The Smart Design suite of services provides card issuers with a quick and easy way to achieve unique card designs that are guaranteed to work well within the production process. With more than 30 years' collective experience of designing and producing cards for the financial services and telecoms sector, Oberthur Technologies has created a dedicated Smart Design team to help issuers create eye-catching front-of-wallet card designs using the latest card technologies.

Smart Design initially offers three options:

- Smart Design: Consult - consultation with fully trained design experts to ensure design agencies utilise the best manufacturing techniques.

- Smart Design: Refresh - using design expertise in combination with advanced Smart Plastics technologies, the Refresh option allows existing card designs to be updated for a fresh new look.

- Smart Design: Create - in close co-operation with issuer marketing teams, new card and fulfilment material designs are created to meet issuers' needs, whilst ensuring the design will work effectively within the production process.

The company also offers design services for other printing media, including card carriers, envelopes and inserts, as well as payment and SIM card packaging solutions, allowing financial card issuers and telecoms operators to further enhance their brand image.

Oberthur's Smart Design team offers solid experience working for international companies in the creative advertising, online media, magazine and publication as well as the card industry to guarantee a solid creative approach for the issuer's projects. Issuers will benefit from this highly skilled staff to create state-of-the-art cards from a wide range of plastic technologies including clear and coloured core cards, different shapes, as well as environmentally friendly options. The Smart Design team can ensure the card design process is not only efficient and fast, but also that banks and operators will have full compliance with the relevant standards from the outset.

"Card issuers often spend large sums of money on creating the perfect design, only to find the design is not 100% suitable for manufacturing," comments Stuart Yaxley, Head of Card Services Product Line at Oberthur Technologies. "Our Smart Design services allow issuers to get it right the first time for those critical card launches."

Smart Design is now available and further strengthens the complete end-to-end service that Oberthur Technologies offers its customers, from initial concept to distribution of the finished card.