Early Warning is a B2B-facing company that uses bank-contributed data to help more than 2,500 institutions to open new accounts, prevent fraud, and make payments. They're most commonly known as the network operator of Zelle. The name Early Warning is a reference to alerting customers of fraud, but after growing and innovating new products over three decades, the company offers so much more than just anti-fraud technology.
I was asked to lead a brand refresh that would modernize the aesthetic and better represent the current state of the company, while maintaining the brand equity that came from 30+ years of established trust within the financial space. The new look and feel was designed to convey:
• the peace of mind that results from keeping customers' money safe
• a company that is continuously growing and innovating
Below, you'll see how this was achieved by refreshing the logo, color palette, typography, iconography, and photography style.
Logo
There were three key visual attributes that made the original Early Warning logo appear severe and anxiety-inducing: harsh corners, all-caps typography, and lots of red. I discovered I could change all three of these factors to help the logo feel less foreboding and more approachable—while still keeping it recognizable.
Color
The Early Warning brand had only three colors: black, gray, and red. This palette focused on problems rather than solutions (red = danger) and evoked feelings of fear and anxiety (you better use our products or you won't be safe!). The new palette uses soft blues to represent our solutions, which provide security and peace of mind. The calmer, muted reds/pinks tie in with the bolder brand red that is easily recognized by customers within the industry. The accent palette includes a spectrum of greens to symbolize continuous growth and innovation, as well as the original Early Warning red as an accent instead of as the primary brand color.
Below are some assets that show the refreshed color palette in action.
Typography
The condensed, heavy appearance of Gill Sans (below left) resulted in materials that felt dated and overwhelming to read. Montserrat (below right) is an elegant, modern typeface. It is fresh and approachable while still conveying authority and experience. It also offers a broad range of weights in comparison to Gill Sans, which allows for a more versatile, refined type hierarchy. A bolder aesthetic can still be achieved where desired, but the lighter weights are crucial when designing content to be approachable and easy to read.
Iconography
Before the brand refresh, Early Warning was using a mismatched set of icons from various stock websites. With no standardized aesthetic for the icons, our materials appeared inconsistent, cluttered, and difficult to read. To solve this problem, I developed a custom icon style. This new icon library consisted of over 100 line icons, with clear guidelines for color, line weight, level of detail, sizing, and padding.
Later, I began to develop a solid filled icon style that could be used to add more color and visual interest where needed. These solid filled icons also helped to serve as a starting point for more detailed illustrations. After hiring a team of designers, I worked with my team to refine and expand the library to over 200 icons.
Below are some branded materials using the icon library.
Photography
Early Warning was using grayscale stock imagery, typically with a red highlight or the shield symbol from the logo. This style appeared dated, harsh, and ominous—when our goal was to come across as innovative, approachable, and trustworthy. There was no budget for custom photography, so I created guidelines for sourcing and editing stock images, and compiled a library of over 50 images which I edited as necessary to achieve a cohesive aesthetic. Bright, saturated photography is now used to represent how Early Warning's products positively impact the lives of real people.
Some additional samples from the Early Warning stock photography library:
My role: Creative Director; Art Director; Design Lead; Brand Designer
Agency partner: Epipheo (video) | Other contributors: Jorge Carreño Gatica, Ryan Gallagher, Julie Grantz
