A few prototypes later...

...eTUI is born. Since the first change for the closing mechanism, i changed the system again. Without a larger faceplate at the top it just did not look right. A few of the prototypes also had some stability issues when opened/closed too often. The now final design looks like a traditional sheath and should be sturdy enough to be used quite a while.

This picture shows a template prototype i created for a friend. You can see the closing mechanism which is a flap you insert into the sheath. The whole top cover has additional flaps for stability inside. The opening at the top body part doubles as part of the closing mechanism and is used to be able to remove business cards with ease from the sheath with your thumb. There are a few other tiny things that are adding to the usability, I'll explain when i release the template.

The use for the sheath is to customize it as a gift for people, to pose as a sheath if you have to handle more then one type of card (eg. personal & company) and in addition i see a great use for them if you hand out stacks of your cards to people in your network. I don't know about you, but i keep small stacks of business cards from people i trust because of their good work and/or work together with often. So if someone asks me about someone to do a certain task, i can hand out cards from others to advertise their work. In my opinion this adds more value to the reference then just naming a website. Shouldn't it be great if you can hand out your cards in a nice sheath? Will make it even easier for others to advertise you.