Soon after Fort Financial Credit Union (FFCU) went through a brand and identity study, they approached Assistant Professor of Graphic Design Alan Nauts (BA ’82, MA ’06) about a credit card redesign project. Nauts eagerly agreed to this challenging project encompassing all the FFCU debit and credit cards—six in all. He turned this business-world proposal into the class project for his senior designers.

FFCU Marketing Manager Amy Hart presented the project requirements including the new logo, colors for their brand and brand guide to the students. A challenge for the students was coordinating the six different designs as a branded suite, in addition to following the new brand standards.

The students developed thumbnails and rough designs that they presented to Hart, who took them back to her team for review. Hart was able to request changes for the final designs based on what the selection committee required.

After reviewing all the design concepts presented by the students, Fort Financial chose to implement card designs created by Katie Slick (BA ’21) of Fort Wayne, general manager at Eli Harp Group, LLC of Fort Wayne.



“This was a fun project for our students to complete. In addition to giving them real-life experience working with a client, Katie’s designs will be in the hands of thousands of Fort Financial members for years to come,” Nauts said.

“The senior graphic design students did an impressive job with our credit card design project. They were very insightful, professional and creative,” Hart said. The many strong designs which incorporated the new FFCU logo and brand made the final choice a tough decision, but the collaboration was enjoyable for both sides.

FFCU members started seeing the new design on their debit and credit cards on December 15, 2021, and new cards are issued with Slick’s design. FFCU has more than 25,000 members in multiple states. Anyone carrying an FFCU credit card has a visually engaging and colorful design with a USF connection.