Behind the scenes at Moneybox: Meet our Designers

Over the past six months, the team at Moneybox HQ have been working hard on a fresh new look for our brand. This month we take a sneak peek under the hood of this big project and speak with our design team who made this brand evolution possible.

Meet Jack and Thai, our super UI/UX designers and Mayumi, our graphic designer extraordinaire.

What is a rebrand and why was it an important step to take for Moneybox?

Jack:
A rebrand is the process of changing the image of an organisation. As a company’s product evolves to meet the changing needs of its customers, its brand must evolve also. Moneybox has experienced huge growth since its original inception 4 years ago and in this time, our brand has remained largely the same.

Thai:
Now, with the breath of products in place to help our customers save and invest for their future, it was time to focus on bringing all of this together in a service which is simple, beautiful and enjoyable to use.

Mayumi:
The rebrand for Moneybox was really important. We needed new designs to align with the products and services that we now offer and match what we stand for as a company.

So, what’s changed?

Thai:
Visually EVERYTHING! Our brand has had an overhaul. We all agreed it was important to keep our much-loved mascots, the Owl, Fox and Squirrel, however the evolved style is more sophisticated and refined. The newly rebranded components work to ensure the Moneybox brand will be recognisable wherever it appears.

Mayumi:
Our familiar blue is now more vibrant as you can see in the new Moneybox logo. We have given our tangerine colour a boost and brought it to life through our animals. You’ll also see our green grass being replaced with modern background scenes and all iconography designs have been given a fresh makeover.

Jack:
In addition to the visual elements, we have tried to improve the overall user experience of the app. We achieved this naturally through redesigning every screen in the app (that’s over 500 screens!) and having a much more considered approach. We took the time to focus on interaction design in certain areas of the app to create tiny moments of magic.

What were the biggest challenges you have had to overcome to make sure the rebrand is successful?

Mayumi:
We have various designers responsible for different parts of the brand including UX/UI, marketing, motion graphics etc. Making sure all visuals have the same look, feel and consistency throughout can be very challenging and the chances of designs not aligning can be high. However, by working really closely together we were able to overcome this obstacle and create a succinct brand identity through all of our assets.

Thai:
One of the challenges we faced in design was the introduction of dark mode in IOS, so we had to consider how this would affect our new visual style. We developed colour principles which detailed when and what colours to switch to in dark mode.

Jack:
The time scales for completing the rebrand were the most challenging aspect. In less than five months, we have managed to visually remodel almost every aspect of Moneybox, from email campaigns right through to the main website. Everyone’s steadfast dedication helped us create and execute this new brand identity.

What was your favourite part of the whole process?

Thai:
Working in an environment that promotes teams to co-create and share the same goal has been a humbling experience and an excellent opportunity to learn and level up!

Mayumi:
What I enjoyed most about this project was working closely with other teams like UI/UX, product and insight team. The most exciting part is when you see everything come together and feel a great sense of collective achievement.

Jack:
This was the first time I’d been lucky enough to be involved on a rebrand project of this scale, from start to finish, so there were many highlights throughout the project! However, the most interesting for me was the process of helping create a brand new style guide whilst simultaneously trying to actualise this in the form of newly rebranded screens throughout the app. The style guide was truly a ‘living’ project that required regular care and maintenance. This required us to think fast and make informed decisions about the smallest and largest design challenges we faced.

Check out the team’s Dribble profile for all their latest design work.

Originally published at https://www.moneyboxapp.com on December 3, 2019.