Virgin Money: Rebranding Credit Cards

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Virgin Money

Credit and Debit Card Design

Modernising the design of Virgin Money credit and debit cards in Australia.

In 2021, Propella, in partnership with North Collective were approached to create a new look and feel for Virgin Money credit cards in Australia. The original card designs had three problems; first, the designs used generic financial imagery; second, the Virgin brand elements were used poorly; and third, the credit card sector had undergone significant innovation in terms of design and Virgin Money’s cards were looking lacklustre in comparison. Our approach included a comprehensive examination of the credit card industry and exploration of design solutions for the cards, the Virgin Money app, merchandise, advertising and collateral material.

Research and Immersion:

The Virgin brand

Virgin is a globally recognised brand with interests across many industries. Founded as a record store by Richard Branson and Nik Powell in the 1970s, Virgin diversified across software, airlines, holidays, drinks and even condoms throughout the 1980s and 90s. The success of the brand can be largely attributed to the energy and entrepreneurial instinct of Richard Branson who promoted Virgin as a ‘champion of the people’ to challenge deeply entrenched institutions, such as British Airways and Coca-Cola.

Recapture the ‘challenger’ status

Virgin is a global business, but it is still thought of as an exciting challenger brand, with ventures such as Virgin Galactic, or Hyperloop One helping to maintain this perception. However, when dealing within slightly less than exciting industries like financial services it’s very easy to erode this position if your design does not challenge.

With a far from optimal use of core Virgin brand equities (such as the use of red or the ‘signature’ typography) the original Virgin Money card designs did little to challenge financial visual clichés. The identity was used as a ‘badge’ set against traditional financial ‘swoosh’ graphics and bank note texturing. It was only the Virgin name which gave them a point of difference.

A move towards minimalism

Design in financial services is changing rapidly, especially when it comes to the design of credit and debit cards. These small plastic rectangles are on our person wherever we go, either physically or digitally and the credit company and card design we select makes a statement about how we want others to see us. Traditionally, these statements revolved around messages of prestige, wealth or exclusivity; with black, platinum, gold cards. Whilst prestige is still relevant today, people want more than just indictors of wealth. They want to be seen as ‘individuals’, being ‘different’, having ‘good taste’ or being part of a social cause. The examples below offer a snap-shot of modern card design which eschew traditional symbols of money (such as the ‘scrolling’ one would see on banknotes). Instead, they are influenced by minimalism and simplicity.

Customer demographics

Each Virgin Money card is aimed at satisfying the needs of different groups of people at different stages in their lives, with different backgrounds, jobs and financial needs. We identified six customer groups for each of the existing Virgin Money cards, developing visual mood boards to illustrate their lives and interests. The first three card groups; Signature, Platinum and No Annual Fee were distinctly positioned from each other. Whereas the visualisation of the customer for the Transaction, Low Rate and Loan companion cards overlapped one another.

Segmentation through style

Our goal was to challenge the traditional card design conventions (where appropriate) and make the Virgin Money cards contemporary as possible within the Virgin brand guidelines. Our first step with design was to create stylescapes (or mood-boards) for each of the four categories by visualising the style and finishes we wished to achieve across each card. Once established we could create ideas which would bring everything to life.

The new brand idea

‘Giving a big tick to your spending’

Our big idea was to leverage the distinctive “V” from the Virgin logotype to use as the key graphic across all card types. This graphic resembles a ‘tick’ suggesting that Virgin Money is the best card choice. The Virgin Money logo is placed at the elbow of the V against a holographic metallic radial to add movement and drama. The device could be used and animated in a variety of ways, such as ticking off items in a shopping list or for successfully completing a financial goal or task.