I was assigned to design the company logo, mascot and create a full branding template for the company around 3 months ago when I started at Fin.my. I was given full trust to explore the possibility of our company’s branding.
Here are the summary of what we achieved so far, as a young startup, there are more space for improvement and refinement in the future.
Sketches :
- The main logo
We wanted a strong bold font type to represent stability and at the same time we wanted to add an element of our company in it. The aim is to make the logo be flexible enough to be used anywhere. So as for the main simplified logo, I came out with a bold and italic version of Fin with a pointed part to symbolize the whale’s fin.
The important body part of our chosen mascot. So the logo represents our brand name, Fin and the important part of whale, the fins.
The image below was the early stages before deciding on the design and colours. I tried with so many stuffs, thin, thick, bold, italic, all-caps, ridiculous colours. What I was sure of was the pointed fin incorporated with the text. So we finally go for the first designed ‘Fin’ I did :
2. The mascot
The rough idea was to combine elements like the credit card, receipt and a whale — our chosen mascot. Why whale though? Whale represents strength, stability and it is the biggest animal in our ecosystem. Among all animals, we like the idea of having a big animal that can be represented in a cute way to tone down the seriousness of ‘financial’ industry.
I’ve sketched so many whales before someone in our team came out with the idea of making the whale looks like a wallet that keeps credit card and receipt : the main functions in our app.
Can you see how the whale’s tail also represent the wallet’s tag and the dashed line represents the wallet’s stitches?
Really like the idea of exploring the whale’s design. As an illustrator, this is my playing field and the most fun part :
3. The colours :
Colours chosen are bright colours of blue (main colour) and yellow (secondary colour). Blue represents trust and stability, yellow represents positivity and it is a happy colour! Things that are important for us.
True, there are a lot of fintech brands using blue as their main branding colour : Paypal, iMoney, RinggitPlus, SenangPay, TransferWise, PayAzu, Billplz.
But we decided to mix dark blue, light blue and bright yellow to make it more vibrant and modern.
4. The app icons version :
We are creating a mobile app that will be used in Android and iPhone smartphones. So we also need to create an icon that can work in both devices nicely. Icons that might work on user’s phone before clicking on the app, despite all possible background colour from user’s wallpaper (yikes!).
Also icon that will be small and simple enough to be used for notification icon. The super-minimal version of our mascot/icon. I was having a hard time designing something this simple and small, not quite sure whether I like it. But this is what I achieved for now :
5. Illustration sample :
Here are some illustration sample used in presentations, website, and in the mobile application itself. I want to write on the full report about Fin’s illustration exploration in the other post!
This is what we come out with so far, 3 months is still too short to create a strong branding for any company. We are still experimenting and improving our core visual representation. We hope to bring the best from what we can offer to the world.
Note : Sorry for all grammatical errors or spelling mistakes. I am also taking baby steps as a self-claimed writer.
