INIRIS
Building trust with branding and naming in the Fintech industry
The client
KDPW has been the regulator of the Polish financial market for 25 years and is central to the management and regulation of instrument trading in Poland.
Having worked with KDPW in the past in merging 12 separate branding, UX and design system projects, they trusted in us once again to deliver a complete branding and naming of a product that was to establish them as behemoths of the local and international industry.
Blockchain KDPW - The Vision
KDPW had a well-defined product that they were focused on developing. A state-of-the-art blockchain platform for the capital market that would provide blockchain-based infrastructure so users could build and launch their exclusive and secure fin-tech solutions.
The goal of this project was to create a platform that would make the client a leader of innovation in the industry. This project was to see the client establish itself as a main player in a domestic market that has competition in multiple forms springing up everywhere on what seems to be a daily basis.
Challenge
The KDPW team set Netkata a clean, ambitious goal:
Develop a name and create the branding for KDPW’s Blockchain platform.
A professional image that conveys a platform with all the tools for a user to have a competitive advantage was needed to help acquire users, but also keep partners invested in KDPW Capital Group long into the future.
As a product that’s aimed to professionals, a lot of emphasis would be put on the brand’s image and the way it communicated itself. Partners invited to the product were to also have an effect on the brand’s overall image.
Core goals of the branding project :
Image: To build a professional and trustworthy image for a product in a set market.
Education: To inform selected recipients about the platform’s functionalities and technological capabilities.
Business: To communicate a tool and convince participants of the value of the platform
Promotional: Promote the client’s brand as a technical leader that creates and implements long-term infrastructure projects.
After doing an entire audit of the existing branding, visuals and communications, it was clear that this was a significant weak point and had to be overhauled to meet the clients new goals.
An urgent solution was needed as KDPW had no real branding, a long, complex name, and was to present in front of an Industry Economic Forum and needed a temporary website to present to forum participants.
The team got to work at creating a temporary, placeholder website for KDPW’s product. An MVP website that had a simple, clear name, and branding that brought everything together was developed and launched.
This website, while only temporary, was essential at giving the KDPW team something that could showcase their idea and the project in it’s entirely, even in its most simple form.
After the launch of this placeholder website, we immediately got stuck into laying the groundwork for the main project, the naming and branding of KDPW’s blockchain platform.
Interviews with key stakeholders were set up to gather essential information about their expectations for the product.
To create the most accurate and relevant naming and branding, in-depth workshops were held with the same key stakeholders to create a more defined idea for the branding and communication of the project.
In-depth workshops are a core part of Netkata’s complete end-to-end process, as workshops ensure that key stakeholders have the same expectations and overall goals. This opportunity was seized to get more detailed information about the brand’s goals, the brand’s personality and the broader business landscape.
Next up was a huge, but often overlooked part of the project.
The Nameing
We first started by taking the outcomes of the workshop - goals, audience, personality and values - and matched them with words, symbols and emotions that were associated with these responses.
Ideas were had, worked on and assessed. Many of them were good, but none were exceptional.
In typical creative fashion, the team started by brainstorming names. One criteria for a good name was a ‘trustworthy’ name, and a name that sounded ‘finance-y’.
Financey. Nancy.
The client, amused and excited by the idea asked to expand on this name more - it needed to be more technical, sleek, but flexible and intriguing.
This is where the creative team channeled even more of their creativity.
‘Iris’ means the centre, but also to focus, to be at the centre of something in order to see it all.
This was a concept that could be related back to the platform’s blockchain technology, as the flow of data is central, and the technology looks at and assesses all the data - much like your iris looks at and assesses the world around you.
The word Iris is rather feminine and also invokes images of the flower - petals open, drawing the viewer’s eye into the middle of its being.
Iris in Greek mythology was also the messenger of the gods - very relevant for a product that takes secure information from one important point to another
With the simple prefix of ’In-’, the word grew a technological edge.
INIRIS was born.
LOGO & KEY VISUAL DESIGN
Frequent meetings helped the team find a quality name for the brand. These same meetings were paramount to creating a key visual that aligned with the name, but also reflected the core values discussed in earlier workshops.
Open, honest discussions were the key to success and continue to be the key that moves both teams in the same direction.
We took the outcomes of matching the core values, traits and outcomes with ideas, words, shapes, symbols and values, and created a framework to work on.
[whiteboard photo]
That created a framework to start the designing part. The design process began with simple pencil scribbles. Generating dozens of ideas, the best ones were worked and reshaped and then digitised.
From nothing more than a pencil and paper, hundreds of sketches were born, and with them improvement upon improvement throughout the process of digitising them.
[hand drawn sketches photo]
Multiple iterations of stylescapes were created using moodboards and some of the more versatile logos were used to create the most basic visual queues for the project.
We were aligned with the client as to the direction and mood that they wanted to branding to convey. Clear and digital, but not overwhelming, cold or sterile. Femininity was crucial, as well as trust, without being another ‘techy cyberpunk’ startup wannabe.
After narrowing down loads of ideas the only two, moodboards and key visuals were created.
We were very happy with what we presented the client, and the client was very happy with what they saw. Both teams were on the same page.
The final decision making meeting lasted all of 15 minutes.
The branding process was complete. The next stage, communication strategy and website creation was next - but that’s a story for another day.
The Iniris symbol is created from the intersection of two circles, forcing the image of a primally human shape - the eye - a shape of clairvoyance and divinity, but also clarity. Extremely relevant to company that takes a new, often confusing technology and makes it accessible to a wider audience.
