Bank Card Design Goes Vertical.

You may think of bank cards as being somewhat lacking in design creativity, and that perhaps the biggest development they have seen in previous years came in the ability to personalise with your own image.

Banking service start-up Tide have recognised an area lacking in design innovation and have swiftly revealed its new logo and a vertical card design that steers away from the traditional landscape layout that we’ve all become so accustomed to.

The tide design team studied the way that people interact with their banking cards and I think it could well lead to other banks following suit. “How we insert them into ATMs when withdrawing cash, how we slot them into terminals when making payments and how many of us carry our cards in a holder in the back of our mobile phones” are all considerations that have led to the design the company have gone for.

The card, which also has the cardholder’s name and other details on its back face, leaves the front surface nice and clean to improve security, as it keeps the personal data on the reverse. The logo, made by creative agency Article, comprises a circle enclosing a swell to symbolize “the ebbing and flowing of time.”

We wonder whether this observational design idea will inspire other card companies to consider the way cards are used. We may also see other designers taking a leaf from Tide’s book to consider how individuals are using other traditional designed assets to consider how they could be better visualised.