In 1978, when Murdoch [Henretty] was still working at Jeffries Bank Note, Dee [Hock] decided to develop a travelers cheque for Visa.... In the course of the meeting, a Jeffries' designer named Kurt Roald came up with a design idea. He took a pencil and began sketching a bird in flight. "It was a dove," Murdoch recalled, "and Dee liked the idea of a dove in flight, as the dove was the international bird of peace."
To Turn the concept into a polished image, Dee's design team found a real dove and photographer and they set to work. They wanted to photograph the bird in flight, so they tied its legs together so it couldn't land. "The photographer took over 100 pictures, and if you looked carefully, you could see the legs tied together," Murdoch said.