Optimus Cards Group is a fantastic, niche B2B service company based in England that offers a great example of how business needs exist that consumers would never think of. In their case, Optimus Cards addresses a longstanding problem that credit unions in the UK and Ireland face: they are usually too small to have their own debit cards.
Though it would never occur to most of us, debit cards rely on a complex ecosystem of transaction processors, funding agreements, settlement structures, gateways and more. Each of those puzzle pieces is operated by a company that requires a minimum volume of transactions, which small credit unions can’t even approach. Thus, they frequently rely on the less desirable prepaid card scheme, which requires refilling and which is not universally accepted at merchants.
Optimus solves this problem by establishing their own ecosystem relationships, and then aggregating multiple credit unions under their banner to achieve the necessary volumes. It’s like a union, except instead of collective bargaining agreements, they band together for a complex financial infrastructure that allows them to have the exact same debit card operations as the big banks. Credit unions are happy, and their members are thrilled.
As part of the startup marketing projects Optimus brought us on for, we designed a logo and brand guide for the new company. The chosen logo is clean, and symbolic of the company’s services as one ring overlaps the other and takes it further. The color scheme allows the brand to be at once professional and eye-catching, and works amazingly well on large-format and printed materials. We also established three very sharp brand fonts (two for official materials, and one web-safe one for when those fonts aren’t available) and a basic guide of how to use the elements.
On top of that, we sourced and customized a series of stock photos that are part of the brand’s official graphic collection, creating a starter library for their use moving forward.
