Best Western Hotels Co-Branded Visa Signature® Credit Cards
In 2024 I was tasked with designing two Visa Signature® Credit Cards for Best Western Hotels, one of Mercury’s co-branded partners. Both cards allowed customers to engage in Best Western’s loyalty programs and accrue points to redeem at BWH hotels.
From a design standpoint, the greatest challenges were a) visually differentiating between the premium card (fee) and base card (no fee) without visually cheapening the base card’s design, b)
First Drafts
In the early drafts, I was encouraged to align closely to our primary brand colors (sky blue, energetic green, deep purple, and charcoal grey) as well as consider printing applications to increase the desirability of the physical card product.
Core colors, spot varnish, and texture effects were strategically chosen to beckon the user to choose our card in a moment’s decision (the ‘moment of truth’ as marketing called it).
Final Drafts
As previously mentioned, these design drafts were created concurrently with the rebrand initiative. Just as the core brand development informed card design choices, the leadership team and I were able to determine rules that influenced branding limitations (for example, that brand colors could not be mixed or used to create gradients).
For the final draft, the visual direction was refined to prominently feature new purple tones that were added to Mercury’s core brand color palette and spotlight the new shorthand logo.
Final Card
After nearly a year of designing and planning, it was an exciting milestone to hold this card in our hands and watch it usher Mercury’s brand into a new era.