The next step for my brand was to decide on a colour scheme. Looking at colour psychology I was looking at colours that represented something new, fresh, positive and friendly. I felt using two colours could be effective, representing the bank and customer working together.
While I was working through the colour possibilities on Figma, I also explored other options for logo marks as I wasn’t completely sold on ‘!!’. I came to the conclusion I like the combination of bright, pastel green and purple as they are both very modern colours. It shows the fresh approach to banking in a positive way and adds creativity with ambition. Also, purple is a colour often associated with banks. I used Adobe colour through out this process to find the most suitable colours.
Final Colour Scheme
I looked at exploring the logo mark further and to see if I could find any more designs I preferred over the ‘!!’. I did like the outline of the speech marks, however I feel that the two exclamation marks would give me more opportunities when designing for the brand, specifically for app screens and touchpoint. Also, I feel the ‘!!’ would become more recognisable as the logo for the brand. I also looked at adding colour to the logo marks and found I liked the green and purple combination the best, but also that it would be used as a single block colour for both marks.
I was a bit more experimental with these designs as I wanted to see if I could show the positive attitude in the logo mark. While it does work, I feel the outcome looks more like a rabbit than a smiling face, so I didn’t think it would be my best option. Again, being more experimental, I tried to combine the exclamation marks with a money symbol and a ‘y’ to see if I could get a composition that could work. I found the three elements did work well but I just wasn’t convinced that a new customer would be able to pull out and work out what they are. I do quite like the simplicity of the speech bubble and I think this could be a possibility for when I begin designing my touchpoint as it does resemble a debit card shape.
I did decided to stick to the two exclamation marks as my logo mark as I like the simplicity of it, but also how it reflects what the brand’s all about with it as well. I have chosen the combination of colours and block colour of purple or green as my main logo mark with colour.
I want imagery to play a big part in my brand identity, as it is a way the customers can visualise themselves interacting with the brand. For this reason, I want my focus for my imagery to be on younger people who are happy and smiling, showing the positive environment within the bank. Also, group imagery would be essential to show the element of teamwork the brand focuses on. As well as this, I want to explore using imagery without people that would have a sense of humour the target audience would relate to. Similarly, using current social trends or images would also be a way of attracting attention.
To create consistency across my brand, I also explored adding a colour overlay onto some images so that it would all match in with the overall colour scheme. This stops my imagery content being limited to images that only include the five colours. The main one for this would be adding a yellow shade over the images as it creates a happy, positive feelings within the images as well as linking back to the brand name.
I looked at incorporating my imagery with my logo mark and word mark to see how they could work together. I quite liked the idea of having the word mark coming in from the corner of the image or only have some of the logo visible. I found that white was the most suitable colour in most occasions as it stands out when put on top of the image.
‘Don’t fall for the usual banking madness’
‘Helping you one piece at a time’
‘Don’t stress!! We’re here to help!!’
As well as my word mark and logo mark, I explored how I could combine my two tagline with the images as well. This would be good for the advertising purposes within the brand, or it could also be included in the packaging and merchandise.
For my icon set, I wanted them to be simple but also fun. I felt the best way to do this was to add some character to some of the icons like the piggy bank. I kept the edges all rounded to match back with the word mark and logo mark. I came up with multiple options for each and then picked the one I thought worked best for each one. I thought through the different screens someone would come face to face with when using the app and this led me to creating 11 icons. I am pleased with the final outcome of the icons as I feel there is a feeling of cohesion with them and they will suit my designs for the app screens well. Also, they would be transferable across multiple different screens, like the landing page. However, because I was working on such a small screen, I did get quite fiddly in certain parts of the icons, which resulted in some thicknesses being slightly off.
