Credit Card Design and Production

This project was completed during my employment at Barclaycard. My role was Lead Designer, and I worked with the Choice Privileges Brand team, in addition to their separate legal team. I was guided through the process by our in-house Creative Director. I re-designed the credit card, and saw the entire process through to production. I worked alongside the credit card printing company, participating in several proof tests, and on-site approval of the final press check. The entire process resulted in the successful printing of over 100,000 cards.

The catalyst for this project was the re-design of Choice Privileges brand identity (which was done by Choice, in-house). Because they had a new logo and style rules, a new credit card needed to be designed. Using the brand style guide, I created dozens of card designs making mock-ups in Illustrator and Photoshop. The colors of the identity are reflected in the orange core of the card, the pearlescent white top, that features a spot gloss varnish. The card bottom features a metallic coating with a matte finish. The sub-brand logos, of all hotel chains that make-up the Choice Privileges network, are screened in white set within the curve of the front. And on the back, each sub-brand logo is printed in full color.

The sub-brand logos were a particularly challenging point for this design problem. We had to find a delicate compromise between Choices’ brand team, and their legal team. The brand team, accordingly to the new guidelines required the sub-brand logos not be displayed on the front of the card (their old card had them displayed on the front). However, the legal team required the exact opposite — they needed the logos on the front. My solution was to display the logos on the front, but in a textural manner. The logos are small, screened in white, set within a visual element. These logos read more as visual texture and less as brand logos. The full color sub-brand logos were printed on the back of the card — the first time we had ever printed full color on the back of a card. This was a clever solution to this problem, and satisfied the legal and brand requirements.

This was a unique design project because I had never worked within this medium before. The challenge of solving a unique problem by finding a compromise between two different clients (Choice brand team, Choice legal team). Working with the credit card manufacturer was particularly interesting because I was able to learn about the unique process of producing credit cards. The approval sign-off of the credit cards determined the success of 100,000’s of cards — so, it had to be absolutely final and perfect. It was. The whole process was very rewarding and educational. Although I don’t typically work on designing credit cards — the medium isn’t important — this project was all about problem solving, and working with disparate teams to find compromise.