Need business cards quick and don’t want to skimp on sophistication? My friends at The Mandate Press (they did all my cards) are now offering these quick personalized calling cards for sale in about 10 pre-designed templates.

$95 buys you 1 box of 250 gorgeous letterpress cards. You can pay more for different paper, colored edging or rounded corners.

My favorite is this one, James Bond style, for sure.  So classy.

Related: Who the heck is The Mandate Press?

We can’t attest to the fact that Brooklyn-based illustrator Dust La Rock (a.k.a Joshua Prince) is either a gentleman or a scholar, though we certainly don’t doubt it, the least we could do is vouch for his being an absolutely awesome graphic designer. As designer-in-residence at Studio B and art director at Fool’s Gold Records and Syintific Skateboards, this extremely talented being lends his incredibly deft and imaginative eye to quite a few visual arenas. The best place to take a gander at just what beauty is in the eye of this beholder is by checking out his site. There you can revel the splendor of the oodles of web, identity, and print work that have complemented brands such as Missbehave Magazine, SeedNY and various NYC area DJ/Promoters. Dust La Rock is about to blow up, so best take cover. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

With the advent of the Internet, magazines and newspapers fought to keep their readers loyal to the paper versions. When things started looking bad they released some of it online. Now, as publishing companies start hacking and slashing to keep their print biz running during the economic crisis, some companies that sell the written word are heading the opposite way. Trip magazine in Brazil — one of the best lifestyle magazines in the country, with a few issues designed by Ray Gun magazine design pioneer David Carson — is putting the whole kit and caboodle online for free. To promote their big move they put out photocopied issues of the magazine and its female counterpart, TPM, all over metro stops and other public places, encouraging people to “Steal This Magazine”, a riff on Abby Hoffman’s famous phrase … as if the naked girls on the cover doesn’t already give you a reason to want to steal the issue. Check out the video of the campaign. The question of whether we will still pay for a magazine despite having the content for free still rages on. What’s your take on it?

In the past year MWM has given us plenty of design work to ooh and aah over. We’re not sure if he plans on taking 2009 off, but if he wants to, he’s welcome to. The Vermont based ex-agency man and Spear favorite has just unleashed “Cycles & Seasons”, his limited-edition four poster calendar collection for the coming year. Each print is representative of a season and uses a color scheme relative to the Spring, Summer, Autumn, or Winter. Each image is printed in a vibrant indigo press print on heavyweight poster paper and is only available at the MWM Graphics Online Shop. There’s only 100 sets, so act fast and don’t leave 2008 without it.

We aren’t telling you what the blank stands for and neither is Fred Terral, the designer of this great new print “____ The Planet.” The idea is that you have to make that decision, rather your actions make the decision. Obviously, politics have been swimming around our heads as much as anyone lately, so we keep finding ourselves at the Alternative Motivational Poster website for our inspiration (especially during the RNC). Have a look at some really great prints with a progressive message and cheap prices. And just because it wouldn’t be appropriate otherwise, everything from the ink to the tube used for postage is made from environmentally responsible products.

It seems like it was just the other day we were talking about Si Scotts, but if you are looking for something other than playing cards, the FUSShop has just added new print, ‘Hype Type', to their already robust collection of Si Scott prints. Just to give a reminder, these illustratons are hand-drawn, i.e. no Adobe. Just good ol' pen and paper produce these elegant black and white images. His fusion of illustration and typeface has gained him notarity and his work is becoming increasingly sought after, just ask Nike Europe and the BBC. This time it is going to run you a little more than the $6 playing cards — the prints are £59.99 and are limited to 100. Also, if you happen to be in Chicago over the next month be sure to check out his exhibition at the Threadless Gallery.