Business Card Origami

You're in a meeting, you are getting bored. How will you keep awake? Business card origami of course! The world of origami is ever expanding: you can fold a square sheet of paper, or you can fold just about anything: candy wrappers, money, post-it sticky notes, toilet paper, and yes - you can fold business cards too.

Paper vs. Business Cards

There are some basic differences between origami and business cards origami.

1. Shape: many origami models start with a square sheet of paper. In contrast, most business cards are rectangular in shape.
2. Size: commercially available origami paper is typically 6" x 6" though they can be as small as 1" square or as large as 10" square. Professional origami artists can start with much larger sheets - as large as 13 feet x 13 feet.

   In contrast commercially available business cards in USA and Canada are typically 3.5" x 2".

3. Weight: paper used for origami varies in weight: from light weight kami to the heavier sheets used for wet folding. However, it is safe to say that the card stock used to make business cards is 3 to 4 times heavier than the paper used to fold origami.

Because of the above differences, folding business cards into origami models requires special consideration. Simple models with few steps work best because business cards are already quite thick to begin with. Diagrams that begin with a square sheet of paper need to be modified to accommodate a business card's rectangular shape. Lastly, models which use multiple business cards assembled together to form one shape are more dramatic because more cards create larger models. This type of origami is called modular origami or unit origami.

There are many business card origami instructions scattered throughout the internet. Check Malache's web page for an extensive list.

	The queen of business card origami is probably Jeannine Mosely. She made a business card structure called a Menger's Sponge using 66,048 business cards - it was 150 pounds and 4½ feet tall. [Photo by M Wertheim, Institute For Figuring.] Similarly tens of thousands business cards were assembled to form the a replica of the Union Station in Worcester, MA. This was accomplished with the help of 500 volunteers from 15 local schools. [Photo by J Mosely, compare to actual building here.] If you are a one band man, you can make small but impressive business card projects as seen here. These were predominantly created and/or folded by Jennifer Campbell and Valerie Vann. Some origami purists do not like to cut their paper when doing origami. But if you were to allow cutting, you can make a whole new set of business card artwork that will surely turn heads. See cool, 3-D business cards by Paul Jackson, Jeremy Shafter, Ilan Garibi and others here.

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These origami models are made available by the origami community at large. If you have a model that you would like to share, or if you see your model here and would like it removed, please Contact Us. Diagrams are intended for personal use. Copyright of the models lie with the origami creators and designers. Please contact the designer and/or creator directly for non-private usage of a model and/or artwork.