building the kickfin brand
Elevating the Kickfin brand for accelerated growth
When I first joined Kickfin, the company was still just learning to walk. In my first month on the job, I was tasked with reviewing the existing brand and designing an evolution that would position us to grow through our Series A investment.
Timeline
From explorations to final designs, the entire project took less than four weeks, even while I focused on my other role as Lead Product Designer.
Background
Kickfin is a leading fintech company revolutionizing how businesses manage tips and gratuities. Trusted by industries like hospitality and food service, Kickfin provides a secure, instant tip distribution platform that eliminates the need for cash, reduces administrative hassles, and ensures employees get paid in real-time, directly to their bank accounts. By streamlining tip-out processes, Kickfin empowers businesses to operate more efficiently while enhancing employee satisfaction and transparency.
For every branding development process I do, I stick to a core strategy that enables me to design the fundamentals and provide headroom for creativity.
Logo Design
The original Kickfin logo was green, quirky, and inflexible. My strategy was to craft something that paid homage to the existing identity while refreshing it for the modern era. The resulting changes to the icon and font were big hits with executive leadership.
Typography
Choosing a type for Kickfin wasn't just about the logo. It also needed to connect to the platform so that there was a cohesive look and feel to the brand through all marketing, product, and support pieces. Euclid Circular felt like a natural fit due to it's flexibility for the product and modern styling for marketing.
Color Palette
Switching from mint green to an electric blue was a bold choice that paid off handsomely. Not only did our brand now clearly standout in a crowded field, but the wide ranging color palette played nicely with the platform and it's myriad of uses throughout every component.
Look & Feel
Sharpening elements like the brand's voice, imagery aesthetic, and illustration library was an important task. All of these elements are pieces to the pie that need careful consideration. Our choice was to lean into the human side of the brand and use personable, candid photography to blend with an approachable voice. This allowed us to deemphasize illustrations that had become overdone in the market.