SAPPHIRE.
SLATE.
INK.
& LIQUID.

Late Summer 2007. Chase needed names for a luxury credit card to compete in the premium space. The request went company-wide. Most people ignored it. But I saw an opportunity. Not just to name a card — to understand what Chase could be. I stayed late. Researched the bank's history back to 1799, when it started as the Bank of the Manhattan Company. Studied Chermayeff & Geismar's logo — inspired by a Chinese coin, with cuts that looked like a gem. Chase already owned blue. But what if blue wasn't a color? What if it was a material?

Blue isn't a color. It's a material. Sapphire. Slate. Liquid. Each name represented a different material with different properties. Sapphire: precious, weighted, luxurious. Slate: buildable, manageable, elegant but accessible. Liquid: fluid, adaptable. INK came later from Janet Lee — business owners making their mark, writing their own rules. Bill Borrelle said it was the best naming work he'd seen. But the insight didn't stop at naming. If we're calling it Sapphire, shouldn't it feel like a precious material? Jason Borzouyeh and I pushed for a complete card redesign: numbers on the back, metal construction for weight, cut corners echoing sapphire facets and the Chase octagon. The first NFC-enabled metal cards that still worked in ATMs. I still have the initial prototypes.

I took the train alone from NYC to Chase HQ. One-on-one presentation to Gordon Smith, CEO of Chase Card Services. For Sapphire, we revolutionized credit card design — metal, weight, cut corners, NFC compatibility. For Slate, Thomas Moon and I created a vertical card design that literally stood out, with built-in tools to "slate" your payments. When I presented it to Gordon, he immediately got it: "I just retiled my bathroom with slate." For INK, Janet Lee designed the fluid ink-like deep blue custom logo type and the card itself — organic, making your mark. For Liquid, the name waited years from my original list before launching as a cash card. I stewarded these brands for three years. Writing guidelines, managing designers, building the visual language. Campaigns come and go. The core remains.

2009: First year. 90% satisfaction. 85% would recommend. Chase had 15% of a segment controlling half of all credit card spending. Sapphire changed the math.

2011: Sapphire Preferred. Metal core. The "thunk." The format we designed became the industry template.

2016: Sapphire Reserve. My recommendation before I left. Ran out of metal in ten days. "The world's first viral credit card."

2025: Claudia Schiffer. Hailey Bieber. Oversized Sapphires held like fashion clutches. Sixteen years later, the names survive.

Naming was my secret weapon. I left that world. But it followed me everywhere I went.