Five ways to improve corporate branding design: the people-first approach

Recently, I sat down with digital product designer Kris Finlayson to explore how the old B2B/B2C divide is dissolving into something more fundamental: business to people design. We talked about brands like Oura Ring and Eight Sleep that never lose sight of their users and how our work for healthcare provider Bexa leveraged branding to overcome massive stigma around mammograms.

What emerged from that conversation is what we call the people-first approach to corporate branding design. It’s a fundamental shift from designing for ‘businesses’ to designing for the people who actually make decisions. So, how do you actually implement ‘business to people’ design thinking within a business? What does it look like in practice? Where do you start?

This week, Kris F, my colleague Kris Høiby and I are sharing five practical ways to apply business to people design at your firm—from building design systems that scale gracefully to looking outside your industry for unexpected inspiration. These are approaches we’ve honed over many years across businesses such as financial services firms, legal partnerships, wine wholesalers and healthcare providers.

Whether you’re a founder planning growth, a marketing director managing stakeholders, or a managing partner protecting firm legacy, these five applications offer concrete starting points for making your brand work harder so it appeals to your next era of clients.

1. Accessible corporate branding design systems create differentiation

Kris F: Fifteen years ago I used to have to convince people to invest in design because it was an added cost. This is obviously still a big thing for a business. However, today it’s saving you money to invest in creative expertise because they define design systems you can leverage and build on top of.

Richard: What we now find is we go into every project thinking about work that can cover not just the brief we’re given, but everything. With the right process and consideration, a design system that works brilliantly on a website can successfully be applied on its sister the HTML email, on the sales deck, or the comms PowerPoint they’re using day in day out. All of those things can use principles of good design and great systems.

Actually, our design work for financial services business ICON Corporate Finance created such a system. At the end of the project, the client was empowered to use digital tools efficiently which maintained consistency and enhanced their brand.

How to apply this:

• Leverage existing design system foundations and customise these principles for your brand
• Think beyond single project-based outputs, adding more emphasis to comprehensive systems that will work across your business
• Invest in tools like well designed on-brand templates that empower internal teams
• Follow a ‘build, train, empower’ model

2. Look outside your industry for inspiration

Richard: How can you help business leaders visualise what’s in their head?

Kris F: One thing that works really well is actually looking at the market and what’s there. If I’m building something in real estate, it’s helpful to see what the competition is doing so we know where we can stand out, where the opportunities are.

But what’s also smart is to step outside that industry altogether. The health app I’m working on—our CEO really took inspiration from Spotify. It’s one you wouldn’t go to initially, but enabled us to think about how people engage with music, listen to music, create playlists. How do we take that and create something in the health world to help them understand their data? The creative exercise put us in a completely different paradigm and helped push past what already exists.

Richard: The bigger the creative leap, potentially the more distinctive your result.

How to apply this:

• Use moodboards to explore successful outputs beyond your sector
• Study competitors to understand opportunities, but don’t stop there…
• … ask: “who makes their users feel the way we want ours to feel?”
• Look beyond visual aesthetics to behaviour patterns and engagement models
• New mantra: an unexpected connection often yields the most innovative solution

3. Be selective in brand application

Richard: Looking at brands like Oura Ring and 8 Sleep show how businesses that move from digital to physical manage to balance product, humanity and the technical information which is what users interested in a tech-based product are looking for.

In particular it’s a great lesson in moving between the realms of people photography with the aim of finding common ground with a potential customer. We gradually pare that back it as a user gets ‘closer in’ to the detail.

In our work, mammogram provider Bexa demonstrated a people-first approach where every design choice served a specific user need. Particularly the photography showing women of all ages and sizes. Sometimes they’re embracing each other from behind; the photos don’t show faces but create a feeling of profound support and care at a sensitive time.

