Responses by Mikko Reponen, lead designer and Marina Vesikko, designer, Werklig
Background: Holvi, an intuitive professional banking tool for entrepreneurs and microbusinesses, combines everything a modern entrepreneur needs in one digital business account. Driven by people who transform ideas into real-life products and services, Holvi predicts, suggests and grows along with the business owners. We set out to help Holvi with its continuing European expansion by redefining its brand strategy and brand design.
Reasoning: Holvi is all about being genuine and of fantastic quality. Therefore, an essential part of the identity is to show the development of ideas being brought to life and eventually becoming successful businesses. The updated brand strategy served as a platform for a comprehensive brand identity renewal.
Challenges: From the start, it was clear that we needed to create a design that did not represent the familiar banking world. One challenge we had was cutting other good-sounding ideas at the beginning; but many of the choices that initially seemed strange ended up being the right choices.
Favorite details: One of the main visual elements of our identity is the logo, which takes its design from the shape of a vault, holvi. The logo is in the shape of a nonagon and the corners are slightly rounded to match the friendly brand tonality. It is also a tribute to the brand’s previous round vault-mark that was divided into different shaded sectors.
Visual influences: We studied closely the typical visual language of other banking world identities. Then, we tried our best to avoid those conventions and create something that stood out—something that looks fun and friendly, yet looks professional and trustworthy at the same time.
Specific demands: We had a technically savvy client and Holvi has a strong understanding of design, having previously designed all materials in-house. This made the internal deployment of the identity a smooth process.
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