- 27-02-2004

Auteur: Eli Vlessing

Create a new corporate and brand Identity program and a matching design system for the Korean company Hyundai Card was a challenge met by design agencies worldwide, like the American firms Landor Associates, Interbrand and Metadesign. The Holland based agency Total Identity entered the competition with what proved to be the winning strategic proposal, a simple one, but highly characteristic: Make from Hyundai Card HyundaiCard. One less space proved all the difference.

Less meant more

Create a new corporate and brand Identity program and a matching design system for the Korean company Hyundai Card was a challenge met by design agencies worldwide, like the American firms Landor Associates, Interbrand and Metadesign. The Holland based agency Total Identity entered the competition with what proved to be the winning strategic proposal, a simple one, but highly characteristic: Make from Hyundai Card HyundaiCard. One less space proved all the difference.

More than just a symbol

Hyundai Card is a Korean 'chaebol', a company that is part of the international Hyundai corporation. The company sells credit cards to - mainly - car owners. A Hyundai card offers special deals on car-related products and services like cheaper petrol, low-cost insurances, road diner discounts et cetera. The image of the Hyundai card therefore was good but at the same time branded it as 'a credit card for the Hyundai car owner'. The company wanted to diversify its target groups and aim for new clients, even clients who do not drive or own a car. This is why the company's identity had to stand out, had to have an identity of its own, one that would not be supported by the well-known Hyundai symbol: the letter 'H' in its oval shape. Hyundai card wanted a fully typographic symbol, a symbol that could serve as a company name and as a more generic brand name. At the same time the symbol had to facilitate specific brand extensions, e.g. the different credit cards for different target groups. This required a personal style for each brand extension, a unique look and feel. Brand coherence would be achieved through the consistent use of clearly recognizable design elements.

By creating a symbol that bears these features HyundaiCard now has a significant position within the Hyundai family. The strategy of not riding along with the secure and steady but minimal growth of the Hyundai brand and to choose for a highly distinctive brand was done in close consideration with the other Hyundai companies. The strategy was based on the long-term expectation that a strong HyundaiCard brand would open up new markets for Hyundai cars.

Listen carefully

HyundaiCard not only has a unique position in the Hyundai corporation, it has a similar position in the credit card 'industry' where in 2003 many credit card companies were in distress and required trillions of Korean Won from their mother corporations to secure business. Where competitors approach their clients with one proposal, HyundaiCard aims for a more focused and personal market approach. HyundaiCard chooses for individuality and personality, translated by Total identity in 'You and I': personal and in sound related to 'Hyundai'. HyundaiCard, You and I card.

The element of surprise

The visualization of the new identity of HyundaiCard is centered on the new typeface, the Youandi. This typeface is uniquely developed for HyundaiCard. An important aspect in the initial creative brief was the specific desire of HyundaiCard for a Corporate and Brand Identity with an 'interesting element'. This resulted in a design giving certain characters an 'inner shape' that exactly matched the shape and size of a credit card. Although 4 style families seemed sufficient to carry brand and brand extensions, a larger palette was developed, which has led to a typographic family of 32 typefaces. However, designing a typeface for a Korean company meant also dealing with the complexity of transferring the design to Korean 'Hangul' characters. Total Identity designed therefore the basic form of the Korean version of the Youandi to facilitate the automation of the Korean fonts. The data entry takes place in Seoul and requires at least half a year to process over 10.000 syllable characters.

Besides typography the design program also included the design of other basic elements and the need to set them down in a technical manual. This manual not only had to contain design guidelines and instructions but also a Look and Feel guide as a source of inspiration. This guide describes in word and images the desired look of HyundaiCard. The manual was an absolute must from the client. However, providing the content e.g. the technical descriptions, structure and categorization of do's and don'ts was left to the responsibility of Total Identity. Total Identity acknowledged the importance of the manual as the main source of the corporate and brand identity and saw to it that the content was consistent, complete and accurate.

Fast forward in design

The final stage of the design operation was December 2003; all work created over the past four months in print or digitally was delivered to HyundaiCard. To make sure that everyone involved in the HyundaiCard design was fully aware of the fact that the design program not only had a technical function but also had a communicative goal, an Identity Workshop was held in February 2004 in Seoul.
The enthusiastic participants had completed an entire corporate identity implementation program, in five weeks time, an achievement unimaginable in Europe given the size and impact of the operation. HyundaiCard had produced several advertorials, created and introduced four new credit cards (the fifth to be introduced in February), designed a full line of work wear, a staff magazine, implemented the entire office automation (envelopes, business cards, folders, covers et cetera), published the first product leaflets and brochures, created prototypes of illuminated signage and presented a car fleet, all tailor-made and according to the new design guidelines. Very impressive were the commercials for Korean television -the commercial that 'starred' the new HyundaiCard alphabet was striking, certainly given the limited amount of production time.

Success both ways

This gave the workshop a new perspective; rather than serving as a starting point, it was used for fine-tuning the process. Adjustments were only needed on minor details, which was proof of how HyundaiCard had managed to implement its new corporate and brand identity with success. This 'internal' success gained momentum through publications in renowned Korean Lifestyle magazines. In these articles the Dutch Design by Total Identity was also welcomed in contrast to the Korean tradition for choosing American design agencies. There were hardly any problems regarding distance, time differences, language, and culture. On the contrary, the project has been a highly valuable experience for both parties.