GreyCards are proposed credit cards for the Principality of Sealand, a self-declared independent state situated on a former war platform in the North Sea. The shown examples are created for a list of offshore banks – including Sealand’s national Goldrain Bank – which all share the same address in Geneva, but are operated from Montenegro. So-called ‘brass plate banks’ are often created to foster financial activities in the ‘grey zone’ between legality and illegality. The names of this strand of banks apparently recall the material value and reliability, while they represent virtual institutions. The names embossed on the cards are the actual names of the banks’ registered owners.
Biographies of the artists and groups:
Metahaven is a studio for design and research based in Amsterdam and Brussels. Since 2006 Metahaven has worked on topics such as (national) identity, networks, labour, branding and iconography, and their relation to politics and ideology. In 2008, Metahaven published the pamphlet “White Night Before a Manifesto”. Their forthcoming book, “Uncorporate Identity”, is a science fiction book about design and ideology, which will be released in Fall 2009 with Lars Müller Publishers.
