When an Idea Became a Factory
The defining moment of my career so far — when I saw the wooden card, which at first existed only in my head, become industrial reality. A teaser; the full story follows.
There are moments when four years of work collapse into a single image. For me, it was a video: a nearly 30-tonne laminator being lowered by a heavy-duty crane through a purpose-built roof hatch into a production hall. This machine exists for one reason alone — to press wood veneers into cards. Into the wooden card. Into an idea that, four years earlier, existed only in my head.
What is the wooden card?
In short: a payment card made from real wood — sustainable, biodegradable and still premium. Instead of plastic, a natural, local raw material, at one of the most important touchpoints between bank and customer. In the short clip, I explain what it is all about:
A new material idea in a three-billion-card industry
The card industry produces around three billion cards every year. Introducing a completely new material — real wood — into a system like that is no design project. It is a years-long journey full of ups and downs: technical dead ends, doubts, setbacks, and time and again the question of whether it should even be allowed to exist.
And then the thing happens that, deep down, you have been counting on the whole time but barely dared to believe: the idea triggers a real investment. Machines are bought. A production line is built. A thought becomes a factory.
The best moment of my career — so far
Today the wooden card is going into industrialisation as the Timbercard at Raiffeisendruckerei — together with DG Nexolution and Copecto, building on what began with the Zürcher Kantonalbank and Swiss Wood Solutions. You can see the moment the machine was hoisted into the hall in this post by Raiffeisendruckerei.
For me, this was — honestly — the best moment of my career so far. Not because of the machine. But because of what it proves: when you have a clear vision and the will to see it through, a single idea can set an entire industry in motion.
The full story follows
This story deserves to be told properly — how it all began, the setbacks, and above all what it taught us. It was extremely arduous, extremely exhausting and at the same time extremely rewarding. That is exactly why we will soon take it on in full depth.
This here is only the teaser. To be continued.