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Branding Case Study

TrueLayer rebrand

I joined TrueLayer in 2019 to spearhead Visual Design in the Marketing team. I had the opportunity to work on all type of projects like illustration, data-visualisation, events & exhibition graphics, wayfinding, editorial design and branding. Being at TrueLayer helped shape my creative leadership profile by hiring and managing talent and also by facilitating workshops and mentoring new joiners.

TrueLayer works with some of the world’s largest fintechs, such as Revolut, Monzo, Nutmeg, Freetrade and Trading 212.

Task

The goal of this re-branding project was to showcase TrueLayer’s transformation from a bank data connector to a global payments network provider that uses open banking to offer payment solutions. It also had to highlight how TrueLayer differs from its competitors, appeals to a diverse audience, and pursues its vision of changing the way the world pays.

Open Project
⬤ 01. Challenges

The brand was too
technical and abstract,
and did not convey
the value of its products.

Former branding was narrow and limiting, and did not reflect the diversity and potential of its clients and markets. Visually, it was static and rigid, and did not capture the dynamism and innovation of its mission and vision. It was not futuristic enough.

A brand that was similar and generic, and did not stand out from its competitors. Where blue meant finance and playing safe.


Below; how it looked before the rebrand.

⬤ 02. Solutions

New palette,
new typography,
and add textures.

New graphic elements, which combine nature-inspired textures and Bauhaus shapes. Both tangible and evocative, and that illustrate the key elements of the business, such as flow, growth, infrastructure, and network.

Tagline, “never before”, expresses the company’s ambition and attitude, and invites its customers to join its journey of discovery and innovation.

Colour palette

/ Foundations

Primary A
#BBB9FB

◯
R 187
G 185
B 251

Lavender

Primary B
#1F1F25

◯
R 31
G 31
B 37

Charcoal

Accent A
#FEE64D

◯
R 254
G 230
B 77

Yellow Sun

Accent B
#F33B92

◯
R 243
G 159
B 146

Deep Pink

Payments
#73DEFF

◯
R 115
G 222
B 255

Liquid cyan

Onboarding
#9FEFAB

◯
R 159
G 239
B 171

Vegetation green

Financial data
#737DF9

◯
R 115
G 125
B 249

Particles blue

Crypto
#F7BCFF

◯
R 247
G 188
B 255

Marble Pink

A color palette that features a vibrant and diverse range of hues, reflecting the richness of the network. It wasn’t an easy task, it took many weeks but the result was incredible.

Typography

/ Uses

Main typeface
Formula Extended

Usage
Headlines

Modern and geometric sans-serif font, with variable weights, conveying a sense of future and innovation.

Alternative display font
Formula Condensed

Usage
Subheadlines

Condensed fonts can give a sleek look to brands, especially when used alternatively on titles.

⬤ 03. Actions

Brand identity manual

Creating and updating the brand identity manual and updating all the brands touchpoints at the time of launch. That included, presentations, digital ads, blog posts visuals, brochures, reports, motion, video, website, emails, office wayfinding and internal tools.

Facilitating workshops

Conducting and facilitating a series of sessions and workshops that educate and inform the company’s internal and external stakeholders, about the new brand identity, and its meaning and purpose.

Monitoring success

Monitoring and evaluating the brand identity performance, a process that measures and analyses the impact and effectiveness of the new brand identity, and provides feedback and recommendations for improvement.
⬤ 04. Editorial design

My primary role

As Design Lead, my main objective was to make sure every editorial asset was updated with the new brand and coming up with all the brand assets and style guides. Deliverables included more than 20 product brochures, guides, reports and white-papers and a comprehensive style guide and master files for InDesign. My team was also responsible for updating all the internal and external presentation decks, dozens of slides that were ready by launch date to use including complex data visuslisation sets.

Credits

Brand

Mirta Rotondo
Direction & Strategy

Luca Bergeretti-Cavion
Brand Lead

Philip Likos-Corbett
Brand Narrative

Creative Leads

Joe Landy
Motion, video & blog

Alvaro Sanchez
Editorial, digital ads &
sales enablement

Production

Brand team
Pasquale Morelli, Alessandro Fasano

Creative team
Ilaria Abondanti, May Miuriuk,
Giorgio Tonella

All the people below
made it happen too

Testimonials

Design teams

“Alvaro is a brilliant designer, producing clean and impeccable layouts, so passionate and knowledgeable. I've worked with Alvaro on design and animation projects at TrueLayer, and he's such an easy going person to work with, always positive and enthusiastic.”

Giorgio Tonella

Motion Graphic Designer

Copy teams

“Alvaro is a top-notch designer and person. As a copywriter, it’s important to work well and efficiently with designers, and this was always the case with Alvaro. We’ve worked closely on a variety of projects — from ads and print collateral to editorial content.

An effortless communicator and collaborator, compassionate and kind, Alvaro is a strong creative leader. Any team, in any industry, would be incredibly lucky to have him.”

Sonja Swahn Lindstrom

Senior Copywriter

Content teams

“Working with Alvaro was an absolute dream. We collaborated on several different projects, from small-scale data visualisation to major reports. In every situation, Alvaro demonstrated keen design skills, turning around high-quality work without exception. His ability to lead a team and coordinate large projects was just as crucial — he brought his colleagues together under tight time and budget constraints. We hit several critical launch dates thanks in no small part to Alvaro's hard work, and were able to generate some fantastic leads off the back of that content.”

Matthew Blenkarn

Content Marketing manager

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Next Project
Payments in the EU