A while back I was surfing through some pages about business cards when I came across a clip from American Psycho in which the main character Patrick Bateman is comparing business cards. If you haven’t seen the film or read the book, Bateman is a killer with an MBA and an unfulfilling job in upper management. Despite his lack of interest in his work, he is very imaging conscious and stresses over the approval of his peers. This is a sentiment that many of us in the fields of marketing and design can relate to.

At first glance all of the cards appear unimaginative and corporate standard. The differences come in nuances of background color and typeface. The colors are as similar as bone and egg shell, but one card stands out. While the others differentiate with more fashionable typefaces or raised lettering, Paul Allen’s has a watermark. The watermark doesn’t stand out at a distance but up close it’s something truly special within the confines of the otherwise bland corporate format.

There is a lesson to be learned here about the power of subtlety. A small difference in style or presentation can go miles to set you apart. Appreciation for nuance also says a lot about you a designer or marketing professional, it lets customers know that you will pay attention to them and their project.

Roundup: Small details = Differentiation, Detail orientation speaks volumes