01
Navy. Embossed. One gold chip. The object had to carry the frame alone.
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01 / 08 · CaseCommercial Bank of Qatar · FIFA World Cup Card2022
Commercial Bank of Qatar — Identity & Launch
A credit card built for a country hosting the world.
Art Direction · System · Motion
02 / 08Context
CBQ came to us nine months before FIFA World Cup 2022 — not with a campaign brief, but with a product. A limited-edition payment card tied to the most-watched sporting event in history, issued to priority customers and the arriving global traveler.
The problem wasn't awareness. Qatar was about to receive a million visitors and every brand in the country was shouting. The problem was making a piece of plastic feel like it belonged in that moment — a credential that read as a cultural object, not a loyalty promo.
ClientCommercial Bank of Qatar
RoleArt Direction · System Design · Motion
Year2022
IndustryFinancial Services
ScopeProduct identity, launch campaign, digital onboarding, OOH, in-branch
PartnersCBQ brand team · FIFA rights
03 / 08Constraints
What this had to hold.
A co-branded lockup with FIFA's official partner mark, where neither brand was allowed to dominate the other.
Arabic and English set with equal optical weight — on the card, in digital onboarding, and across every OOH surface.
FIFA asset governance: zero tolerance on mark misuse, three-week approval cycles, no post-launch flexibility.
A system that held from a 3.5mm embossed chip to a 48-sheet OOH — the same brand readable at both extremes.
Nine months from approval to rollout across 32 branches, two airports, and three broadcast windows.
04 / 08
A card is usually a banking product.For this launch, it had to feel like a cultural artifact.
05 / 08System
Mark treatment
Co-primary. 1:1. No hierarchy.
Both marks sit at equal optical weight. A 1-pixel rule between them becomes the third brand element — not a divider, a hinge. Neither logo surrenders hierarchy at any scale, from embossed chip to 48-sheet.
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Typography
Two scripts, one voice.
Neue Haas Grotesk + 29LT Zarid Sans. Matched x-heights and optical weights.
Colour
Gold as accent, never field.
CBQ navy as anchor, field color, and voice. FIFA gold capped at 8% usage — applied to the chip, the rule, the callout. The constraint kept the card from reading as commemorative coinage.
Motion principle
Move like a pass.
Every transition runs on the rhythm of a ball pass: 240ms in, 340ms out. Named the "pass curve" in the system documentation so the in-house team could extend it after we handed off.
Grid
Non-negotiable breathing room.
A 12-column grid with a 4mm horizontal inset reserved for bilingual parity. Removed the temptation to squeeze Arabic to fit English — the single most frequent failure of bilingual banking collateral in the region.
06 / 08Execution
02
Arabic left, English right — identical weight. Shown side-by-side as proof of parity.
Interlude
Every bilingual bank decision comes down to the same question: whose script sets the rhythm? The card had to refuse that question by answering it twice.
03
In-branch takeover — the brand applied as architecture, not wallpaper. Wayfinding, teller banners, welcome threshold.
04
Digital onboarding — same rhythm across iOS and Android. Platform-native only where it helped the user.
07 / 08Rollout
32Branches
4Airport activations
3Broadcast cuts
2Scripts · 1 voice
08 / 08Outcome
What held.
- The system became CBQ's template for co-branded products.
- The governance document has run in-house, unchanged, since launch.
- The lockup rule remains the house standard for partnership collateral.
- The card's bilingual parity set the bar for every CBQ launch that followed.
Art DirectionYazan Urabi
Year2022
Next casePerfect Collection02 · Brand Identity · Packaging · 2025