Rebranding M1
M1 launched in 2016 as an investing app, but by 2019/2020 it was much more. It had checking capabilities and margin loans available. So we decided it was time for a refresh. We needed a new look and new messaging that focused less on investing and more on the “super app” aspect. We wanted it to be more dynamic, bolder, stronger.
I partnered with the UX team to come up with new colors that we could use across the M1 universe. We paid attention to WCAG when making decisions to ensure we’d have a fully accessible app and website.
M1’s splash screen before and after.
I made some options for the splash screen animation. We ended up going with the first option.
Slash animation option 1
Splash animation option 2
Portfolio screen before and after. While the UX team designed the layouts of the screens, I collaborated on the color palette, the icons and images used throughout the app, and the styles library.
Menu options before and after, continuing to prioritize contrast and legibility.
Website homepage before and after.
I translated all the decisions we took into an updated brand standards guide, complete with messaging guides for each product too.
And after I had buy in from the company’s leaders on the new brand standards, I moved on to updating all our marketing materials. I started with the website:
M1’s homepage
Product explainer page for M1 Invest
Product explainer page for M1 Borrow
When I hired some designers and copywriters to create a brand team, we continued updating materials, like our emails and app store presence:
M1’s welcome email
Cross-sell email for M1 Spend, M1’s checking account
App Store screenshots
Then we turned to social. We focused on educational posts about finance and about M1 users:
We also expanded our library of social ads:
Brand awareness ad using UGC.
Conversion ads
I worked with a digital ad agency to create the following animated ads. I wrote all the creative briefs and provided creative direction.
We also hired a video agency to help us shoot commercials we used on TV and OTT. I wrote the creative brief for these and provided art direction before and during the shoot. (Fun fact: We shot these ads in May 2020. Since we were in the middle of the pandemic, before any of us really knew how things would turn out, we intentionally kept these simple to make shoot day go more smoothly.)
This was a yearlong project that is still one of my favorites. M1 went through some serious company growth at the time, so I kept getting more and more resources to create new and better things. I got to work with so many different people, help make decisions on the agencies we hired to work with us, and watch the brand grow more and more recognizable.