Branding

Aligning Branding with Reputation

Spark Mortgage’s team had been in business for 22+ years when they reached out to us – but since they had such great referral business, they’d only ever needed a tiny one-page website. In order to drive new marketing initiatives they were seeking a partner to design a new logo, create a complete visual identity from scratch, and design and develop a strategic website that would help them stay competitive with larger businesses. 

We guided them through a brand strategy workshop, to explore the key elements of who they are, what they do, how they’re different, and how they want to be perceived. Then we created brand guidelines that they can use for all future digital assets. This work drove the logo design concepts – which included subtle uses of sparks – and the rest of our regular UI design processes.

Prototyping

Strategizing Site-Wide Content

When it came to the website, Spark Mortgage was starting over from the ground up. Our information architecture and prototyping work was primarily recommending content areas that they didn’t yet have (and needed to support their SEO and marketing goals). We created a site structure and layouts that served their two main audiences and investors, while providing ample room for storytelling, trust, and credibility content. 

Style

Creating the Visual Aesthetic

We ran through a brand workshop to identify their key traits, goals, and values. Then we worked with Spark’s team on the logo design, followed by developing a colour palette and typography. Having already given lots of creative feedback on the logos, the visual design stage was a breeze and moved quickly.