Taxpayer Preferred Elite is a subversive design project that reimagines the form of a luxury executive credit card to reveal how corporate success is often supported by taxpayer-funded systems. The project mimics the visual language of high-end financial products such as the black American Express card, while shifting the meaning of the benefits associated with that status.
Rather than changing the familiar aesthetic of corporate finance, the design maintains cues of a premium card, including a matte-black surface, metallic-gold typography, embossed numbers, and a structured information hierarchy. Within this familiar format, the card’s “account benefits” subtly expose how corporate practices can shift labor costs and social responsibilities onto public systems.
Final mockups were created to place the design within believable contexts, including a poster composition and a social media phone display. These presentations show how the work might circulate within contemporary digital environments where viewers frequently encounter political and economic commentary.
The project was developed using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. The credit card layout was first built in Illustrator to match the structure and typography of a realistic financial card. The design was then refined in Photoshop, where lighting, metallic gradients, embossing, and shadows were applied to create the appearance of a physical luxury card.