Hasta La Ideas

QR code business card by Meadowlark Creative

In Korea, the Internet is everywhere. I had the privilege of living and working in Korea for a month this past summer and constantly found myself with opportunities to get online. The country is legendary for being the fastest, most wired in the world, but I didn’t expect to find myself catching wifi signals in the midst of Buddhist monasteries and at the top of mountains.

But in Korea, business cards are all the rage as well. In business contexts, I received them almost immediately after shaking hands, whereas in more casual settings, I usually received them after dinner. It could have been just as easy to trade Facebook contact information, but the importance of the business card exchange is difficult to underestimate. All throughout Asia, I’d be met with looks of mild irritation if I forgot to bring my business cards with me.

In the US, I trade business cards much less frequently—in my circle, we just whip out our smartphones and follow each other on Twitter—but I still carry them around. And I start to wonder about how they can interface and remain relevant with a digital generation.

A creative approach to embedding a QR codes in a resume.

A simple question on the Core77 Discussion Board posed by dexigner20110 has sparked a flurry of discussion recently: “I’m in the process of designing our new business cards and would like to know if any of you put QR code on them?”

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