Designing a Credit Card for Millennials
(The following report is written purely from a designer’s perspective)
Have you ever looked at an object and wondered about its origin? What went into its making, how did it come into existence? At a particular point in life, I knew that everything around us is either designed or magically pulled out of vacuum by someone or some entity. But the credit cards we use today have a slightly unfamiliar story.
As a visual designer, I initially thought it’d be like designing a poster where we have to think about layouts, choose a typeface and throw in some colours. That sounded too good to be true!
At slice (a Fintech for millennials), I got an opportunity to design their first credit card. I was excited and enthusiastic as I’ve never done anything like this before. However, I was unaware of the complicated and dexterous scenarios lurking behind the curtains of credit card design.
Like every project, I started with a research phase where I collected information and images for inspiration. I was able to construct a great mood board with a bunch of cool and creative designs I found on the internet. But, what I couldn’t find was some documentation or tutorial on the lo(ooo)ng list of procedures and guidelines involved in designing the card.
Here are a few things I wish I knew when I started designing a credit card:
Concocting the Blitz
There are tons of credit cards being designed in India, but they all look alike with a lot of colour-changing gradients and broken artwork alignments. I hate to break it to you, but most of the banks in India are ignorant and apathetic while designing their credit cards. Guess what? I decided to take advantage of that situation.
“What if we design a card that is truly design-centred so that it stands out by a million miles from our competitors?” (hell YES, that would be great)
“Can we remove the magnetic stripe because it’s going obsolete?” (NO)
“Is it possible to move the placement of the EMV chip?” (strict NO)
“Is it important to show the numbers on the card because we have an app for those details?” (well no, but yes)
“Why don’t we try a vertical layout instead of a horizontal one?” (a story for another time)
I was overwhelmed with questions I thought I’d never ask.
I was able to get hold of the RBI guidelines on the card design process through certain legal parties and the answers, as usual, were disappointing. This put me in a claustrophobic situation which limited my creative interventions.
Although I conjured with many iterations, I failed miserably to please myself.
David VS Goliath
I mean VISA, Mastercard and (probably) Rupay. These are the major players in the game and everything related to credit cards revolve around them. These Giants have ordained the Gospels of Designing Credit Cards by laying down strict protocols and procedures.
It’s mandatory to preach and practice these Holy but retrograde words and follow the exact distances, sizes and colour palettes while designing a credit card. But if you’re someone like me who is prone to innovation and experimentation, I’m sure you’ll find some loopholes and negotiation leverage. For instance, the NFC(contactless) symbol that they use today comes with pre-defined dimensions and bleeding distances. But we have the liberty over its location to make it a functional part of the card’s visual design.
Moving on, keep in mind that the distances and sizes associated with their logos are considered to be religious and not to be violated.
Some of you might have already noticed a new trend in writing numbers in vertical format on cards. This layout is called the ‘Quick Read Design’ and is owned exclusively by VISA i.e. we won’t be able to use it on a Mastercard or Rupay. I’m happy that they tried something new for the first time in decades. Forza Medium and Forza Book are the fonts used for this format.
The Bank as Nemesis
Remember the last time you visited a bank? Apart from the pre-historic rituals, regulations, and procedures, most banks haven’t yet moved to the pace of 2020. This is exactly why their designs are almost identical and completely banal. Most banks are stubborn when it comes to parading their hideous, heinous, and horrendous logos especially with young startups like slice.
But that shouldn’t stop us if we have the power to negotiate with proper reasoning. Trust me, they can and will bend their guidelines if we have the patience to convince them. Just because somebody else didn’t give enough priority to design doesn’t mean it should ruin our creation.
Printing Partners, The Necessary Evil
These are the middlemen who stand between us, The Bank, and The Payment Network Giants. Before sending for approval, they might interfere and manipulate our designs. They have the worst design team in the entire universe and they make the final format of the design. The point is, make sure they're not changing any layout or colours while doing their job. Also, expect 2-3 days as turnaround time for a tiny text alignment change (in case they accidentally redesign it).
Until my visit to the printing facility, glossy and matte were the only material textures I was aware of. Turns out, there are loads more. Feel free to google the following terms later - Hot Stamp, Spot UV, Pearl and Holo-lam are the ones which are widely used. Apart from these, there are also a variety of fancy techniques you could try ranging from transparent to perfumed to glow-in-the-dark cards.
Some of them are not technically feasible when applied together, but it depends on how creatively you couple them to attach that missing flair to your design.
Customers, Mi Amigos
I don’t mean to brag, but as a designer with an artistic mind, I’m very lucky that slice caters to a young target audience. I take their help to test my conceptual designs and that’s a great way to keep falling in love with work and grow at the same time. But this doesn’t mean that we can duct tape a banana to the wall and expect the customers to fall in love with it.
Talk to them, iterate your designs and reach a middle ground where both parties are satisfied.
Most of our customers are students who do not have a credit line of their own. For them, owning a credit card is similar to being the Supreme Leader of North Korea. Our mission is not just to empower these innocent souls with the power of credit, but also to elevate their identity to the next level. We aim to build a card that can be perceived as a status symbol rather than a regular piece of plastic.
All the best!
Never let anyone change what you believe and affirm yourself that you will design a card that would revolutionise the card industry. If Apple can do it, we can too!
Keep creating.
Cheers!
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Have some thoughts on this or would want to know more? Get in touch with us at design@sliceit.com
