HSBC rolls out new “simplified” bank card design
The global bank has rolled out a single design across all of its credit, debit and ATM cards in 30 countries, in order to “unify” its products and make them less “complex”.
HSBC has redesigned all of its credit, debit and ATM cards with a new visual identity, in a bid to “unify” its card portfolio across the world.
The new design will roll out in over 30 countries, and has been created by Hong Kong-based brand design consultancy Shift.
It features the lion synonymous with HSBC, which has been “interpreted authentically” in pixelated form, says Shift. The lion is a symbol that resonates with HSBC, and sits at the entrance of the global bank’s headquarters in Hong Kong and within its offices worldwide.
The cards also use a palette of colours including several shades of silver, gold, purple and red, which indicate different card types such as debit, credit or ATM (cards which allow customers to take money out of cash machines but not make direct store purchases).
The visual system aims to “cut through the complexity” of HSBC’s card portfolio, and “simplify” it through a single design.
Shift has also designed digital versions of the card-fronts, to be used across mobile platforms such as Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay, which aim to create a consistent brand “from wallets to smartphones and wearables” and “maximise impact”, says Zoran Svetlicic, partner at Shift.
HSBC claims this is the “first time” a global bank has unified its cards through a single design, with global head of retail banking marketing Audrey Wong adding that cards are “the most visible asset of [HSBC’s] brand”.
“Our purpose…was to unify, streamline and contemporise our card portfolio worldwide, while setting it apart from others by using an iconic symbol of the bank,” he says.
The redesigned cards will roll out from this year onwards to new HSBC customers, and those who need cards replaced.
The new HSBC lion design cards are lovely. Can’t wait to get my new lion design Premier Debit and Credit cards in 5 days time!
I get the common theme idea. Its good. But the cards are too similar….
The ‘high end’ cards look too similiar to the basic ones which undermines the product.
The basic card should be white with the red lion design, the advance should be silver with the red lion. The premier should be all black and the private card should be black with a gold lion.
What was the rationale behind the colour choices?
Advance and Premier are too close in appearance for such different products. Premier doesnt have any cache.
“The cards also use a palette of colours […] which indicate different card types”.
Sadly HSBC fail to use this palette. Since this redesign, I now have a debit card and credit card which are identical colours, except for the words ‘Debit’ and ‘Credit’.
It’s hugely unhelpful to have different cards looking identical, so the fancy designs described in this article seem worthless.
from a design perspective, lovely. from a practical perspective they’re a disaster. They are so similar one cannot easily differentiate which card is for which account. Terrible idea for the customer. HSBC need to re-think