MBI is a B2B pivot from a company called HMBradley, which was a D2C “Neobank” offering as they put it, “a customer-centric platform rewarding consumers for their habits not just the money in their account, offering competitive annual-yield percentage, and best-in-class customer servicing program… Too nimble to settle for expensive legacy vendors and products stagnated by an aging infrastructure, the team at HMBradley built its own backend infrastructure with an eye towards versatility and modularity to accommodate the increasing customer demand.” As soon as the pivot was softly communicated, Banks started banging their line. Time to make a brand. We started with a research and strategy deep dive, developed a clear creative direction with their team using a collaborative workshop, and then iterated on identity territories, refining in to a final brand system.
The primary mark’s most distinctive feature is the bow in the uppercase “I,” which mirrors the curvature of the “B.” This interplay forms a star-like negative space, which is extracted and repurposed as a standalone mark and container. The same star-like shape emerges when four curvilinear containers converge, reinforcing the design’s cohesive geometry. The metaphor is simple and two-fold: MBI offers a light to banks operating in the darkness of legacy systems or underperforming technology as well as the promise of modularity and flexibility. Because of the way in which their code is structured, they are able to help banks launch new products or protocols without ripping out and replacing old systems. As founder Zach Bruhnke put it in an early session: “the person who is responsible for making these kinds of changes at banks either becomes the CEO if goes well or gets fired if it doesn’t.” In summary: MBI helps clients make change at their bank without breaking it.
Tech brands often rely on illustrations, icons and dashboards to help elucidate their complex offerings and abstract processes and MBI is no exception. We worked with them iteratively to develop a style influenced by digital brutalism; the idea that if we illustrate something conceptual for a computer screen, it should be obvious that it is an illustration, not the thing itself. But we had to walk a fine line of not appearing too cute or whimsical as the topic at hand is serious and technical. MBI’s color palette is another study in contrasts between legacy and innovation. The classic, sturdy, yet stylish, British Racing Green anchors the system, with hits of chartreuse and teal to bring electricity and modernity into the picture.
We were fortunate enough to work closely with HMBradley’s former creative director, the very talented John Zelek of Extra Good Studio, who embedded himself with our team to bring this project to life at every phase.
