New Orleans Entrepreneur Week may be digitally focused, but old-fashioned paper business cards are its coins of the realm. So we set out to see what entrepreneurs are doing these days in terms of hand-outs. Check it out over the next few days as we spotlight start-ups attending NOEW and discuss how they deal their cards.
Ariya founder Linsey Lamba (photo: Renee Peck)
The biz: Ariya Apothecary
The entrepreneur: Linsey Lamba
The card: Diminutive, with a product photo on one side and pertinent info on the other, including a stylized circle logo.
(Photo: Renee Peck)
The backstory: When Linsey moved from Seattle to New Orleans three years ago for her husband’s medical residency, she kept her job at Microsoft and commuted to the West Coast. It was stressful, and her skin “freaked out.” She began experimenting with skin tonics using essential oils and natural ingredients not unlike those her parents had grown up with as former Fiji islanders. Friends began asking for her wares, and a skincare company was born. The company launched last year with an anti-aging lavender face serum.
The logo: Linsey went digital for design help, soliciting the logo from Fiverr and the cards from moo.com. “I told them, this is what the brand represents; it’s about simplicity and being natural.” Her stylized sprig (it looks a little like an angel with floating wings) and hand-lettered type conveyed the message. She chose a skinny card, half the usual business size, because “it’s unique.” Why the circle to embrace the logo? “I’m not sure why, but I’m attracted to the form aesthetically. I just like circles.”
(Photo: Renee Peck)
The biz: Cleargistix
The entrepreneur: Rick Honsberger
The card: Sans serif type in a radiant blue with the emphasis on the “tix”
The backstory: The 5-year-old company replaces any paper ticket with a digital version that tracks workflow, revenue, job dispatch and the like. It began with the New Orleans tug and tow crowd and has since branched out into other areas. “Our niche is that we can do any type of paper ticket,” says Rick.
The logo: “It’s a combination of clarity and logistics, with a little word play.” The blue square behind the “tix” highlights the digital product.
Palette: “We chose the blue as an executive team, but I don’t remember why. We just liked it.”
New Orleans Entrepreneur Week continues through March 24 at the Contemporary Arts Center and Ogden Museum of Southern Art. The “Mardi Gras of entrepreneurship,” as USA Today called it, started in New Orleans in 2009 and is produced annually by The Idea Village. Check it out at noew.org.
NOLAbeings Multimedia artist Claire Bangser created NOLAbeings as a portrait-based story project that marries... 
Voodoo in New Orleans: Reviving history: New Orleans fortune telling This article takes a deep dive into the history of Voodoo in New Orleans, its hybridization with Catholicism, and its present-day place in the city's culture. The author visits fortune-tellers in the French Quarter, using their guidance as a tool for introspection rather than a deterministic predictor of the future. Through her experiences in New Orleans, the author feels a mystical connection to both the past and the future. 