Building a brand for a digital-first private bank aimed at Switzerland's mass affluent market

To be the first wholly digital Swiss Private Bank was a key component of the business from the moment it was first conceived. Before it even had a name, this positioned Alpian as a massive changemaker in an industry that prides itself on being largely unchanged and unchangeable for centuries. What the branding needed to do was reassure both the Swiss banking authorities and potential customers that a digital Swiss Private Bank could offer all the benefits of a traditional one - security, expertise, outstanding service - whilst delivering all the convenience and connectivity that a state-of-the-art digital interface brings.

The core Mediablaze team travelled to Geneva where we ran the intensive one day workshop that is the foundation of our Brand Builder offering. During this session with all the major client stakeholders we explored their aspirations and inspirations at a brand level, the values that would shape and guide their business and the behaviours they wanted to put in place to have a disruptive but definitely positive impact on their chosen sector. Taking all these considerations into account we also did some initial naming and visual identity exploration.

Having established the name and the reasoning behind it, this session focused largely on the logo and brandmark. Of nine options presented, the final logo was built using a font sourced from a Swiss foundry, again reinforcing the brand’s Swiss provenance even at the most subtle levels. The typestyle was coupled with another unmistakably Swiss element the ‘+’ which can be seen to represent the Swiss flag, the brand’s stated aim to use wealth for good and as a symbol of positivity and growth.

This session was used for the presentation and client approval of the full Alpian Brand Guidelines. This was a culmination and distillation of all the collaborative efforts between client and agency in the previous sessions and a comprehensive and actionable guide to how the brand looks, acts, speaks and appears both on and offline.