Calling Cards

Zurich-based Shagal | Inter­dis­­ciplinary Office for Design, Architecture & Arts prides itself on being a zero-waste company—even to the point of adopting secondhand collateral for their own calling cards. “We receive so much paper every day,” cofounder Siamak Shahneshin says. “We thought, Why not reuse it in a way that would ­por­tray our office?”

Shagal isn’t the first firm to fashion business cards from repurposed materials, but its calculated paper selections make every one a work of art. While each card is unique, they all share two features: an embossed Shagal logo and a red band printed with the employee and company stats. The company estimates that in addition to curtailing energy consumption and waste creation, the first batch of a thousand saved three mature trees. Plus the signature band, made using vegetable-based ink and glue, is produced by a local wind-­powered printer. Ultimately, the cards communicate more than mere ­contact information. “These cards are our attempt to help people understand that we are all part of the problem,” Shah­neshin says, “and can all easily be part of the ­solution.”