Carnegie Financial
Carnegie Financial are a start-up mortgage and insurance brokers based in the North East of England that value longevity and personalised customer care.
Services
Brand Strategy, Brand Positioning + Planning, Visual + Verbal Identity Design, Web Design + Development, UX + UI Design, Copywriting + Messaging, Print + Digital Design, Illustration.
The Challenge
- New company in need of a brand identity, strategy and digital presence.
- Desire to appeal to their regional audience without alienating the wider UK market.
- Considerable competition from corporate firms and trendy online brokers.
- Flexibility across assets essential to accommodate swift future growth.
Barefaced Solution
- Our strategy drew directly from the founder’s own core values. This helped us to fuel a brand that embodies an authentically fad-free yet supportive approach to mortgages.
- We created an identity sympathetic to and inspired by its roots in the North East, whilst avoiding obvious regional markers to allow for versatility in its appeal.
- Together we built a brand that is at once personal and professional. By incorporating unusual chalky colours, clean vector illustrations and a comforting brand language, we were able to bring the Carnegie personality to life and offer a humanised antidote to the corporate and tech-led competition.
- We produced a design system capable of growing with the business. Including a modular website and a versatile range of logo versions.
“Since working with Barefaced Studios, we have been nothing but delighted with the service offered. The research and planning processes are second to none in that they have always listened very closely to our needs, background and future plans for the business, resulting in a tailored and unique end result. All branding, marketing material and our website have always been perfect and well beyond what we could have imagined (far exceeding anything we could think of!). All of this coupled with their ongoing support make them an integral partner for our business!”
– Adrian Sutcliffe, Director
CARNEGIE HAVE YOUR BACK
We created a brand that’s as synonymous with the local audiences of Carnegie’s hometown as it is with a wider British market. At once personal and professional, placing a real importance on community and regional identity. A refreshing antidote to the oppressively corporate or overtly tech focused mortgage brokers of today.
To build the brand logo we took typographic inspiration from the ghost signs that pervade buildings across Tyneside, Leeds and York – reminders of the region’s industrial past. The name Carnegie was chosen by the company founder in reference to his history as a student at Leeds Beckett University. This is where he first discovered his love of numbers and the University’s link to Yorkshire Carnegie rugby club. So, we decided to take the Yorkshire Rose and adapt it into a simplified, geometric looking symbol to act as a brand signifier. This combination of lettering and symbolism allowed us to propel the brand imagery forward, setting it apart from its competitors, whilst being sensitive to its heritage and birthplace. We used a purposefully fresh approach to colour that shuns the traditional navy blues and reds of finance in favour of an unusual chalky palette that softens the overall look and feel of the brand.
‘Get peace of mind with Carnegie’ became our customer-facing tagline. A welcoming, simple slogan that appeals to a no-nonsense audience. The accompanying tone of voice and copy created for Carnegie is similarly welcoming. With an emphasis on language that connects people and encourages their audience to feel immediately at home (whilst they buy a home!). Our work helped to define Carnegie Financial as approachable and familiar, by appealing to it’s primary audience across the North East. All whilst retaining a refined aesthetic that allows the company to easily present itself to a UK wide audience.