Business cards for OpenHistoricalMap

General
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A couple weeks ago, I was packing for a trip to Tacoma to speak at NACIS, when I realized that some kind of trinket would be helpful for spreading the word about OHM. So I quickly printed out some business cards on business card paper I had lying around. I didn’t include a logo because our current logo isn’t very print-friendly, but maybe a future logo will be more suitable for print. Instead, I hacked together a decorative timeline so the card is a little more eye-catching.

A small stack of business cards tied together by a rubber band.
A small stack of business cards tied together by a rubber band.1920×1440 121 KB

I handed out a bunch of these cards at NACIS and a bunch more at a school reunion last weekend. Business cards are a little old-fashioned these days, but it’s pretty fitting for what we do. The folks I spoke with appreciated having something tangible to take with them or photograph for their records. They were impressed that our hobbyist project would have something professional-looking.

I encourage you to print out your own business cards so you can more easily introduce folks to OHM in conversation. It doesn’t have to be for a formal event like a conference. Hand one out to the librarian when explaining what you need from them, stop by the local historical society’s booth at the next street festival, or strike up a conversation with the person next to you on the train. Leave some at the counter of the restaurant you’re putting on the map.

The template for this business card is available on the OSM Wiki in ODT format, which you can open in LibreOffice. (I can post another version in Pages format if you need it.) The text is set in CMU Concrete, CMU Classical Serif, and CMU Bright, all part of the open-source Computer Modern font family. Feel free to replace the title “Volunteer Geohistorian” with something more playful or design your own.

If you also contribute to OpenStreetMap, this wiki page has some additional designs you can print out alongside your OHM business cards.

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For my recent trip to Colombia, I needed Spanish-language business cards for the first time in my life. This was an opportunity to try something a little different. I knew the language barrier would give me more difficulty than usual when explaining the concept of an interactive, collaborative historical map to people who may not even be all that familiar with OpenStreetMap. While the number line was a cute decoration, I wanted to make the cards feel a little more personalized and directly relevant to the project.

This new design replaces the number line with a simple, abstract illustration of a time slider. Instead of tick marks, there’s an icon at either end of the slider, juxtaposing antiquity with modernity in various aspects of geographic history: entertainment, energy, structures, communication, economy. You may recognize these icons as POI icons from the Historical stylesheet on our homepage. @tsinn’s icon work comes through nicely:

A cascading series of business cards, each one featuring a simple illustration of a time slider but with different icons at the endpoints: Greek theater masks versus a microphone, windmill versus wind turbine, castle tower versus cellular tower, envelope versus mobile phone, coins versus ATM.
A cascading series of business cards, each one featuring a simple illustration of a time slider but with different icons at the endpoints: Greek theater masks versus a microphone, windmill versus wind turbine, castle tower versus cellular tower, envelope versus mobile phone, coins versus ATM.1920×1440 145 KB

The design really came in handy on the flight back home. On the way to a layover in Panama, I was seated next to two academics who were curious about what I do but didn’t quite grasp the terminology. Without Internet access, I couldn’t show them OHM, but I was able to use this time slider illustration as a prop for explaining how you would interact with our map.

I’ve uploaded a template for this business card to the OSM Wiki in ODT format, which is compatible with LibreOffice. It’s in English, but you can translate it into any language you need. You’ll need Computer Modern fonts to see it correctly, and ideally a better color printer than mine.

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