Plotted Mini-Artworks as Business Cards

Tomorrow starts my conference year with the very interesting beyond tellerrand in Düsseldorf. I had procrastinated to design and order business cards, so maybe it was time to actually make use of my pen plotter I was working on over the last weeks.

As my remaining time was only a few days, I decided to reuse a procedural sketch I created last year, heavily inspired by Studio Yorktown’s Artwork Komša. I originally made it at a much larger format, so it needed some coaxing to work at card size. After a few test prints, I was sure it would hold up, and I was ready to go.

I had ordered some blank cards with next day delivery and 3D-printed a jig for my plotter bed to keep positioning consistent across the whole run.

Pens used

• Pilot G-Tec C Maica Black 0.2mm
• Sakura Gelly Roll White 0.3mm

My first impulse was to put a serial number in the corner to show that cards are limited. But then I thought it would be much nicer to plot the two random seeds there instead. In my Code, one nudges the buildings into existence, the other decides how to fill them in. Change either number and you get something different.

If you have received a card, you can try to recreate your artwork here or experiment with other seeds.

If you’re curious about the sketchbook tool I used to make this, I’ve already written a bit about where that’s going. And a proper post on the plotter itself is coming soon.