When I received the instructions for this brand refresh, I was extremely excited. I aimed to transition from our old and outdated branding to a more contemporary tone and identity. The goal was to align the visual identity more closely with our secondary company, EQ Bank. Since EQ Bank has a well-established brand presence, I wanted to find a way to integrate similar visual aspects while keeping Equitable distinct as a separate entity.
Taking into consideration the brief, I chose to retain the existing colour palette from EQ Bank but adjust the weight of the colours to achieve a more sophisticated tone. Instead of the original sequence which was yellow, raspberry (pink), grey, white/black, I decided to re-order it to grey, yellow, white/black, raspberry (pink). In terms of typography, I opted to use the font Open Sans exclusively. This font lends a modern feel while ensuring legibility and evoking a sense of maturity and trust.
When I was selecting images, I wanted to ensure that Equitable Bank's visual identity was different from that of EQ Bank. To achieve this, I opted for in-situ images where the individuals in the images appear natural and genuine, portraying real-life situations. My aim was for this is to resonate with Equitable Bank customers, allowing them to see themselves in these images. Additionally, I incorporated a lozenge within the images to signify that Equitable Bank is a part of the customer's journey.
After establishing the visual identity, I then focused on creating the logo. My goal was to integrate the EQ Bank lozenge into the logo to ensure it aligned with the new visual identity and complemented the EQ Bank logo. To achieve this, I designed a custom font inspired by the EQ Bank logo's font (EQB Regular) and used it to create the Equitable Bank logo with the lozenge and company name.
After all of this, we started integrating these changes into our website, emails, and print/digital collateral.
