File this under that ever-expanding ‘Why Didn’t I Think Of That?’ pile: Swedish travel and lifestyle photographer Jens Lennartsson was feeling like he wanted to get a little more attention from potential agency clients, so rather than going the traditional route and creating ‘the mother of all business cards’, he omitted the card altogether and went straight for a friggin’ action figure: the GI Jens.

‘Something That People Would Keep on Their Desk’

Packaged to look like a traditional action figure toy, the outer box appropriately describes Jens as “The Amazing World Exploring Travel and Lifestyle Photographer” and includes ‘features’ ranging from ‘really good camera’ to ‘loved by 9 out of 10 art directors’. Just to be safe, Jens also includes a more traditional portfolio within the box as a sort of ‘instruction booklet’ that highlights his various travel and industry work.

In order to make the figurine, Jens and his small crew posted a job description to Alibaba in order to find the right manufacturer. After sending pictures of Jens from multiple angles, the manufacturer crafted a clay prototype and after three months, Jens gave the green light to manufacture a collection of 400 Jens clones:

According to Jens, his reasonings for creating the action figure as a replacement to the traditional business card and portfolio route are because he wanted to provide something that people would keep on their desk, something that people would want to share with others, and present what his brand of photography is all about (raw and real with very little Photoshop). It’s hard to argue that anything other than a GI Jens action figure could have suited the bill more effectively.

Are we going to be seeing some 3D scanned and printed copycats in the near future?

For more info on Jens and his project, head over to his blog.

(Images via Jens Lennartsson)