Where to get tons of ID card with lanyards (in Reykjavik)

April 15, 2016 3:01 PM

I need between 50 and 100 ID card lanyards, and ID cards, preferably all of them looking different. It's for one person looking like a scarecrow of IDs, he's helplessly overloaded by lanyards and cards. So they all have to be a bit different.

Difficulty level: I'm in Reykjavik, Iceland, and I need them very now. Can find them on Amazon, could order different packs of 10-50s, but there "is a slight problem" with my order, as in, does not ship. Or if, takes forever. What kind of stores should I go to? If anyone speaks Icelandic, what is this called locally, for googling here?

So far, I have managed to bewilder half of Reykjavik and they all are super friendly but dead ends. I'm considering making them myself somehow. What kind of stores then? But there's this thing with the "branded" necklaces (with printed words on the fabric). Its really tricky to fake this?

Help? It's for art, not heists!

posted by gmm to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

Do you know any academics, especially scientists? Because I always seem to have a zillion of these things from conferences that somehow I can't bring myself to throw out yet have zero need for.
posted by grouse at 3:05 PM on April 15, 2016 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I used to work for a TV show that sometimes needed to achieve this "has a lot of different IDs" effect with props, or more occasionally, "I need 30 ID cards for all the background actors at the hospital set" type stuff. Here's how we did it.

Use photoshop to design and put names/photos in as many IDs as you need. Print the IDs on paper.

From here there are two options depending on what the card needs to look like:

1. slip the paper "ID card" into one of these plastic protectors, attach lanyard, done and done.

2. laminate the paper "ID card" with a laminating machine, punch a hole, attach lanyard, done and done.

All of the necessary supplies (laminating supplies, plastic ID card protectors, simple black lanyards) would be available at any American office supply store. I'm less confident about what would be available at an Icelandic office supply store, but assuming Icelanding workplaces often require IDs and lanyards, at least the plastic protectors and lanyards should be readily available. Can't speak to laminating supplies in Iceland.
posted by Sara C. at 3:15 PM on April 15, 2016 [1 favorite]

Well, this is a mildly crazy plan, but reporters are crazy also --- besides academics, another profession that tends to accumulate tons of lanyards are journalists. Iceland's not that big. Maybe try tweeting at the accounts of the big newspapers in Iceland and ask if their journalists would be willing to give over their old press passes for your project? Could be a fun story for them. Every journalist I've ever met usually had at least a half-dozen expired press passes lurking somewhere around their desk. Hit up one newspaper you could probably snag a couple dozen easy.
posted by Diablevert at 3:33 PM on April 15, 2016 [2 favorites]

Or snag pictures of them to replicate. I keep my badges - memories!
posted by tilde at 4:06 PM on April 15, 2016

Response by poster: Thanks everyone, everywhere - all options possible, but simplest (and fastest) solution was to fake it, at least for distance shots. Will still try to get real ones for close-ups, through variations of everyone's suggestions.
posted by gmm at 3:33 PM on April 16, 2016