case study, Early 2014 – late 2015
A brand identity refresh
Brief
When Capital One Bank moved its HQ from Richmond, Virginia to McLean, Virginia, it was still using intensely bright primary colors with “see-say” imagery for all of their marketing communications. It was time for a refresh and I was delighted to be on the team making this transition!
Side note: The new creative team in McLean was intended to be the internal corporate advertising agency for Capital One. This was to help minimize expenses with external agencies, and maintain brand consistency with all of Capital One’s internal and external communications.
Solution
The new creative team pitched (and won) the opportunity to change the brand voice and imagery to a style that was both contemporary and in line with relatable visuals and messaging.
Below are some of the before and after brand image/message usages for Capital One Bank. As a result, the refreshed look was a complete success and a relief to everyone’s eyes (and our brains)!
Also below are the campaigns I worked on directly (with the exception of anything in the “Before” category).
Before our arrival…
Marketing business communications
Online Home Page
email campaigns
With the earlier brand color palette standard, it was “anything goes” as long as it fit within this compilation of color schemes. Obviously, the preference was that the primary colors took precedence. Ouch!
Below, as the new internal Capital One advertising agency…
Marketing business communications
Online Home Page
Email Campaigns
With the revised color palette, heavy emphasis was almost always placed on the blues and was considered as, “Blue is Boss!” with all media applications.
The supporting colors paid homage to the original palette—with discretion for emphasis or as highlights only. Using “loud colors” as the primaries was no longer done.
The brand identity refresh we created in 2014 is still being used today and remains the boilerplate design approach for all of Capital One’s marketing communications to this day. Good design always stands up to the test of time!
Brand direct marketing design and print communications
Direct marketing campaign for the Spark Business Debit MasterCard delivery and card activation
“Complex Wave” Direct mail campaign
“Complex Wave” was the largest direct mail campaign in Capital One Bank’s history. Aptly named—this project was a Beast! I was chosen to work on this project as the Senior Art Director just after joining on with Capital One because I already had a great deal of direct marketing experience. After some harrowing circumstances such as losing our current CD to another Capital One business channel, I found myself in the position of Creative Director to lead another Digital Art Director and four Copywriters for Complex Wave throughout the year-long campaign. Read more on this from my teammates and associates.
Building storyboards for Capital One’s video spots
I love doing video work!
I had built a number of storyboards for videos throughout my career so I was the logical choice for working on this project for Capital One.
In a nutshell, this was a video to show how Capital One went back to its roots to disrupt the banking industry to become a bank that focuses on the needs of the customer, not just the profit margin. It speaks to a re-evolution of banking as an industry, and the story told here is shared from both the customer’s experience as well as the Capital One Associate’s perspective and through the eyes of a Journalist keen on the subject of disruption of industries.
Also, I almost always do my initial rough concepts for everything with a Sharpie and tracing paper whenever I can. This allows me to convey my creative vision without having my audiences being hung up on detailed photographic imagery too early on—this can easily kill a concept because too much focus is placed on subjective details that do not yet exist. I’ve learned that it’s best to stick with the concept and the script/messaging instead the visual details which are not yet applicable. Plus, it’s a huge time saver!
Click below to see the entire storyboard with the Creative Brief and the Director’s notes…
A proposed brand refresh for Spark Business
Being known as the “logo guy” at Capital One, I was chosen to evaluate the possibility of a brand refresh for Spark Business’ brand identity. There had been controversy as to whether or not the existing Spark Business identity was stale and outdated. Some considered the letterform “A” as being “…just weird—confusing, and out of place” with Capital One’s parent brand identity.
