Credit cards are often very dull, and intentionally so. Like banks they wish to convey an impression of being solid, reliable and a bit boring.
One example of this is the American Express card, which has been essentially unchanged for about forty years. The point of this unchanging design is that the card conveys an unchanging aspect that is recognised throughout the world.
American Express sells itself as a business like credit card, or more often as a business like charge card. However even American Express now allows for some considerable variation among the cards.
Black cards are another card that tries to convey an impression of seriousness. The black cards arose from an urban rumour that there was a card that was only allowed to the global elite but which had a wide variety of extra benefits. As it was such a discrete card it was purely in black.
The only problem with this was that it did not exist. Black cards started to be introduced by American Express to take advantage of this unfounded rumour, and this was copied by VISA and MasterCard. The card was intended to be “beyond platinum”. This card was designed to offer a large number of services for a high fee. And it was meant to be unassuming, and so was black and boring.
However cards were not always designed to be boring. Gold cards were some of the first cards that were designed to stand out. These were introduced in the 1960s as a card for the highest spending and highest earning customers, offering them extra services in return for extra money. They were designed to be noticed. They started a trend for cards to be designed to be more noticed.
Store cards were another area that had a big influence on making credit cards look less boring. These cards are offered by shops. They used to be only for use within the shops, and in effect a credit account, but they started to use the VISA and MasterCard networks and became general credit cards. They were among the first cards to be offered widely and they used to be quite dull. However as branded cards, it was realised that by making them attractive then the cards could start advertising the brand.
Personalisation is a step beyond this. This is when a person can, for a fee, download a picture or other design on to their card.
