Business Card Employee Change: Fill & Download for Free

I designed the original Facebook business cards. (It's been almost 10 years since I designed them, so I'll recall this as best as I can.)Andrew 'Boz' Bosworth is correct in that I modeled the business cards after the first redesign (sans "the") of the site. I felt it was not only fitting, but iconic. The footer of the card that he refers to was an homage to the random quotes that would rotate at the site's footer—such as "I don't even know what a quail looks like." We were small enough at the time that it was a trivial task to ask each employee for a custom footer and many of them had a lot of fun with it.As for Mark's, it's no secret that Mark looked up to Steve Jobs at the time. When Aaron Sittig and I were the only designers in late 2005, he would hold his design meetings with us in that classic "aggressive" Steve Jobs-style. It was during one of those meetings where I remember him first uttering the phrase, "I'm CEO, bitch..."Countless designs are referred to as "happy accidents" and this would be a prime example of that. Because of the relationship that Zuck and I had at the time, I felt comfortable having fun with his tagline.So, quite simply, it was a phrase I typed in that stuck.Feel free to fish for the meaning if my explanation is a bit bland and uneventful, but therein lies the wonder of design. Sometimes the best part of any piece of work is the meaning people pull out of it.Eventually, during my tenure at Facebook, the fabled cards were pulled and subsequently replaced. In this designer's view, these retired cards were an excellent representation of the company culture at the time. Their replacement reflected the changes a young Facebook needed to go through in order to be where it is today.

Al Capone is one of America’s most infamous gang lords.There was a period where he was actually admired by the public.But things began to spiral downwards after he had rivals murdered in public and also after he blew up a liquor store killing several employees who were affiliated with a rival.Capone began his career as a bouncer, working his way up to running brothels in Chicago. After performing well he was promoted to partner in the business.The original saloon he worked at was located at 2220 South Wabash Avenue.As he moved up, he tried to distance himself from bars and brothels. If he aspired to become a more powerful crime lord, he would need to start covering his trade and trail.He printed up a business card which used the address of the original saloon he worked at, but he instead listed that he was a furniture dealer:Alphonse Capone, Secondhand Furniture Dealer 2220 South Wabash Avenue.He would use this card at the times when he was questioned by authorities who were suspicious of him. He was known to have used it at least once during a traffic stop with a cop who got a eery feeling about Capone.(Source: Capone: The Man and the Era. Laurence Bergreen)It looks as though this address is now converted to a parking lot:Though it is now listed as a historic site.Additionally, when Capone was running his business, he changed the sign on the outside to list A. Brown MDListing himself as a doctor successfully served as a front for his organization's headquarters.Though Capone was more the opposite of a doctor.

OMG, we still tell this one at my law firm. I’ll exclude the particulars for obvious reasons. This was probably eighteen years ago.For reasons unknown to me, the partners hired a guy, maybe early 30s, as our receptionist. He seemed eager but slightly odd. His typing test had been the legal description of a property, which is admittedly a huge pain in the ass, but it’s a great way to test attention to detail, and he was very vocal throughout as to his displeasure at this task. As I recall he did a good job though.He was half an hour late on his first day and had some weird excuse like he’d been sitting across the street in front of the building the whole time but wanted to be sure we were open.Strike one.For the first couple of days, whenever he answered the phone, he’d put the caller on hold, walk down to the person’s office or cubicle wanted by the caller, stand there, wait to be noticed, and then announce You have a phone call! No other information, no observation that our phones do have intercoms, no apparent recollection of having been trained to use said intercom system, and no change made after being specifically told not to walk around the office unless the person did not answer the intercom.Strike two.On the third or fourth day, he was late again. Upon arrival, he went around to everyone’s desk offering to take their Starbucks order. There are only five or six of us, depending on the day. This was not typical practice by any means, but we’re all Starsuckers so he delightedly went to Starbucks.Which is across the street.When he called an hour and a half later, I answered the phone. I asked somewhat incredulously where he was. He breezily informed me that he was in downtown DC, at least half hour away by Metro, picking up some shoes that he’d ordered.Upon his return, he proudly showed everyone his sky blue wingtips!Strike three? Nope.That was when he also showed everyone the (sky blue) business cards he’d ordered for himself, with our law firm’s name on them, and his title as Paralegal.So on his third or fourth day as our Receptionist, he was terminated. He kept the shoes, we kept the business cards. In fact, I saw them the other day in the managing partner’s office!