BACKSTORY
The inspiration behind this project dates back to July 2019 when I travelled to New York to visit a factory where Credit Cards are being produced and shipped out to people all over the world.
After touring the facilities, I noticed in their boardroom that they had these large replicas of some major credit cards. They looked dope as fuck! All I could think to myself, was that I wanted one of the STACK card.
(I would never get one though)
2019 07 15 🇺🇸 Somerset, NJ | Metal Card Sample
Months later, I started prepping for the company holiday party and an idea sparked! 💡
I wanted giant STACK Cards to be props for my Photo Booth.
So the first version of the giant STACK cards was a simple foam board print out, I made at my local print shop with my guy, Raymond.
They turned out fire 🔥😍. They were great props for the photo booth and dope display pieces just chilling around the office now.
I've had some ideas of how I can improve it since..
2019 12 12 🇨🇦 Toronto, ON | STACKMAS, holding V1 Giant Cards in my photobooth
the objective
Create large replica STACK Cards utilizing different vinyl textures constructed on a piece of foam board.
Materials Used:
- Foam Board
- Specialty Vinyls
- Black Brushed Metallic (Card BG)
- Silver Brushed Metallic (Text, Symbols, Logos)
- Blue Shimmer Metallic (Card BG)
- Red Shimmer Metallic (Card BG)
- Light Blue Sparkle (Card BG)
- Dark Blue Sparkle (Card BG)
- Holographic Silver (Chip Fill, Symbols, Logos)
- Regular Vinyls
- White (Text, Symbols, Logos)
- Black (Text, Symbols, Logos)
- Red (MC Logo)
- Orange (MC Logo)
- Yellow (MC Logo)
Tools Used:
- Cutting Mat, Blade, Paper Cutter, Scissors
- Cricut Machine + Blade & Tools
- MacBook Pro
- Cricut Design Space
- Adobe Photoshop + Illustrator
2021 12 23 🇨🇦 Toronto, ON | STACK Design Studio
CREATING A PROTOTYPE
The first prototype was definitely a good learning experience. I was ambitious with what I wanted to create, but I know execution is everything. Precision was going to be key in making this card look legit. I used the Sesame card as my reference. I had been thinking about this project for a while, so I had blue sparkle vinyls ready to go. I also had the other colours I needed to create the other various elements that make up the card.
PREP WORK
- My Blue Sparkle vinyl sheet was 12" x 24", I cut it into two 12 x 12 sheets
- I decided on the max height of the card to be 11 in.
- Using Illustrator + Cricut Design Space, I prepared all the card assets as .SVG files ensuring that they all cut out at the right proportions
- I used my 12 x 12 Cricut mat and cut out the card background first
- The other assets I cut include the Mastercard logo (3 colours, 2 shapes), Chip (2 colours, 2 shapes), Logo (1 colour), Symbol (1 colour)
- Lastly, you need foam board big enough to lay on the card background vinyl
ASSEMBLY FAILURES
- I wanted the card to have coloured sides like the real card does, but my foam board was black, so I decided to wrap the foam in some gold foil paper to see what kind of effect it gives it. It looked pretty cool, but it was too messy. I knew it would be challenging to pull this off in a cleaner way.
- One of the other challenges with Vinyls is when you layer them, you can see the ridges.
- A mistake I made laying the card vinyl was not using Transfer Tape the first time around. I peeled it off directly and tried to roll it on. it ended up with SO MANY ugly imperfections. It discouraged me from continuing quite a bit.
- When I cut the foam board, I cut 4 straight lines and tried to trim the corners after - this was also a mistake.
SWITCHING UP TECHNIQUE
- After finishing the first prototype, I was not happy. The card background not laying flat bothered me. The other vinyls were easy to apply but that background just made it look so bad.
- I created a second prototype. The biggest mistakes I made in the first one was wrapping the foam board in foil, and not using transfer tape to lay out the card background vinyl. So in the second prototype, I made some adjustments. I also tried making it smaller, but realized that was unnecessary.
- Instead of trying to get that effect of the sides being coloured with the foil, I scrapped it totally.
- I used transfer tape for the card background vinyl this time and applied it directly to the foam board and rolled it flat. Came out perfectly.
- In order to retain the rounded corners, I knew I would have to cut out the corners first, before doing a straight cut along the sides. As long as I took my time and was careful, I ended up with a nicely shaped piece of Foam board with the Vinyl applied perfectly.
Mass production
- Now that my approach was solid and I had the technique down, I could prepare assets for multiple versions at the same time.
- I chose four card designs to focus on and started prepping the materials .
Materials
- Black Brushed Metallic Vinyl for Card Background
- Holographic Vinyl for Chip Fill
- Black Brushed Metallic Vinyl for Chip Outline
- Glow-in-the-dark Vinly for Contactless Symbol
- Black Vinyl for Logo
- Black Vinyl for Card Info
- Red, Orange, Yellow Vinyl for Mastercard Logo
MATERIALS
- Black Brushed Metallic Vinyl for Card Background
- Holographic Vinyl for Chip Fill
- Black Brushed Metallic Vinyl for Chip Outline
- Silver Brushed Metallic Vinyl for Logo
- Red, Orange, Yellow Vinyl for Mastercard Logo
MATERIALS
- Red Shimmer Metallic Vinyl for Card Background
- Holographic Vinyl for Chip Fill
- Black Brushed Metallic Vinyl for Chip Outline
- Holographic Vinyl for Logo
- Holographic Vinly for Mastercard Logo Fill
- Silver Brushed Metallic Vinyl Mastercard Logo Outline
MATERIALS
- Blue Shimmer Metallic Vinyl for Card Background
- Holographic Vinyl for Chip Fill
- Black Brushed Metallic Vinyl for Chip Outline
- White Vinyl for Contactless Debit Symbol
- White Vinyl for Logo
- Red, Orange, Yellow Vinly for Mastercard Logo
The Final product
- Each card has unique materials that set it apart from each other, but they all follow the same template. There is a consistency to them in build quality and materials.
- Overall, I think they turned out dope! 🔥😎
