Gretel designs new identity for personal finance platform

Tend, a next-generation personal finance platform committed to making access to financial well-being better, has officially launched in the U .S. and Mexico. Tend worked with New York-based design and branding studio, Gretel, to name and launch a brand identity for itself, which could flourish in the fintech sector.

The resulting brand aims to break out of the mold of traditional banking services, while positioning Tend to become both trustworthy and inspiring to its specific audience. The Tend vision revolves around three main ideas: community, co-creation and financial rewards, many of which have never been available to underbanked populations and audiences in the U.S. and Mexico.

The company worked with Gretel to build a brand that could match their mission to infuse a sense of financial well-being into every behavior of the brand, from product to UX, to comms and marketing. This is expressed through the strapline ‘to build the world’s first banking collective.’

“Banking is emotional. Research shows fear, shame and anger are the most common emotions surrounding money and that negative connotations and undertones control the category as a whole. From the start, the tenor of Tend needed to be centered on optimism and a more inclusive approach,” says Gretel’s strategy director, Daniel Edmundson.

To cultivate a sense of financial well-being, Tend’s focus on community, co-creation and financial rewards serve as the key pillars for the brand. By sourcing content from its users, Tend aspires to use its platform to create a financial information sharing network that will benefit the underbanked and offer community and guidance.

This sense of well-being is summed up in the brand’s name. “The name Tend is particularly special. It’s perfectly in line with the brand’s purpose and voice. It’s active and intentional, warm and inviting, it implies caring for something other than oneself and nods to a general sense of growth and progress,” says Edmundson.

The system designed by Gretel uses three lines assembled in a T formation as a metaphor for the community that Tend is building: Tend brings people together to collectively make the most of their financial lives by joining. The T can connect with other lines infinitely, aiming to be a visual representation of Tend’s growing, interwoven network of members.

“We did not shy away from a strong visual and linguistic personality to ensure Tend didn’t feel immediately like a bank, because it isn’t,” says Andrea Trabucco-Campos, creative director at Gretel

The resulting design is colorful, deploying warm, bright colors, in stark contrast to the blues, greens and blacks that dominate the sector. The typography is bold, aiming to bring clarity to any message.