SHAWBROOK BANK
● Art Direction
● Design System
● Interaction Design
● UX Strategy & Wireframing
Shawbrook Bank is a niche, specialist bank which does things differently. By making decisions based on human judgment rather than algorithms, Shawbrook is able to work with the kind of customers poorly served by the high street SMEs, the self-employed, and others who don’t necessarily fit the profile required by the big banks.
Highlighting the core audience and driving at their needs, with made to fit components, meant Shawbrook could ward off challenger banks by addressing their customers properly, and with care - scars and all.
The theory behind the art direction was to position the bank as a ‘window into possibility'. Introducing imagery that hero's the savers' imagination and captured the humanity behind serious fiscal decisions. A large amount of Shawbrook's target audience were SMEs so the site focused on those businesses.
A modular component-based architecture, and a high focus on security - meant smarter decisions could be made that put people's needs first. Retaining the core idea of testing, initiating, and improving all sections within the site, it allowed a better response to user requests/business targets.
The core goal? Get people speaking to experts at the bank, so they could best decide what was the right fit for the customer. By focusing on this Shawbrook saw a 500% increase in named team-member inquiries.
Setting the standards and guiding the use of components - each of the departments within the bank were able to change the pace of creation, and innovation within their teams, giving the ownership back to the stakeholders.
This "Manual" covered 8 elements: logo, color, components, iconography, illustration, motion, photography, and typography.