Digitalisation is changing how we experience financial services brands — but what we want remains the same. Every brand has a killer application It’s the touchpoint that encapsulates what we love about the brand. For companies that make things, it’s usually the product. The sensation that comes from the intersection of…

Behind every good creative brief you need a broad, frank discussion to get to the heart of what’s really required. Our clients come to us for ideas. Generating those, and bringing them to life, is what gets us up the stairs to our studio every morning. But before we can…

Changing behaviour is never easy. Having a grown-up conversation is a good way to start. — Organisations try to get people to think and act differently for lots of reasons. Sometimes, change can be required and enforced from outside. And when a regulator brings in new rules, there’s often no room for manoeuvre. …

Heritage is a delicate topic in brand and visual identity. Companies often want to emphasise their roots. History can be a source of security. Yet if the past overshadows the present it can just as easily be a turn-off, especially for consumers who like their brands to feel contemporary. — An origin story can add authenticity and provide differentiation in the market, just as long as it has a clear relevance to the world today. …

Fintechs are great at finding niches they can own in financial services. So why aren’t they doing that with their branding? — No safety in numbers With clients that range from startups to global institutions, we keep a close eye on trends in financial services branding. We love how fintechs are shaking up this industry. The early days of the fintech revolution produced some true pioneers like Monzo, who teamed novel thinking with…

A great user experience comes from digital design, visual and verbal identity and what the brand stands for all working together. — Startup branding demands digital fluency What makes a successful startup? A brilliant idea for a product or service is a great place to begin but as a startup failure rate of 90% demonstrates, it takes much more than this to build a business that gets off the ground.

One sector we keep a close eye on from a brand and visual identity perspective is professional services. Having worked with EY for many years, we’re well aware of the branding challenges in a marketplace where everyone cares about reputation but brand sometimes takes a back seat. — Change is coming Brand strategy should be high on the agenda of professional services firms right now. Regulators and clients want to see more competition in the audit market. There’s talk of breaking up the ‘Big 4’ of Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC, or introducing a requirement for joint audits of…

We had an illuminating conversation with a venture capital firm recently on attitudes to branding among startups. What we heard reinforced how important it is for founders to take branding seriously from the outset. — Brand and business are one Brand should never be an afterthought for any business. It must be part of the foundations. So when founders are in definition mode early on, brand belongs on the agenda alongside business model and strategy, product or service proposition and financing. …

Brands brave enough to drop their name from their logo: Apple, Deutsche Bank, Mercedes, Nike, Shell… and Mastercard? We didn’t see that coming. There are few brands that can be recognised by their symbol alone. This decision shows that Mastercard wants to be seen as a premium brand. — When is it right to go without? Mastercard says its decision to go all-in on logo-led branding was driven by a desire to maximise the space available in digital environments.