For a bit of a “Throw Back Thursday”, (as all the cool kids are doing on the internet these days), I thought I would share a little project I cooked up back in the summer.

My girlfriend is an avid cosplayer (as well as costume designer) and as I was making some accessories for her for Anime Expo I came upon an idea: She often has her photo taken, as many cosplayers do, and then typically exchanges business cards with the photographer in question to make it easier for them to tag her in their photos later. What if I designed and printed her something to help smooth that process?

My idea, was to design and print out a plaque that is roughly the size of a legal envelope, that had her name on it (which is the same name as her Facebook Page) as well as a QR code in the lower corner that goes to her page. Now, when she has her photos taken, she can pull it out of her bag and have them do one more quick closeup of her face holding up the sign, and when the photog is processing their pics they can easily scan the QR code or just reference the name on the card to know who she is.

For an added bit of personal touch, I did the design of the name itself in her own handwriting, by simply having her “sign” her cosplay name in my modeling software using my Intuous tablet. I printed it in two colors, a blue base (her favorite) and switched to a white filament for the raised portions to denote the border and her name. I then printed out an appropriately sized QR code, and bonded it to the sign by simply applying a layer of ModgePodge (this stuff is so amazing!) and that was it! I already have some ideas though on how I could enhance this a bit more for a Rev 2, by adding some space behind it to allow her to store some of her business cards for quick retrieval.

It’s an easy enough project that I think I might setup a process on-line to let other cosplayers order them from me as well!😉