How to apply this:

• Choose the elements of corporate branding design strategically for each touchpoint to build a sense of ‘consistent individuality’ across what your clients see
• Consider the user’s specific context, fears and needs
• Understand at what point to move between a conversational style to more technical detail on a service you’re offering
• At each turn ask: “does this business decision serve our user’s specific need?”
• Sometimes a more sparing brand presence with clearer messaging creates more user trust

4. Design can serve practical, day-to-day use

Kris F: Let’s think about how tech can change an experience. When you get your blood results today it’s in a PDF, usually emailed to you or within an app that lists through the results. The problem isn’t lack of information—it’s actually too much with often little explanation. It’s raw data, little context or meaning.

Let’s think radically. Could we use the power of voice to help you understand what’s going on with your health? What if we were to help people understand their health through voice? What would that experience feel like, look like?

Kris H: Using AI would be great here with a summarised version in plain English. Almost like a phone call to your GP: “this test means this” or “you should book a follow-up with your doctor” So you don’t see something and panic.

On a related topic, within Headspace, the meditation app, you can choose the voice you hear. I always choose the very calming Australian guy. They also now introduced this thing where you can write to them about a problem you have and they’ll write back. You click on how you’re feeling—anxious, sad—and they alter their tone and response.

Kris F: That’s hyperpersonalisation. That’s where we’re at now. For instance, the way your app looks might be different than mine because of who you are or what you want. Your voice of the app might be different than my voice, because it’s who represents me. It’s my product. There’s an identity associated with these products.

Richard: There are two interesting things here. A way in which technology can guide you with health questions and another where a softer meditation app can assist with day-to-day questions and problems. Both use custom design and then build in AI as a way of simplifying, clarifying and delivering results safely.

How to apply this:

• How is information delivered in practice: could it be radically improved with different media?
• Appeal to core customer needs; pare back distractions, make design work harder
• Think about the emotional states of users as they interact with your product
• ‘Beautiful but unusable’ tends to fail; ‘functional and distinctive’ succeeds
• Where possible, personalisation (even placing your client’s name on their presentation and referencing them throughout) creates ownership and a sense that they’re valued

5. Design systems save time and streamline workflows

Kris F: If you have a more consistent experience, you’re going to get less support requests. People understand the patterns of your product, of your website. They know how to use it. There’s going to be fewer questions.

One of the number one reasons when I’m working with companies to redesign apps is: “We’ve got all of these usability issues, can you help us? We’ve got a 3.2-star review on our App Store, can you help us understand why?” At the core of that often is something design can help solve—whether it’s a core problem not being solved, or just design not being used consistently. That’s a huge way to save money.

Richard: So having a great, fresh corporate branding design system that is alive and can be refreshed over time increases business efficiency and customer recognition.

Kris F: Definitely.

How to apply this:

• Well-built design systems avoid confusing and messy reinventing the wheel for every project
• This consistency then reduces decision fatigue for both creators and users…
• … and empowers teams to create on-brand materials independently
• Reduces support requests and makes the process of resolving usability issues far clearer
• Living systems that evolve over time beat rigid inflexible guidelines that become outdated and need replacing, incurring further cost

The people-first approach in practice

These five ways to improve corporate branding design share a common thread: they put people at the center of every decision.

Whether you’re building design systems, seeking cross-industry inspiration, or choosing photography for a sensitive healthcare product, the people-first approach asks the same fundamental question: does this serve the actual human encountering our brand?

The shift from ‘B2B thinking’ to ‘business to people design’ recognises this reality. Good corporate branding design thinks deeper, considering the wide range of people who need to understand, trust and choose your firm. At its best, this creates vibrant, flexible brand systems that work day-to-day for your team while building enduring recognition with clients. The big vision for this entire way of approaching branding is that over time, how you present your firm becomes inseparable from the quality of work you deliver.

About Kris Finlayson

Kris helps teams navigate new directions, shifting priorities and the challenges of scaling. She brings clarity, structure and creative momentum through strategy and design.

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