In December of 1999, I was trying to think of Christmas gifts for most of my friends. I had, naturally, waited until the last minute, and didn't have tons of money, so I was trying to think of something that I could make myself, that would still be cool. For a while, I was pretty keen on the idea of knitting sweaters for everyone, until, in a flash of inspiration, I decided to make personalized ID cards, based on the "International Man of Mystery" theme I had used for the AUS election a few months prior.

My IMoM ID Card (actual size) (click for closeup)

I took the 'posing silhouette' figure from the right side of my Brook Jones: International Man of Mystery logo (strongly influenced by the posing silhouette of Austin Powers in the logo of that film) and used that as the background of the ID cards. Both the Union Jack colours and the modern, clean, sans serif typography (including the thereafter standard IMoM typeface, Bell Gothic Black) were conscious efforts on my part to evoke the sense of a modern British institution. The "Agent #00[etc.]" notation should be obvious enough. My own codename, 00BEHAVE, comes from the video to the Madonna song 'Beautiful Stranger', which she wrote for the second Austin Powers film. In the prologue to the music video, Basil Exposition warns Austin that his target (Madonna) has already disposed of Agents 006 and 008. Austin replies "Well, then, this sounds like a job for double-oh-behave!".

I used photos from my personal collection for the cards, attempting in general to get as mysterious and appropriate a shot as possible of each agent. Luckily, our high school graduation formal dance had only been a few months prior, so tux-and-bow-tie photos were in abundance. Every agent's codename reflects an important personal trait or quality unique to them.

After I'd designed them all, I printed them out, used a business-card-sized laminator to plastic-coat them, and then went round and delivered them Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas everyone, from Brook!

Here are the original 13 IMoM cards (click to enlarge).

I have also since added seven more IMoMs to the official roster...
NOTE: With 00TABLES, the most recent recruit, I experimented with a slightly narrower card to accomodate a different style of lamination sleeve, so that the cards will fit better in wallets.