maybe with the pre-designed ones. Classier than a note hand-written with a swanky pen? Certainly not! More legible? Depends on your handwriting vs. the quality of the printer. Worth a metric ton of geek cred? Oh hell yes.

[gement.livejournal.com]

Sadly, at Gally my pockets will already be full of sonic screwdrivers and novelty food items, while at Boot Weekend I should minimize what I'm carrying other than a toolbox of blacking equipment and the boss's coat. :)