Embracing new approaches to consumer financial services branding: introducing Your VC
Posted 2 weeks ago in brand identity, design chat, web design
Read more
Embracing new approaches to consumer financial services branding: introducing Your VC
Posted 2 weeks ago in brand identity, design chat, web design
What does it take to reboot a consumer financial services business when your name no longer fits your ambition? It’s a design challenge my team and I spent all summer solving for GrowthDeck, a consumer investment platform that had outgrown its identity.
The brief was deceptively complex: create a brand that feels accessible to everyday investors while maintaining the credibility that institutional clients expect. The solution? A reposition to ‘Your VC’ – a complete strategic and visual transformation that puts the customer at the centre of the investment conversation.
The work we completed for Your VC touched nearly every aspect of what we do, combining many different areas of our experience while working on something unique. The end result blends logo, web and print design as well as custom video for a fascinating example of brand change devised with the investment consumer in mind at every stage.
Logo design for Your VC, part of this consumer financial services branding project
How do you strike the right tone for your business branding?
When we began thinking about the positioning for this new offering, rather than looking at the landscape of other banking or investment firms, we started at the kitchen table. We wanted Your VC to feel a part of people’s lives in the context of something as familiar and reassuring as a packet of cornflakes, box of tea or ketchup bottle. Our work on the brand concept then looked at the elements that combine to build an aspirational product. We researched and experimented with design tropes that felt dependable and ‘reassuringly expensive’ such that our nascent business reboot could easily build brand trust and accessibility.
The finished identity was then built around a single piece of type that began life as a pre-existing typeface which we highly customised so the finished identity has a flow and elegance all of its own. In particular we took out parts of the type and drew a custom ligature of the way that the U and R conjoin. The detail is important because this wasn’t just styling, rather our idea was to create a financial services product that felt premium and elegant. I believ that in simplicity we find elegance. The Your VC typemarque is a memorable piece of type which comprises the fewest possible elements.
The end result is an identity from which we’ve ‘exploded’ to create an entire set of brand graphics which sit across everything we’ve designed. Unlike the chilly blues of many other financial firms, we’ve tilted towards warm colours that pair with the stripes and curves, creating an enticing look that anchors the entire brand system. It feels appealing and absolutely right for the modern consumer investor.
Web design for Your VC, part of this consumer financial services branding project
“Your VC isn’t just a logo and graphics — the identity and the narrative are two sides of the same coin.
“The work of Richard and his studio captured our ambition and has given us enormous confidence as a team.
“It represents both who we are now and who we want to become.”
Freddie Hamilton
CEO, Your VC
Web design for Your VC, part of this consumer financial services branding project
Discovering innovation in delivery
One of the hallmarks of this project has been thinking about applying a brand in new ways. This is particularly true of the Your VC website which entailed applying our usual user-centered design approach in a completely new way. The interface had to be just as much about the innovative investments the firm is making and their approach as well as considering a client portal. To build the site we worked directly with Your VC’s in-house development team in Lisbon as they created the pages based on our new identity system, brand guide and website design.
The finished site sits within a state of the art HubSpot customer relationship management system, which is a marked difference from our usual approach of using WordPress. This all might seem technical – and it is. However it’s important to get into this level of detail as so many clients have approached us lately with requirements that entail combining our design expertise with their next generation technical requirements. It’s an approach to work that entails innovation and flexibility, engaging with a firm’s management, strategic marketing function and providing everything their development teams require to create an outstanding website.
The result for Your VC was a team that coalesced easily and delivered a custom design for a new generation of consumer that demands outstanding tech with a brand-led, exciting design finish.
Brochure design for Your VC, part of this consumer financial services branding project
Defining a relatable, modern brand
At the heart everything we’ve done for this project are the firms that Your VC has invested in, many of which are showcased in the custom video we’ve created as users land on the website. My team has cut together supplied footage and then carefully graded it and added in their branding, then created a custom portrait mobile version. What I love about this piece of film is that it talks about invention and innovation, with people front and centre. It avoids a cheesy or overly simplistic way of doing this and it means Your VC feels forward-thinking from the second you land on the site.
I’d say our years of working on custom financial services websites as well as projects that exist within the softer realms of people-first, creative product-led work has prepared us well for this moment. It also helps when you’re working with a client that wants to solve the challenge of redefining a brand in a way that upends traditional thinking. Your VC does precisely that.
Do you need consumer financial services branding with impact?
We work with ambitious firms across the financial services, legal, and tech sectors to create digital experiences that deliver measurable business value from day one. If you’re ready to hear our business case for great quality, professional web design first hand, let’s have a call.
Call us on 020 7351 4083 or email us direct to begin the conversation.
