I think this may be for @Hugo but I am not sure - but over the past few days I have received a lot of comments from staff in shops about the card colour specifically. It was mostly young women in their 20s- but they “love the colour” , “OMG! That’s so cool!” , “Where did you get that?” have all occurred.
I’m protonopic so maybe I am not seeing the big splashy colour that they are! I do have a slight problem with reading the numbers on the alpha card - and my colour blind phone helper app tells me it borders pink and peach. I think it’s the same problem I have with the red and white Santander card with white numbers. So maybe something small to bear in mind. White numbers are hard when paired w tonal reds/pinks for some people. That said you seem to have hit a sweet spot- so don’t fix what’s clearly having a positive impact!
I know design is a big part of brand and it can get lost in the drive for tech and performance. So I thought I would just share all the good buzz with you.
The fact that the numbers are difficult to read is totally true and we are aware of it. We tried to make them white but we had problems with the paint wearing off too fast, so we decided to leave them “naked” at least for the first lot.
Part of the “alpha” purpose is for us to learn how to produce beautiful and 100% functional cards so we’re already learning and thinking on improvements thanks to this amazing kind of messages. We’ll keep in mind your protanopia and doublecheck with you the next card designs if you don’t mind.
Let me ask you about the app. Any difficult contrast or confusing colour so far? (We check every screen with colour-blind testing software to ensure proper contrast but it’s always better to check with real users
As for the app- there is nothing difficult for me. My thinking is because of the clean white backgrounds and also when you do seem to use red (I asked my partner to help me just now)- your kerning and spacing is perfect to prevent and “bleed” or “active blurring” of the font into the background.
(For a reference of what I mean: Virgin Atlantic, while being a cool brand, is a nightmare for me. All that white text on red!)
The only little thing is some of the company logos that employ red (like Costa) just appear as blocks for me. But that’s no big deal as the names are clear in the “Mondo Flow”.
I don’t have access to spending charts yet- so I Will let you know as those unlock.
I like the colour, I also like the patterned design of the card on your main website. The coral card is starting to rub it’s ink tho if you look closely enough. They’re white cards with the image printed on it seems, I hope this is just for the Alpha.
Yes, the card itself is white and we print coral on top of it. Some manufacturers produce coloured cards (the actual plastic I mean) but apparently that’s not compatible with the contactless mechanism.
Anyway, this is what the alpha is about, finding problems and try to improve for the beta phase
Yeah, it’s amazing how many people love our cards. At least during the alpha and beta phases we’re definitely staying with the neon minimal cards while learning more about how they degrade inside people’s wallets, etc.
People love the colour, my five year old daughter really wants one!
Also I am fairly brutal with my card, putting it in my pocket with keys, leaving it on desks, throwing it in my bag and dragging it across card readers and TFL contact points. So far it seems reasonably hard wearing, even the ALPHA embossing on the front hasn’t scratched yet, much to my surprise.
The only comment I have had so far was from an elderly shop assistant wearing glasses who complained bitterly about reading signatures from the back of MasterCards where the multi-coloured MasterCard text heavily underlies the signature rendering it difficult to read. In the end I just showed her how to use contactless, saving her from having to read my terrible signature scrawl on the MasterCard signature strip
I’ve had several people in the last few days all comment on the card, including at a restaurant and the reception at my gym . Definitely a popular shade!
Only minor comment is how the shiny ‘ALPHA’ lamination on the front of card is wearing slightly, and discolouring as it gets stuff stuck to it
Love the clean look of the card but I’m a boring person who doesn’t particularly like bright colours (except the album of that name is great). The colour certainly does get people talking though!
I do really like the look of the card on the front page of getmondo.co.uk but I would rather have a card that looks acceptable for the entire duration of its validity than one that rubs off or falls apart within the year (hi Virgin Money and older style Barclays cards).
As for Apple Pay (and Android Pay if they ever figure out their massive security risks), that artwork can look really nice without worrying about the physical challenges. Unsure as to what the policies are behind that though and you’d want it to be somewhat consistent with the physical card anyway, I only know how it works on the device.
I had trouble reading the numbers on the card. In fact (don’t tell anyone) I ended up taking a photo of the card so that I could enlarge the image on my phone… and then type it in.
. Definitely a popular shade!