Brian Crooks

Citi Simplicity

2006 – 2007

The Brief

Develop the branding for a credit card program that is as simple to understand as it is to use.

The Solution

As simple as they are to use, credit cards are inherently complicated. The legal and financial terms, conditions and disclaimers are enough to make most consumers dizzy. The goal of the Simplicity card was to do away with all the jargon and legalese and create a simple, straightforward program.The core color was to be white on white, pure and simple. But it also needed a little life and vitality, so I introduced a clean, bold secondary color palette. I also wanted to introduce an element of wit, so I hired illustrator Christoph Neimann to create a small library of whimsical illustrations for use on the communications. The result was an elegantly simple credit card design with the simplest legalese the Citi lawyers could muster.

Completed at Pentagram.